Basically I said he should compare his preacher to people he'll have to deal with throughout the world. He can say that he didn't agree with all the views of his minister but thought him a complex enough man that he was worthy of intense character study.

Part of the problem in our foreign policy has been this black/white thinking that opponents are completely evil instead of seeing the full evolution of their anger towards our policies. If a man like his preacher can generate such intense feelings about the problems in this country and he can understand what drives that, he'll be more capable of understanding what pushes people to become enraged at us.

He could then go on to say that people like Hillary and McCain, because of their years away from the passions of the street, have lost that connect with other humans and thus are not as capable of understanding the intricate human nature that drives our foreign entanglements.

What, Obama was just studying the preacher?

Nobody would buy this for two seconds coming from a Republican defending even the most remote relationship with someone with abhorrent views.

This isn't somebody Obama met on the street. He didn't go into that church one day to get out of the rain. This preacher officiated at his wedding, and baptized his children. I would not stay a day at a church where the pastor had views that radically conflicted with my own. What's Obama's excuse?

This isn't his annoying uncle. You don't choose your uncle. This was a choice, and Obama held onto it for years.

Republicans have been reamed out for giving a speech at Bob Jones University, or making the most peripheral comments that could be interpreted as having any racist or controversial component.

Trent Lott was destroyed for saying something nice about Strom Thurmond.

George Allen was brought down for using the word "macaca," a word he probably made up on the spot. In the most amazing display of political destruction I have ever seen since the great "niggardly" flap, this nonsense word was literally engineered and back-defined in real time into a brand-new racial slur by the Left and the media. The word had never been heard in the U.S. prior to this, or in India for that matter.

McCain has been attacked only recently for being supported by someone with unpleasant religious views.

If a Republican joined a club where the club president would not admit Jews, would anybody be talking about the president's complexity of character?

Obama's one plausible excuse is that he doesn't believe any of this stuff, but he cynically cultivated this church to gain "street cred" with his black constituents in Illinois. This might even be true, but I don't think it's a big plus for him either.

The Left forged the sword of political correctness and sharpened it to a razor edge on hapless opponents for years. Now it's entirely possible they're going to fall on it themselves.