Ann Althouse has a great take on the New York Times' recent attempts to run interference for Barack Obama:

Come on. There is a serious question here about whether Obama is too left wing. We damned well get to talk about it. If you're going to push us back and call us racists for trying to address an overwhelmingly important political problem with a black candidate for President, then what you are essentially saying is that America is not ready for a black President. And that would be racist. Either we can talk about him vigorously or we can't. And if we can't, he shouldn't be President.

Fortunately, Obama himself says that the criticism of Wright is fair game, particularly if longer than 30-second snippets of his fire-and-brimstone sermons are used to place his overtly political remarks into context. So I'd say Obama's approval outweighs the Times' tut-tutting, particularly given the previous established moralistic food chain created by the deciders at the Gray Lady regarding "absolute moral authority".

(Of course, 2004's Democratic candidate was even more hand-picked and coddled by the Times. Which may have accounted for, say, just to pick a number at random, 15 percent of his popularity back then.)

Update: More from Jim Geraghty, who reminds us that Rev. Wright will be playing extremely slow pitch softball at the National Press Club tomorrow.