Rev. Wright should be to Obama as the Swiftboaters were to Kerry *UPDATED*

Rev. Wright has surfaced in 2012, just as he did in 2008.  In 2008, though, John McCain not only refused to mention Wright, but told his minions they couldn’t either.  This time around, Romney’s minions want to raise the Reverend again, especially as more and more information is emerging about his role in Obama’s life and about Obama’s 2008 efforts to suppress the good reverend.  Romney said he won’t touch it, but the debate is on as to whether his minions should.

I think his minions should be free to raise Wright.  Fortunately for me, I don’t have to make the good argument, because Bruce Kesler, who knows a thing or three about using swift boat truths against swiftboating John Kerry, has made the argument for me:

In 2004, defenders of Kerry insinuated that Karl Rove was involved in the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth campaign to show that Kerry’s narrative of Vietnam heroism was false. Their only “proof” was that some of the same people supported President Bush and the Swiftees or that anti-Kerry Swiftees lacked enough documented evidence in Navy records.

That would be a problem for a Wright-Obama campaign in 2012, except that Kerry’s critics were the witnesses to his overblown attempted image whereas Obama’s own words and actions are the witness to his radical past. Further, Obama’s radical past is directly in line with his radical presidential policies and actions.

Were it only Rev. Wright that might be downplayed as but one indiscretion, albeit a twenty-year one. But, throughout Obama’s life his self-proclaimed formative mentors were cut of the same radical cloth, and in his administration he has appointed others of this ilk.

Read the rest here.

UPDATE:  The Watcher’s Council has also weighed in on this subject.  My response?

Jeremiah Wright is totally fair game in these elections — but Mitt is wise to stay above that fray and let his minions run after Wright. Let Mitt focus on strength and optimism, while others do the dirty work of exposing Obama’s questionable past (both in office and before).

Please read the other responses too.  They’re interesting, and quite nuanced.

UPDATE II:  And frankly, if the NYTs can go to Romney’s church to learn the “biographical influence of faith on Mitt Romney’s life,” as reporter Jodi Kantor cheerfully explained, why in the world is Obama’s relationship with Wright, his pastor for 20 years, off limits?