Obama thought he'd dealt with the Wright problem by making a tasteful speech about race in Philadelphia in late March in which he said the fiery pastor was anchored in the divisiveness of the past. But Wright came bounding back last weekend, with an unflinching interview with Bill Moyers on TV and a rip-roaring sermon at the National Press Club in Washington.

Wright is clearly the most powerful public orator in America since Martin Luther King, and as radical as MLK in his toughest moments. People have puzzled about Wright's timing, which from Obama's point of view, could not have been worse. I'd bet that there was no plan. At the Press Club, Wright felt the wind at his back and gave the folks his basic sermon. It's the way he is and 95 per cent of it makes total sense and is a breath of fresh air, as Wright ushers the Real America onto the stage, as opposed to the political candidates' flattering fictions.

But, of course, all this week Obama has been in despair. Now he expels Wright from his life. He derides the man who presided

at his wedding. "Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems.”

Has Wright really cost Obama the presidency? I doubt it. There are Americans who will never vote for Obama, because he looks like a black man, whether or not his hue is darkened by Wright's shadow. There are Americans reminded by Wright that whatever Obama may say, there are still a lot of angry black people. But particularly this week these Americans have seen that Obama isn't angry and doesn't want to demand reparations for slavery and justice for Sean Bell. He and Wright are in opposite corners of the ring. That could help Obama, having a black man as well as whites to run against.