A possible new problem for Obama regarding his pastor

Sean Hannity has information here that Obama called for Imus firing because of the horrible things that Imus said and that Obama would remove anyone from his staff who said something similar.

"Nobody on my staff would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody or any ethnic group and I would hope that NBC ends up having the same attitude."

I think that Rev. Wright's comments are much worse than Imus' stupid comment. This inconsistency on Obama's part seems devastating. Apparently, Clinton and Obama are going to debate again before the Pennsylvania primary. If Obama isn't asked about this inconsistency, it will be embarrassing for the questioners at the debate don't ask him about this.

UPDATE: John Fund at the WSJ's Political Diary had this to add:

Barack Obama's speech on race in America was a tour de force in many ways, but one section made me cringe and deserves some rebuke. There is an expression about ambitious politicians who would "walk over their grandmothers" in pursuit of their goals. Mr. Obama almost did that yesterday.

In explaining why he would not repudiate his extremist pastor, Mr. Obama said, "I can no more disown [Rev. Jeremiah Wright] than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

Now Mr. Obama’s campaign has made clear that his 84-year old grandmother, who has asked to be left alone, should be considered off-limits to political reporters. But yesterday, it was Mr. Obama who didn't leave her alone when he used her for one of the central themes of his speech. His behavior recalls the time when Bill Clinton regularly trashed his stepfather as a violent drunk as part of his 1992 campaign. The idea of talking about his stepfather's human frailties to advance himself politically struck many people then as a selfish act and a gross distortion of the loyalty family members owe to each other.

UPDATE2: This is also from the WSJ's Political Diary:

"How is it possible that a campaign apparatus that sniffed out Geraldine Ferraro's offensive statement to a local California newspaper (the Daily Breeze, 12th paragraph) did not know that Wright's statements condemning America were all over the Internet and had been cited March 6 by the (reputable) anti-Obama columnist Ronald Kessler? The sermon was also available on YouTube. In other words, how is it possible that a man who has made judgment the centerpiece of his presidential campaign has shown so little of it in this matter? One possible answer to these questions is that Obama has learned to rely on a sycophantic media that hears any criticism of him as either (1) racist, (2) vaguely racist or (3) doing the bidding of Hillary and Bill Clinton" -- Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.

UPDATE3: Listening to Dennis Prager's radio show yesterday. Dennis during his second hour had a devastating discussion of Obama's speech when Obama discussed his grandmother and his comparison of his grandmother to the Rev. Wright. Dennis' point was how could anyone make a comparison between the supposed sins listed of his grandmother with Wright. For example, the one specific sin of his grandmother was that she was sometimes fearful of black men. Dennis, I believe correctly, noted that a large number of Americans both white and black could be fearful of young black men if the individual were alone in a dark parking lot and they were walking near young black men who were dressed in a certain way. How does his grandmother's statement compare to that of Wright that the government invented AIDS to kill off black men or that the government supplies black men with drugs to kill them and get them in jail? Or any of the other claims made by Wright?

Susan Estrich made the same point:

The critics will tell you that blaming white America for spreading AIDS to blacks is not the same as an elderly white woman admitting that she is afraid of black men, and that there is a difference between standing by the grandmother who raised you and standing by a religious leader who preaches hate.

Even Jesse Jackson admitted a few years ago to the sad truth that he was afraid of young black men. Most young black men don’t commit crime, but a disproportionate amount of crime is committed by the minority who do. . . . .