I have been reading lots of columns both pro and con about Obama's speech and its casting of Wright as a product of the 50s and 60s and as a friend whom Obama - for profound reasons he cites - will not abandon.   In TPM blogs, a number of us were advocating for Obama to make a broader speech about race the minute Ms. Ferraro opened her mouth, but he waited until the strong words from his pastor became public before taking this plunge.

As were many others, I was blown away by the depths of understanding Obama shared and his essential truths about our country from the perspective of race relations. But since the speech was given, I've noticed that colleagues in my office who once thought Obama was very viable as a candidate now think his 20-year relationship with this "flawed" pastor is still problematic and that the speech was merely an attempt to convince others that it is OK for Obama to REMAIN friends with Wright despite the pastor's anti-USA rhetoric.   They just don't understand where Obama is coming from.  They no longer trust his intent.  Right or wrong, and interestingly enough, it is this trustworthiness they have come to question and that now seems to threaten his candidacy.

I am an avid Obama supporter, but this change in my colleagues and some of the more literate and thoughtful critiques of his speech concern me, as these indicate a change in the landscape, what I'm fearful may be a sea change.    I'm hoping Obama will realize his important speech looking long-term on race relations in the US - as amazing as it was - may not be enough to convince voters in this very short-term Democratic primary of his mindset.  I believe he may have to speak yet again - formally or in interviews over the coming week - about how and why the specific remarks of Rev. Wright are not in what he, himself, truly believes.

Obama has been attending services at Trinity Church for 20 years, so he has had a good long time to absorb the pastor's messages and ponder them and then discard them as over-the-top.  His protectiveness of this church and the pastor's ragings are, in light of this kind of time and the bonds this kind of time can forge, very understandable.  This is one of the points he was trying to make in his speech, and he continues to defend the church even recently ("it's not crackpot" etc). 

But the rest of America has not been sitting in that church for 20 years with all that time to ponder the pastor's ragings and, thus, many of these folks are downright shocked by these words, as Obama himself may well have been when he first heard them - or something like them - years ago.   Even if, at the time they were spoken, he understood the origin and root pain of them, he was no doubt aware of the shock value of Rev. Wright's expressed frustrations. 

The two or three short weeks between now and PA (and the rest of the states coming up) will be a major challenge for Obama with these very skeptical voters who were once in the palms of his hands.  Clinton is a known candidate whereas he is not known...people are still trying to figure out who he is.  He needs to address much more directly and SOLELY the Wright remarks and make sure folks know that he, himself, felt uncomfortable when they were first spoken and that he, himself, has never and will never advocate these feelings.  Otherwise, folks like my colleagues will continue to worry that Obama may be an adherent, perhaps even an unwitting adherent, of the YouTube Wright philosophies and that he carries deeply resentful feelings of his own somewhere in his heart...feelings that could reflect upon the kinds of decisions he makes once in the White House.    

As so many of us did when Don Imus spewed racism, these folks need Obama to say even more directly that while he understands where Wright is coming from - the very basis of his excellent speech - his own personal feelings, about which he did not dwell at length in the speech, are very different.  He can remind folks yet again of the various ways he has pulled people of all races and ethnicities together to address broader problems.   His story, his community organizing, his career, have tons of examples of these efforts and serve as multiple proofs of his claim.  

He went long-term when he spoke before us with a speech for the ages, and he gave us fantastic perspective.  I think he needs to go short-term now - and build that personal trust.