This call for him to cut off any indication of roots (aka Divisive talk) just because it leads to a more complicated take of what's happening is not right.
I don't thing anyone here has called for Obama "to cut off any indication of roots". Let alone to imply that such a call is caused by a fear of complexity. Why would you say that?
Alcyone, as I see it, the issue is *not* what Wright believes (I keep saying this!) but that Obama had placed the man in an *advisory* position on his campaign team. That appointment suggests that Obama was not uncomfortable with the arguments and ideas that Wright has. Were Wright on the team as a poll taker or a local organizer or the web guy, say, his politics would be irrelevant. But he was not.
Please, don't suggest that to question Obama's choices is racist or shows a failure to grasp the historical and cultural experiences of African-Americans. It does not. Obama should be no more immune from scrutiny than any other candidate and he should be just as vulnerable to being evaluated in terms of the platform principles which he advocates as any other candidate.
I agree with what you said about the importance of context, however. That failure to place comments in context has been common in this campaign, from both the Obama and Clinton camp. And by the press, too.
Obama has now said that he does not support all of Wright's statements and that he does find some of them to be divisive (see Paul's post). That should be the end of it -he's acknowledged the inconsistency.
As Paul says, there are now more important issues to be dealt with.
