Why can’t Sen. Obama put a muzzle on his spiritual mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright? For the second day in a row, Sen. Obama expressed “outrage”over Rev. Wright’s recent spate of controversial comments. So much for Sen. Obama’s new brand of politics. This recent flare up could signal the wheels coming off Sen. Obama’s wagon to the White House. If Sen. Obama can’t handle his retired pastor, how can he hope to handle Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or North Korean leader Kim Jong-il? Compared to these men, Rev. Wright is relatively benign.

Sen. Obama is now rewarded for failing to disown Rev. Wright back in March by having to watch him take to the national stage and painfully reinforce the image crafted by Sen. Obama’s opponents. Sen. Obama, thought to have struck a masterful blow to the initial Rev. Wright flap with a speech fawned over by the media, now looks foolish for refusing to disown a man who has proved, once again, that he holds and continues to preach views far outside the mainstream of most Americans. How can Sen. Obama convince anyone, let alone the rural white voters he failed to capture in Pennsylvania and Ohio, that he should be entrusted with the enormous responsibility that comes with being President of The United States when he can’t even handle Rev. Jeremiah Wright?

Should Americans feel comfortable if a President Obama announces, after sitting down with Kim Jong-il, that we have reached an agreement on nuclear proliferation? Should Americans believe a President Obama who announces that the “snippets” heard uttered by some members of Hamas only conform to the “caricatures being peddled by some commentators” and that Hamas really wants peace with Israel? Sen. Obama gravely misjudged the character of his own spiritual mentor, a man he’s known for over twenty years. How can we trust that he won’t make similar misjudgments as President?

It might not be fair to equate Rev. Wright with the oppressive leader of North Korea, but Sen. Obama’s attempt to use his new brand of politics to handle Rev. Wright has blown up in his face and raises serious questions. Some might argue that Rev. Wright is an opportunist who is merely exercising his freedom of speech and Sen. Obama has no control over what he says. They would be correct in that assessment. However, Sen. Obama could have handled Rev. Wright in March by biting the bullet and disowning him completely. His attempt to straddle the fence; his attempt to denounce but not disown; his attempt to unite racial divides with a new brand of politics has been completely undermined by Rev. Wright and it creates serious doubts about the very qualities Sen. Obama is supposedly bringing to the table.