Much like Senator Obama’s speech, your article is well-argued, extremely well-written, thoughtful and thought provoking. Unfortunately, you and Mr. Obama also share the same attempt at moral equivalence that misses the bigger picture.

A few private cringe-worthy comments by Obama’s grandmother or a poorly-worded opinion offered by a former VP candidate are not the same as decades of preaching hatred, separatism and racial supremacy by Wright to thousands of followers.

You admit that your Rabbi never spoke with the same vitriol as Wright, though you find enough parallels between him and Wright to call Jews critical of Obama as engaging in hypocrisy, if they ever tolerated heated political speech by their Rabbi.

Yet the larger issue is this: Obama is running for President and it is fair game for anyone, even those who haven’t always been vigilant in opposing inflammatory speech in their own communities, to consider whether Obama’s association with Wright is indicative of a potential President who might surround himself with people who are hostile to their interests.

The media has either ignored this story, acted as apologists for Obama or covered it poorly (e.g. Sean Hannity). It isn’t about condemning this statement or being at that sermon. It isn’t about whether you or I have ever indulged an intolerant Rabbi or friend.

It is about his 20 years of attendance at Wright’s church, and what that says about the judgement of an inexperienced candidate who has built his campaign around the idea that he is uniquely capable of bring Americans from different political, economic, social, religious and racial backgrounds together. From my previous postings and Obama’s recent denials, I was apparently aware of Wright’s extremist ideology and hateful sermons long before Obama heard them on ABC or Fox News.

Obama’s relationship with Wright seems consistent with his choice of stridently anti-Israel foreign policy advisors, his Nation of Islam staffers, his tolerance for a variety of anti-white and anti-Semitic activists and demagogues, his pro-Palestinian statements, his friendship with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, his wife’s lack of pride in her country and his expressed taste–regardless of sincerity–for radical politics articulated in his books.

Any one of the concerns listed above, by itself, can easily be overlooked. Taken together, I have to consider the possibility that an Obama administration could be filled with people who are not only hostile to Jewish concerns, but envision a much different America than the one I love, even as I acknowledge its flaws and concede a need for “change” in some areas.

And, yes, that is a valid opinion, regardless of whether there are Jewish and Christian leaders that I have indulged who have sometimes spoken in less than tolerant tones.