On RealClearPolitics today, former New York City mayor Ed Koch wonders whether voters might believe as he does — and as Byron York has argued:

. . . that Obama cut his ties with Wright because of Wright’s attack on Senator Obama in which he made clear that Senator Obama, in his opinion, was like every other politician, a hypocrite who is willing to say whatever will get him elected? Wright said at the National Press Club on April 28th, “We both know that, if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected. Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls, Huffington, whoever’s doing the polls. Preachers say what they say because they’re pastors.” The interview with Tim Russert, regrettably, did not touch that area of their disagreement.

How else to make sense of Obama’s complaint on May 4 that Wright “didn’t have much regard for the moment that we’re in right now here in the United States where we can’t be distracted or engaged in this divisive, hateful language.” What moment is that, Senator?

Doubtless he would answer: the fragile moment of possibility for the historic transformation of American life that his campaign embodies — the now nearly acheivable moment of the Kingdom Come on Earth — the Rapture that will be the Obama presidency.

How does this self-conscious messianism of the Obama campaign sit with his ostensibly Christian pastor of 20 years? He might be inclined to remind people that Obama is simply a politician.

Tom Sowell argues that the Obama-Wright fight is a battle between two demagogues, one upscale and one downscale. Another way to look at it is a battle between two preachers. Rev. Wright preaches a Jesus who is a black militant. Obama preaches a Jesus who has come again, through him.