Obama's defenders should say this:

In a world where governments are controlled by organized interests there will always be things done against the common good, against the people of the country to profit those interests. The people are always in the dark about these unethical doings -- but they should never imagine nothing like this is ever going on.

Obama is perfectly justified in saying this:

The pastor who married my wife and I has a right to piece together what goes on behind our backs in the seat of government when making his own personal assessment of the world. Everyone has suspicions and reasons certain individual in politics whose public in-the-open careers they have been following -- everyone has the right to come to his own tentative conclusion. I will certainly never ban people from association with me because they have developed theories about what is going on. But of course I am under no obligation to accept all or part of anyone's line of reasoning unless I myself have worked through the evidence myself. Millions of people have contributed to my campaign. I am not answerable for their views and there is no reason for me to censure their views. Millions of people speak in favor of my campaign -- and I do not have to own their viewpoints -- they have chosen to own my viewpoints or at least some of them that are important to them.

I will not judge the politics of another man. I will accept support from people who agree with my views. I will not support views that I disagree with -- but I will support good people who come by their views honestly. Theories about wrongdoing in government are not going to be banished from my presence. We have an elite in this country, and that segment of the elite that have been given the priviledge of leading this country have clearly made mistakes. Just look around you and see that. Every supporter of my campaign has his or her own assessment of who is crooked and who is honest. They have their suspicions -- with varying degrees of confidence for each suspicion -- of who is responsible for a given problem that plagues the country. I don't think there is an American above the age of 16 who does not have a conspiracy theory about something. I will represent all of these people -- but I will act on my own understanding of what is going on. And I will always be open to hearing what anyone has to say if by other things they have done in their lives they have earned their right to speak and be heard.

Rev. Wright is my friend. I do not endorse him. He endorses me. I will not turn my back on him simply because he has ventured an honest opinion with which I disagree. The only person I completely agree with is myself -- but I will not impose censorship on the people around me. THis country will not impose censorship on political views and honest suspicions people may have.

I am not going to ban people from my presence and from supporting me because they dare to suspect members of the ruling elite of big crimes. One of the reasons people vote for a man is -- not that he shares their suspicions but because he is honest and if a big crime is being committed their candidate will not be a part of it any longer and he may support an investigation and application of the machinery of justice if that investigation discovers some truth to those suspicions. That is what I promise I will do. That is the kind of president I promise to be. I will set the investigative authorities to do their job without pressure -- that is how I will serve every citizen who has a conspiracy theory about this government.

And if my wife was not nagging me to go out and trim the rose bushes I would have more of what Obama could say. I hope you get the idea.

Got to go.

Dick Eastman

Yakima, Washington

Every man is responsible to every other man.

olfriend@nwinfo.net