Obama's Pastor Snub: Sign of a Bigger Problem?

"Obama slights his own pastor, another error in wooing blacks" (Chicago Sun Times)

Mary Mitchell writes:

"Obama took some bad advice from campaign staff who underestimated the impact such a slight could have on a candidate who has to woo the black vote. Now, the shuttered prayer has come back to haunt him.

Although sources close to the campaign assured me that the relationship between Obama and Wright is "closer than ever," in an interview with the Times, Wright "expressed disappointment but no surprise" that Obama "might try to play down their connections."

And Mitchell brings up an issue Barack Oblogga touched on last month -

"...this entire incident provides some insight into a missing ingredient in Obama's campaign stew.

"First of all, I don't know who you would call in Barack Obama's campaign," Conrad Worrill told me.

Worrill is the national chairman of the National Black United Front, and a longtime grass-roots political organizer across the country. If he doesn't know who to call, that's a problem.

"It is clear that black people want to support his candidacy," Worrill said. "What is missing is an African-American at a high level to assist in structuring black participation in his campaign in black communities across the country."

Obama's campaign claims this is not a matter of "neglect," but that Obama's had a slow start in putting together his staff. Two weeks ago, he brought Ertharin Cousin on board as a senior adviser for African-American and women's outreach."