crandc, for me the issue isn't what Wright said in his sermons. The issue is the inaction of Obama on the matter when, by his own admission, he's known about at least one of Wright's diatribes for at least a year. In the intervening period he's done nothing to try to get Wright to stop preaching a divisive and hate-filled message to the church that Obama has attended for twenty years and continues to support financially. IMO, it's extremely unlikely that Obama hasn't known about Wright's inflamatory message for a lot longer than that, given the close relationship that Obama has described about him.
The McCain/Parsley issue is a red herring argument. McCain only met the guy at a campaign rally three weeks ago. He says he's never attended one of Parsley's services. Sure, I'm betting that McCain really regrets not having checked the guy out closer before calling him a "moral compass" and a "spiritual guide", but those things do happen in any campaign. To compare that with a twenty year close relationship between Obama and Wright is absurd. But, if it comes to light that there's more to the story than we've seen so far, I'd be among the first to condemn McCain for any significant relationship with this bozo.
As far as the NY Times op-ed piece, it was actually written by William Kristol and he has added a retraction to the on-line version of the column:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/op...on&oref=slogin
Everybody in America has an opinion on the war and Middle East policy. Those opinions are entrenched and, barring some terrorist attack or some unforeseen event in Iraq, people aren't likely to change their opinions before the election. Despite the polarizing impact of disagreement over the war, the polls show that the election is going to be very close next fall. Obama and the Democrats can't afford to lose voters who will react negatively because of this story. There's still a lot of time left before the election, so who really knows how this will play out. But, IMO, this has hurt Obama's chances significantly.