By now, everyone has heard of Senator Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Wright, and his return to the media spotlight. Just when Obama needed most to push Clinton to the side, t, minimize her victory in Pennsylvania, and get on with his campaign, Wright reappears.

While Clinton campaigned in North Carolina and Indiana, Obama spent much of yesterday severing ties with Wright. It was something he refused to do only weeks earlier, painting him as the crazy uncle every family must endure.

The problem is that Wright is not crazy. He has very specific views that fueled the race-baiting and identity politics that Obama aspired to leave behind in his campaign for the White House.

Probably the most damaging message Wright delivered was one that portrays Obama as two personalities: one that appeals to black folks and another that appeals to whites. With a condescending grin, he's calling Obama a politician, a mere actor who will do and say whatever appeases his constituents.

The idea that he has learned how to behave in two different worlds is the worm in the apple. It implies that we don't really know him, at least not as well as Rev. Wright.

Why Obama has so closely associated with Wright over a 20-year period, and by his own account was greatly influenced by the pastor, will continue to haunt his campaign. Is he really that bad a judge of character?

But the issue of two Obamas is separate, and something different.

And is it really that surprising?

Ask any minority living in this country today about the need to learn how to live in two overlapping, but fundamentally different worlds. Ask Native Americans, Latinos or gays what it's like to live, and succeed in two sometimes opposing cultures.

The answer is at the heart of Obama's broad appeal - that we don't have to live with hyphenated identities, that we have important things in common, and we can become a society that is not governed by our prejudices.

Obama's view of America going into the 21st Century is not, as Republicans are already characterizing it, "far left."

It's something new. Hopefully he will be able to put that view of America back together again.