Obama grew up without a father figure in his life. Rather than letting his life give in to entropy (as many in his position might have done), he set out to find a place for himself in the world--to establish a "family" and a "community" where he could put down roots and grow. On that journey, he found Trinity Church.

As someone who well understands the drive to "find a place where I feel like I belong," I can also understand that once you have put down real roots in a community--and a church is so much more than its pastor, it's a community--it is very hard to just pull them back up and go someplace else. Even if doing so would be politically expedient.

As for Wright, I speculate that in Wright, Obama hoped he had found the father figure he never had. Wright married him to Michelle, baptized Malia and Tasha. Obama wanted to feel his family had the man's blessing.

Obama's ties to Wright are emotional. But as deep as they may be, there are no grounds to believe that he agrees with Wright politically, or that Wright has "influenced" him in the political realm. He was, after all, an adult when he first entered Trinity Church.

The media is excoriating Obama for not cutting his ties to Wright sooner. I have to say that I sympathize with him and admire him for holding on so long. It's hard to walk away from the idea of the father you never had, even when the surrogate you've chosen is letting you down and letting you down badly. It is a testament to Obama's character and integrity that he finds it so hard to behave in an expedient way when it comes to personal matters. Just as it's obvious when you see Barack and Michelle together that he totally loves her, I imagine that Barack loved the crusty old stinker Jeremiah Wright. How sad for him to have to let go.