There are different theories about this which have been suggested by cult experts and the pundits.
"Subject: Obama - Jedi Knight [Rich Lowry] "I've been caught up in the fervor of the last few days of this Obama-Wright controversy and definitely thought the 'taost' analysis was right on the money. But darned if I don't see him beatifully executing jedi mind tricks - "These are not the droids you're looking for" - as this speech is delivered. And the crazy thing is, it's working on me!!" http://corner.nationalreview.com
Pretty scary.
"Contradiction [Jonah Goldberg] He says we need to air out and discuss the problems/issues of the black community and he also says we shouldn't be distracted so we can be united in our demands for universal healthcare and the like. So which is it? Should we talk about racism and black folks or should we galvanize for a transracial campaign? Should we be distracted or unified?"
http://corner.nationalreview.com
He wants to have it both ways. Or, in the language of North Korean Mind Control and schizophrenia - "cognitive dissonance" (the double bind).
Obama himself has written about inter-racial language as requiring "tricks" and "tactics". In his Philadelphia speech he parsed Wright's race baiting by suggesting it was understandable in the context of civil rights struggles 40 and 50 years ago and on a par with Geraldine Ferraro's comment about identity politics.
This is a debater's rhetorical trick: "I don't want to talk about that issue, but now that you have brought that up let me speak my mind on this..." He had a lot to say on the issues and controversies of Wright's racial invective which he previously claimed to know nothing about. It doesn't wash.
He is claiming not to do exactly what he then does. He joins a congregation with a racist ideology and then plays the innocent victim when he is exposed. Are we in the America of 2008 or 1963? He wants it both ways. He wants to pretend to be Martin Luther King and then cry foul when anyone calls him on it.
It's absurd to have to try to debate with this kind of contradiction. Any opposition or criticism will be met with the charge of racism or being unfair to him because of race. This isn't about Geraldine Ferraro, slavery, Jim Crow or Selma, Alabama. What's next, a sermon on the Nubians and Ethiopians building the Egyptian pyramids?