Jeremiah Wright isn't running for president, so let's get back to who can best unite our country, fix the economy and end the war.
Sure, voters should consider remarks made by Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor in assessing the character of the actual candidate. But enough is now known about Rev. Wright and Obama to do that without more rehashing of who said what when.
Obama has in no uncertain terms repudiated the most outrageous statements of Wright. If at any time they were fellow travelers, they clearly aren't on the same road now. Neither should be judged by the remarks of the other.
Nor can voters in the fast-paced heat of a presidential election resolve the racial division at the heart of Wright's expressed anger. But they can choose as president someone best equipped to cross that divide and forge unity.
That's Obama.
This biracial former street activist from Chicago disagrees with Wright. But he understands why some African Americans give credence even to Wright's inflammatory rhetoric about AIDS being part of a genocidal plot to kill blacks.
Obama understands that the federal government's 40-year Tuskegee Experiment, in which black men with syphilis were studied but not treated, is more than a memory for African Americans. The study didn't end until 1972.
Obama understands there is genuine fear among some black people that the government would spread a disease. It is one reason too few black men and women participate in health studies that would be beneficial to them.
The Illinois senator also understands that Wright only makes the situation worse by appealing to such fears with bitter language designed to foment division, not communication.
But Obama understands the other side of the divide as well. He couldn't have expressed it any better than he did in his brilliant Philadelphia speech:
"Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. . . . They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense."
A president who understands the crux of racial division in America is needed to address that enduring impediment to this nation's best future. Obama, more than any other presidential candidate, has the potential to do that.
Republicans who would prefer Hillary Clinton as a fall opponent have encouraged the focus on Wright. They have benefited from a lack of similar attention on Texas preacher John Hagee, who supports presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain.
Hagee's outrageous statements have included saying Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment on New Orleans for hosting a Gay Pride parade. His views should not be taken as McCain's, neither are Wright's views Obama's.