Confirmed: Obama didn't mean to suggest that Wright had apologized

It’s so rare that I’m right. Share my joy.

“Sen. Obama was clearly saying that were Rev. Wright not retiring, he would need to be assured that the reverend understood why what he had said had deeply offended people and mischaracterized the greatness of this country,” says spox Bill Burton.

Okay, except Obama wasn’t “clearly” saying that at all.

Here’s a clear way to say that: ‘Had the reverend not retired I would have confronted him about his remarks. If after that Wright still refused to acknowledge that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I think is the great character of this country — for all its flaws — then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying there at the church.’

For an eloquent man, not his most eloquent moment.

It was clear enough to me, dude, and I’m not even gay 4 Obama. Now, weigh this gold nugget from Tuesday night first mined by Byron York and recovered from the memory hole this afternoon by Ed Driscoll. Here we find Clinton lackey Lanny Davis eager to inform the audience of just what it was that Wright said that landed Obama in hot water. That’s not the first time a Clinton associate has gotten conspicuously specific on television: Mark Penn famously started mumbling about cocaine on Hardball back in December and was called on it by Obama’s and Edwards’s campaign managers. Davis is called onto the carpet here, too, but not by anyone on Obama’s team — or rather, not anyone officially on Obama’s team. It’s Joe Klein and Anderson Cooper, acting in their duly appointed roles as The Deciders in deciding that America’s heard quite enough of that “chickens coming home to roost” line, thanks, and any further repetition of it shall be deemed foul play. Aren’t you glad they’re around to help steer you right? Exit question challenge: Name one political issue unfavorable to Obama that doesn’t constitute a “distraction.”