Why Obama Needs to Apologize

Let me take a swipe at explaining my apology comment. The foundational premise is that Hillary was insulted from the pulpit of Obama's church. It was a racist and sexist insult. When something like that happens, it is not only the speaker who needs to apologize. It is the person in charge. When an American soldier rapes a 15-year-old girl on Okinawa, the President or somebody apologizes to Japan, even though the President did not do the raping. Obama is not the person "in charge" at his church, but he is the most prominent member and the insult was made in support of his candidacy. He is the appropriate person to apologize. That's my thinking on it.

On a practical political level, there were already a lot of people shaken up by Rev. Wright's foolishness. Now this new clown. The Democratic delegates would not be wrong to wonder, "Jeez, what is it with this Trinity Church place? Is everybody there totally wacko? Even if they believe they are correct, do they not realize that they would best serve Obama if they just shut up? How many more Trinity Church eruptions are we going to have between now and November?"

Obama needs to put some distance between himself and the wackos. ASAP.

Also on a political level, I'm not sure how divisive this campaign has been, but the talking heads keeping saying it has been. Obama needs to reach out to Hillary. He needs to say, "I'm sorry that my own home church allowed this sort of ugly attack. I found it as offensive as you did." And he needs to do it publicly, for the sake of the Hillary supporters.

If he fails to do it, it will be the second opportunity Obama has squandered to reach out to Hillary and her people. (The first was his failure to come to her defense on the RFK assassination comment.) He can't keep doing this. He has got to give her a place of honor in the Democratic Party.