One more reference to Rev.Jeremiah Wright Jr., and I’m climbing to the top of the Empire State Building and jumping.
         I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that even if the tide turns to such an extent that Hillary Clinton grabs the nomination, when the uncommitted superdelagtes decides she is the most electable Democratic nominee, after all the mud has been thrown, after all the bullets from character assassinations have been discharged, and Barack Obama’s perceived lack of patriotism has driven him from the race, the damage will be practically irreversible. 
        All the optimism that began with this campaign 14 months ago, when voters thought the Illinois senator, the first African-American on a major ticket, could have made a difference-will have vanished into the thin night air.
And a year into the McCain or Clinton administrations, polls, I’m sure, will surface, asking why there is so much cynicism with our government in Washington.
            If it’s Hillary/McCain, voter’s spirits, to a large extent, will have been broken, the way Team Clinton resorted to the same dirty tricks as their Republican counterparts. The Democrat’s image as a party above mean spirited politics will have merged with that of the GOP; while her positions on hot–button policy issues dealing with Iraq and the gasoline tax, will be hard to distinguish from her Republican opponent.
         In his 48 minute and seventeen second interview with Tim Russert on Sunday morning, Obama had to devote fifteen minutes and twenty seconds to: you guessed it: Rev Jeremiah Wright, how he never considered the pastor, who baptized his children and officiated his wedding, his spiritual or political advisor, that he was merely one of 10,000 members of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, in which Wright served as pastor. 
         In talking with the Meet the Press host, Obama said the United States has a tragic history of race relations, but ``it doesn’t define the country’’ nor should his pastor’s provocative comments define who he is. 
        But I’m guessing that point won’t be reported in Monday’s coverage, only why it has taken Obama so long to distance himself from a pastor who believed the federal government’s foreign policy led to the 9/11 attacks, and was convinced the United States endemic racism set off the AIDS epidemic.
        Hillary picked up traction this week with photos of her at the gas pump, announcing her plan to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas task, a proposal that has also been supported by the Republican presumed nominee.         
        Obama told Russert the proposal was a classic ``Washington gimmick’’ to get her through the election. The reality, Obama explained, was such a proposal if extended over three months, would only ``save the average driver 30 cents per day for a grand total of $28,"
        When pressed by ABC’s ``This Week'' host George Stephanopoulos to name one economist that supports her federal gas tax proposal, Mrs. Clinton said she wasn’t going to put her lot in with economists.
        Even Bill Clinton’s former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, tore in to the New York senator’s gasoline tax proposal in his blog Sunday,  saying the ``gas tax holiday is small potatoes relative to everything else. But it’s so economically stupid (it would increase demand for gas and cause prices to rise, eliminating any benefit to consumers while costing the Treasury more than $9 billion, and generate more pollution) and silly… That HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] now says she doesn’t care that what economists think is even more troubling.’’
        A larger point to the burden consumer’s are bearing at the gas pump is what the government plans to do about its increasing reliance on oil. Obama made the observation with Russert that some of our major U.S. automaker’s should have prepared for more fuel-efficient cars years ago, but instead continued to market the bigger SUV’s and gas guzzler’s, because that’s where they thought all the profits would be. Japan, on the other hand, read the tea leaves, and prepared for small fuel efficient cars, like the Yaris and Prius, which should come as no surprise, have recently reported gains.
         But again, that’s probably a point that won’t be picked up by a majority of news organizations
         And when asked if Iran launched a nuclear attack against Israel, Clinton said as president, the United States would ``obliterate Iran’’, language that sounds almost indistinguishable from McCain, and did nothing but promote ``saber rattling’’, according to Obama, making her sound like a mirror image of President Bush’s cowboy diplomacy.
         So if she captures the nomination, Hillary and McCain would tour the country promoting a suspension of a gasoline tax, talking that familiar cowboy talk about obliterating the enemy, and voters would have to resort to flipping a coin in deciding who to vote for or determining who was wearing an American flag on their lapel more often.
         As professor Reich wrote in his blog: ``It’s politics as usual’’
         -Bill Lucey
          billlucey@bellsouth.net