From an April 2007 New York Times article: “If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me,” Mr. Wright said with a shrug. “I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen.” Somehow that quote seems relevant today, with the news that Barack Obama has distanced himself from Jeremiah Wright.Obama’s untimely distancing was made in a qualified, lawyerly fashion. He repudiated “the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue,” and dismissed him from the African American Religious Leadership Committee. One wonders about the timing, since it wasn’t...