Axelrod said the Jeremiah Wright affair was probably a pivotal moment in the whole campaign. "You know, pandemonium erupted, and there was this sense that we were in crisis. The only one who was calm was Obama."
The candidate called his aides and told them he wanted them to clear some time on his schedule. "And he said, 'You know what? I'm gonna make a speech about race and talk about Jeremiah Wright and the perspective of the larger issue.' And he said, 'And either people will accept it or I won't be president of the United States. But at least I'll have said what I think needs to be said,'" Axelrod remembered.
Gibbs said there wasn't a discussion. "If there had been a discussion, probably most of the people in the campaign would've advised against it," Dunn added.
But he didn’t put it up for discussion. He knew what was the right thing to do – to be forthright and trust people to make their own decisions. He wasn’t interested in the spin, he just wanted to answer the question.
It reminded me, surprisingly, about Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour de France. He was chasing a guy down a mountainside, the guy fell and Armstrong had the presence of mind to continue off the road, through a field, dismount before he got to a ditch, run across the ditch and back onto the road, then get back on the bike and in the race without causing any more crashes.
So why do I connect them?
Both are neatly packaged, singular examples that illustrate the broader picture of why I respect each man so much, why I am so proud of them, why, in my opinion, they are the champions that they have become.
By the way, if you want to watch the Lance thing, here ‘tis:
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