To Barack Obama, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. must resemble a blend of Dracula, Freddy Krueger and the goalie-masked Jason Voorhees.

The Wright controversy, like a horror-story character, simply refuses to die. Obama's political opponents and a gullible media have created a political Frankenstein's monster.

It has been all Wright, all the time since Obama's former pastor broke his silence last week on the clips of his controversial sermons. The minister sat down to an interview with Bill Moyers, addressed an NAACP dinner in Detroit (sneaking in a plug of his upcoming book) and spoke at the National Press Club in Washington.

Just when Obama thought it was safe to go back in the water, Wright behaved like a publicity-hungry shark intent on bleeding every drop out of his 15 minutes of fame. It hardly seemed to matter to him that he's draining the life out of Obama's presidential run.

Wright's publicity madness enables Obama's opponents to continue to conflate a thoughtful, eloquent and racially complex politician with a minister who has been reduced to an angry caricature on YouTube.

It hardly matters that much of what Wright said behind the pulpit resonates with many listeners. The remarks offend others and remain useful ammunition against Obama.

"I am not a politician," Wright said in his NAACP speech. "I know that fact will surprise many of you because many in the corporate-owned media have made it seem as if I had announced that I'm running for the Oval Office. I am not running for the Oval Office. I've been running for Jesus a long, long time, and I'm not tired yet."

Well, some of us are tired of Wright.

Like a long-winded preacher who doesn't know when to wrap up the sermon, Wright keeps sticking around, mugging for the cameras, fanning a phony controversy that should have died weeks ago. A man who should never have been a campaign issue in the first place has now inserted himself into the campaign by his very being. It doesn't help that he comes off as defensive or narcissistic.

Wright said he is speaking out in defense of the black church. But the black church has survived slavery, segregation, burnings and bombings. It can weather the context-free slanders of those who know nothing about it.

As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once famously said, Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America. The black worship tradition is a byproduct of this. It is the height of hypocrisy for folks to attack it without attacking the centuries-old racism that created it and sustains it.

But all this is a no-win situation as Wright preaches to the choir or seeks to convert the closed-minded. The undecided likely were not impressed by his rambling Sunday-night speech, which was long on comic stylings and short on dignity.

You would hope Wright could curb his narcissism and be mindful of what's at stake. But he appears tone deaf to the implications of his ego and has displayed a lack of loyalty to the man who had ample opportunity to toss him under the church bus. You have to wonder if the old-school minister doesn't harbor resentment toward the postcivil-rights-era star.

Obama's opponents sought to drive a stake in the heart of hope. In keeping himself alive as a campaign issue, Wright seems intent on finishing the job.
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or mwilliams@timesdispatch.com.