Published: May 06, 2008 09:59 am         

Focus on candidates, not friends

The way we see it on the eve of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, there’s only one only useful thing to come out of the whole media-driven Barack Obama-Rev. Jeremiah Wright contretemps.

At least now, anybody paying attention won’t think Obama is a Muslim.

We hasten to add that there is nothing at all wrong with being a Muslim ... unless you’re running for president in an overwhelmingly Christian nation that hasn’t gotten over 9/11 and is fighting Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq.

The thing you don’t hear from any of the pundits on cable news networks is that a great number of Americans pay scant, if any, attention to politics.

This is a fact well-known to politicians, however. To many of them, the public’s ignorance is indeed bliss. That’s why nuance is so often ignored in favor of ideas you can fit on a bumper sticker.

“No new taxes” is one. So is “peace and prosperity.”

It isn’t the province of one party, although the Republicans have been more adept at it in recent elections.

What the Democrats and Republicans will try hardest to do before the November election is define the other’s nominee in a really bad way.

For instance, the Democrats will try to make people think that John McCain is too old, too out of touch and too much like President Bush.

The Republicans _ and until the end of the nominating process, Democrat Hillary Clinton _ will say that Obama is unpatriotic, inexperienced and doesn’t share Americans’ values.

Having a name such as Barack Obama rather than a traditional Western name such as Clinton or McCain certainly doesn’t help him.

The Rev. Wright, of course, hasn’t helped, either. His terribly offensive diatribes and self-aggrandizing speeches have stuck to Obama like Velcro.

That’s because Wright officiated at the Obamas’ wedding, baptized their two children, and Obama was a member of Wright’s church for 20 years.

But the candidate has made it clear that he does not share his former pastor’s wacky opinions. In an outstanding speech on race back in March, Obama said Wright is like “an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with.”

After Wright made a vitriolic speech at the National Press Club, Obama held a press conference last week to condemn his former pastor, who was acting like a crazy, old uncle best kept hidden away in the attic.

If Wright has stuck to Obama like Velcro, McCain’s relationship with televangelist John Hagee has been like Teflon.

Despite Hagee’s hateful and misguided comments about the Catholic Church, Islam, victims of Hurricane Katrina and homosexuals, McCain has come under little criticism for saying he values Hagee’s endorsement, even while condemning his comments.

McCain isn’t a nutcase like Hagee, just as Obama isn’t a fool like Wright. Enough with guilt-by-association.

Instead, both men should be allowed to concentrate on such things as the economy, health care and Iraq. There is, after all, an election in November.