TPM Reader -- on Cohen and Obama

Frankly, I don't think anyone pitched Cohen on today's column - I suspect he received one of the innumerable e-mails circulating on this issue, and figured there was a column in it. And there is a solid point buried in the column; Obama voluntarily affiliates himself with a church and a pastor who subscribe to some ideas and beliefs that large segments of the electorate disagree with or find distateful. Realistically, Obama will indeed have to address this issue at some point, and lay it to rest.

But there's also a nasty double standard being employed here. To the best of my knowledge, no one has yet produced a shred of evidence that Obama himself subscribes to these views. The only other candidate being subjected to a similar level of scrutiny regarding his faith is Mitt Romney, and like many Americans, I've found those questions equally odious. John McCain isn't asked about the affinity the Episcopalian leadership has lately developed for Palestinian radicals; Rudy isn't smacked by fellow adventurists for the Vatican's persistent opposition to much of American foreign policy. In both of those cases, the punditry understands that the candidates themselves have taken positions diametrically opposed to that of their clergy, and no explicit disavowal is required. So why can't we say the same of Obama, a man who has persistently called for the sort of tolerance and unity that Farrakhan repudiates?