As Reverend Jeremiah Wright continues to scuttle Barack Obama’s chances to be the first African-American President, one thing has gone mostly unsaid, and it has nothing to do with race. It is this; religion has no place in the political process.

Over the last decade, Democrats have (mostly) decried the Right’s tendency to build a constituency based on religious beliefs, and rightly so. Religious leaders of every stripe, whether they are fundamentalist Christians or mainline Protestants or Roman Catholics, all have an ax to grind. Every one of them has some take on the current political climate and on policy. They all have something at stake. Which is to say, they aren’t just neutral players. And that is why they are dynamite for politicians.

I’m not blaming Obama. From what I can tell, he didn’t drag Wright into his campaign or desire to use him as a surrogate. But, despite that, religion has reared its head…and it may very well spell the end of Barack.

For Obama, it’s a sad affair….as he watches his chance to transform this nation made less likely with every new interview and TV appearance Reverend Wright does.

So what to make of the good Reverend?

Does he know what he’s doing? Is he aware that, as he feeds the cable news maw and resets every news cycle with a delicious new quote, that he is scuttling the chance of a lifetime for Barack Obama and for all African-Americans in what would be a historic run for the Presidency? I honestly don’t know, though I am tempted to think the following; As a Preacher, Wright is so used to being “right” that he can’t imagine, even for a moment, that his pronouncements from the pulpit might have consequences beyond the walls of his own church.

What I find amazing is that Wright is, at this moment, still marching from one TV studio to another, on what appears, but most accounts, to be a mission to undermine one of the most inspiring politicians to appear on the national scene in 30 years.