With friends like these ...

With Reverend Jeremiah Wright's performance at the National Press Club today, where he defiantly stood by his most incendiary comments and seemed to add a few new ones, it leaves observers wondering: Is he trying to purposefully sink Barak Obama's candidacy?

That's about the only reasonable conclusion -- he certainly hasn't helped him the past two days.  It's almost as if he picked Senator Obama's most vulnerable moment -- a week before the must-win Indiana primary -- to begin his baffling speaking tour.  

Whether he did it to defend his reputation, or simply out of a sense of vanity, the impact is unmistakeable:  it will undoubtedly make Obama's task in Indiana that much harder.  Should Obama fail to win Indiana, it will be blamed in part on Wright's speaking tour, and will give Hillary the opening she needs with superdelegates.  Since super Tuesday, this race has been Obama's to lose.  And he may just end up losing it.