The Reverend Jeremiah Wright was a last minute replacement for keynote speaker at an event in Delaware commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr. day.

Perhaps they should have found someone else:

The controversial Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright told a crowd celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday at the Riverfront that there is more to do in the civil rights fight.

"Tell your children we have some unfinished business on the agenda with the voting rights bill gutted by a right-wing dominated Supreme Court ... with mass incarceration robbing black and brown communities of any positive future ... with jobs being shipped overseas ... with one branch of the tea party being nothing but a 2.0 upgrade of the lynch mobs ... with some folks doing everything they can to get that black man out of their White House."

Many in the largely black crowd of more than 400 people gave Wright a standing ovation and dozens swarmed him afterward to take pictures and get him to sign their programs.

"I think it was an excellent speech," said Bob Millette, a sociology professor at Lincoln University.

Hopeless. Wright is an incendiary. He's one of those men that "likes to watch the world burn." He also knows his audience - knows what buttons to push, what memes to spread. His audience is not clueless. They know what's coming and have given prior approval for the hate to spew. And then whine about being "taken out of context":

Bebe Coker, who was in the crowd and helped arrange to have Wright fill in when the original keynote speaker canceled, said that the way she understood the "lynch mob" line was as a blunt reference to the lynch mob mentality of Obama's opponents.

Wright was at one time Obama's pastor, though Obama distanced himself from Wright during the 2008 campaign due to some of Wright's controversial sermons.

"At the age that Jeremiah Wright lived in, in the age I have lived in, you get tired of sugarcoating your words. Like he said, you got to say the truth. It is difficult to say the truth gently," Coker said.

Coker said that Obama has achieved great things yet is dismissed as "the worst president" by opponents.

Incredibly delusional. Eight million people have dropped out of the workforce since Obama took office. The black unemployment rate is 11.9% - twice that of whites. It is statistically and otherwise, the most anemic, the weakest recovery from a recession in history.

But we're racist to think just about anyone could do better?

Actually, it's our fault. We misunderstand Wright:

New Castle County Council President Christopher Bullock, a pastor who has known Wright for years, said that to focus on just the words "lynch mob" is to take Wright out of context. He said the speech should be judged on more than just one line.

"You have to understand the context and audience. What he said was specific for that audience based on his opinion," Bullock said. "I think what he was trying to say was we still have some challenges and obstacles facing us before the dream is fulfilled."

Bullock also noted that tea party supporters "should sweep around their own front door before they sweep around someone else's door."

The "context and audience" is exactly the problem. What Wright was trying to say is exactly what he said. Why not own up to the hate?

Tea Party folk were not happy:

People associated with the tea party movement in Delaware were outraged by Wright's comments."Rev. Wright has always been a controversial figure who makes sensational claims that often turn out to be unfounded and untrue," said Evan Queitsch, who worked on the campaign of tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell, in an email. "I have been involved with the Tea Party since it's inception here in Delaware and I have never once heard or seen anything at a Tea Party rally, 9-12 meeting or Patriot group event that was racist or ever even suggested that the president's race has anything to do with the concerns raised."

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised by anything Wright says. And if he were the biggest part of the problem, he could be dismissed as a cantankerous old quack.

No - the biggest problem we're facing is reflected in the smiling faces who gave him a standing ovation after he crapped all over the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King would not have sat still for the spewing of such hate and lies. And for Wright to claim his legacy in such a way marks him as a race baiting charlatan.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit