Wright Tests Obama's Anger Management

Barack Obama has spent his entire career trying not to be an Angry Black Man, but yesterday Jeremiah Wright forced him to tap his rage, Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times. Wright, seemingly among the angriest of black men, had created a full-blown crisis for Obama, forcing the Democrat to commit “a painful form of political patricide.”

Wright’s performance was a parade of deadly sins—envy, pride, and greed were all on display—but it was the wrath that stood out. As he watched Wright declare that the US government might have purposely infected blacks with AIDs, Obama got mad. “It contradicts everything I am about and who I am,” said the non-angry black man, forced finally to yell. (More Barack Obama stories.)