Rev. Wright derails Barack Obama's campaign again

AFTER lying low for six weeks in the aftermath of his controversial snippets airing on Fox News and YouTube, Rev. Jeremiah Wright suddenly resurfaced on April 25 and gave an interview to Bill Moyers, defending his reputation, making Barack Obama cringe. Then on April 28, in front of a national television audience Wright reiterated all the outrageous assertions he had made in those snippets, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, making Obama furious.
Nervous uncommitted super-delegates were immediately on the phone with Obama warning him that Rev. Wright was making them uneasy. Comments such as, "America's chickens have come home to roost," "God damn America," and suggestions that the US government invented Aids to decimate its black population and that through its own "terrorism" America brought 9/11 upon itself, make white American question the motive and patriotism of some blacks.
The next day an angry Obama denounced the comments saying that Rev. Wright had caricatured himself, is not the man he met twenty years ago, that he and all decent Americans repudiate Wright's outrageous comments, adding that Wright does not speak for him or his campaign, that Wright is not the man he thought he was and that Wright obviously does not know him and his values.
Over time the Wright controversy had died down. To reignite it, a Hillary Clinton supporter had invited Rev. Wright to speak at the National Press Club! Asked to comment about Rev. Wright, Hillary Clinton told Fox News's Bill O'Reilly: "Let the voters decide!" Excuse me, I did not know that Wright was running for office! In her mind Hillary had so morphed Wright into Obama that such a Freudian slip was inevitable!
And it has worked. Barack Obama's once commanding double digit lead has evaporated in North Carolina, where he still leads in the single digits, although one poll shows Hillary ahead. Barack led by 5% points in Indiana ten days ago; now Hillary leads by 8-9%. If Barack were to win in both North Carolina and Indiana primaries on May 6, there would have been an enormous pressure on Hillary to quit the race. If Obama wins North Carolina and Hillary wins Indiana, a likely scenario, it is like holding serve and the race will continue. If Hillary were to win both, the race would then be thrown wide open.
Hillary and Bill Clinton have pulled no punches. They have done to Obama what the Republicans would have been afraid to do in November. Instead of attacking Obama on issues, such as the Iraq war, his foreign policy and health care program, they have attacked him personally though his association with Rev. Wright, called him an "elitist" because of the "bitter" comment and have declared Obama unfit to be the commander-in-chief and by implication, the president.
The Clintons are attempting to do to Obama what the Republican nominee, George H.,W. Bush, did to the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, in 1988. Senior Bush was a child of privilege. His father, Preston Bush, was a Senator from Connecticut. George H. W. Bush went to the best prep schools and Yale University. Michael Dukakis was a working class, second generation Greek immigrant with a funny (read un-American) name, just as Obama is a second generation Kenyan-American with a funny (un-American) name. Yet, Bush painted Dukakis as an "elite" who is "out of touch" with real America. Sounds familiar? Dukakis was destroyed by a Republican; Hillary Clinton is using the same Republican playbook to try and destroy Obama, who, hard to believe, belongs to the same Democratic party.
Obama should not be let off the hook that easily. He is letting others define him negatively. As a newcomer he should have introduced himself to the American people first. Despite the two-pronged attacks by the Republicans and Hillary, average Americans know that Obama does not share Rev. Wright's views, and as someone brought up by a single mother on food stamps, he is neither an elitist, nor out of touch with average Americans. It is the intellectual manner in which he explains his association with Rev. Wright and his disdain for eliticism that does not resonate with average Americans.
Obama must learn to communicate with the Americans better. The most successful president of the last thirty years, Ronald Reagan, was known as "the great communicator." A second rate Hollywood actor, Reagan used simple language, one-liners and Hollywood cliches ("Make my day!") to humour and communicate with American people. One of the best politicians of the twentieth century, Bill Clinton, made Americans believe "I feel your pain."
Barack Obama took plenty of heat from the Clintons for praising Ronald Reagan. Because Bill Clinton is so partisan for his wife Hillary, and has played the race card against Obama, Obama refers to the former president as "Hillary's husband," earning the ire of Bill, who thinks that the upstart Barack does not give him enough respect.
Ronald Reagan is dead. But Barack can learn a thing or two about communicating with the American people from Bill Clinton. People have noticed that Bill Clinton (Hillary too) changes his accent depending on whether he is addressing a northern, mid-western or a southern audience.
There is a 90% chance that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. But to win the American presidency in November, Barack Obama must talk the talk and walk the walk like average Americans. A good starting point is to learn to communicate in a simple enough language and syntax all Americans can comprehend.

Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed is a Rhodes Scholar and a Daily Star columnist.