Clinton Backer Behind Wright Speech

Hillary Clinton can't be sorry to have Jeremiah Wright back in the news. So it’s interesting that the pastor’s defiant speech and press conference yesterday was scheduled and organized by Barbara Reynolds, an ordained minister, ex-USA Today editor, and ardent Clinton supporter. Reynolds wrote on her blog that by voting for Clinton she was “saying thank you” for her husband's administration.

She also criticized Obama’s theme of hope. “Hope by definition is not based on facts,” she wrote. “Help based on experience trumps hope every time.” Reynolds had knocked Obama for distancing himself from Wright's incendiary statements, accusing him of “fueling the media characterization that Rev. Dr. Wright is some retiring old uncle in the church basement” instead of respecting him for the “towering” figure he is. (More Jeremiah Wright stories.)