of wider, historical event of a black person running for president and having a chance to actually win,” says Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist. Like Hutchings, he believes Wright may have motivated by hurt feelings. “He’s been painted as some kind of crazy person, oblivious to the timing of all of this. But here we have a man in the sunset of his life whose total career has been really damaged by the way in which he’s been handled.”
The big question now is how will voters react when they cast their ballots on Tuesday? Do these recent events reinforce Clinton’s reasons for staying in the race although she technically still trails Obama in delegates and popular votes? James Taylor, a University of San Francisco professor of politics, is of two minds. On one hand, he says, there will be some negative returns, and white voters who were disinclined or never going to vote for Obama now have an excuse they can point to. On the other hand, he says, the recent events “might actually help Obama because Wright seemed so ridiculous this week that whatever mystery there was about him has been removed by his own inexplicable actions and sense of paranoia and conduct in the public realm.” But if Obama continues to make missteps, like he did in San Francisco, Wright could be “the best surrogate that Clinton and McCain have.”
However, more people (34%) are concerned that Obama is out of touch with voters than those who are worried about his ties to Wright (34%), according to the NBC/WSJ poll.
David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, says the Wright controversy is just a distraction and voters are more concerned about economic issues and the war in Iraq. He says, “Obama’s problems about being tied to Wright are nothing compared to McCain’s problems with being tied to President Bush,” which the NBC/WSJ findings support. It found that 43% of voters are concerned about McCain’s ties to Bush, while 31% are concerned about his changing positions. In addition, 36% expressed concern about Clinton’s changing positions and 31% believe she’s not honest.
Despite Wright, Obama has continued to pick up super delegates. He is also strongly favored in North Carolina, says Bositis, where 35% of the voters are black and there is a large student population and highly educated professional demographic. Indiana is more of a toss up, where Clinton is ahead right now, but will only pick up one delegate if she wins.