Adam received some simple instructions from God when He placed him in the Garden of Eden. “Tend the Garden and eat of anything that you like in it, except from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or you will die.” Satan, the serpent, came up to Adam and Eve one day and tricked Eve into eating the forbidden tree’s fruit saying her eyes would be opened to understanding good and evil like God does. Adam, though knowing better, went along with his wife, and we, as the human race, have been dealing with the effects of sin ever since. When God confronted Adam as to what he had done by standing passively by and allowing all this to happen, our earliest ancestor gave a cowardly response, which has traveled through the ages, “The woman that you gave me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Adam’s defense was to blame both God and his wife, while abnegating any personal responsibility to lead. God did not buy it however, and Adam paid for his failure to correctly judge the situation and to act accordingly.

Barack Obama, in his “More Perfect Union” Address, made in response to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy, tried to use Adam’s tactic of pointing the finger at everyone but himself. It’s well known now that Barack’s pastor of 20 years, and member of one of his campaign's advisory committees (until a few weeks ago), and close spiritual advisor (whom Barack considers like family) has made the most outlandish remarks and fraudulent claims from his pulpit against America generally, and white America specifically. He referred to the United States as “the U.S. of KKK-A” and called on God to d--- our nation because of the way it treats black people. Further, the Reverend also believes that we, as a nation, had the attacks of 9-11 coming to us, given our atrocities in the past, like the bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. Further that the U.S. government introduced AIDS and drugs into the black community to bring about its demise. Barack claims to have known nothing of these remarks or anything like them. This assertion rings a bit hollow though, given his admission in his “More Perfect Union” address that Wright has made political remarks from the pulpit, which Obama strongly disagreed with (one has to wonder what other of the Reverend’s rants are yet to be released). The Senator also chose to dis-invite his controversial pastor at the last minute from participating in the ceremony announcing Obama’s run for Presidency. He told Wright at that time (in early 2007) that the pastor's sermons can get “a little rough.” So again, Barack’s claim of ignorance of Wright’s views is suspect. His Adamic defense to the whole uproar offered in his “More Perfect Union” address went as follows: 1) America is a flawed nation with a history of slavery and injustice towards black people. 2) Problems still exist between the races and particularly how blacks are treated in this country. 3) It’s a no wonder Reverend Wright and others have these extreme views towards America and white people. 4) You and your pastor or associates probably have similar prejudices, my own white grandmother does. 5) If you elect me, as a black man, I will bridge the racial divide and bring unity on other fronts as well. Did you catch that? At no point does he take personal responsibility for the storm that he found himself in, at all. America sinned. Reverend Wright sinned. You probably sinned. I, Barack Obama, sit serenely above it all prepared to step in as a savior and heal the nation’s racial divide.

That proposition looks highly questionable on its face. If he’s able to be such a healing balm who can provide the leadership required to start bridging the racial gap, why couldn’t he more effectively influence the views of his own pastor, or for that matter his own wife? Michelle Obama, who first took Barack to Wright’s church, famously said after her husband started winning Presidential primaries that “For the first time in my adult life, I’m proud of my country.” She had written in her senior thesis at Princeton years before how black people will always be in the periphery of the United States, and therefore, it was very important for blacks to maintain close ties to their own ethnic community. Apparently, her views changed little in the interim. They were not changed despite this nation giving both her and her husband the opportunity to obtain Ivy League undergraduate degrees and become graduates of Harvard Law School. With that degree, Michelle became an associate attorney at a prestigious, high-paying firm in Chicago and then on to respected positions in that city's mayoral office and Assistant Dean at the University of Chicago Law School. Her husband went on to be a public interest lawyer and a lecturer at the University of Chicago. Is this the periphery of American life? Barack successfully ran for and was elected to the Illinois legislature. Any pride yet one wonders? That same country provided the chance for Barack to run and to win a position as United States Senator from one of the nation’s most populous states (whose citizenry is only 15% African American, therefore many whites and other ethnicities must have voted for her husband in the Democratic primary in that state—his opponent was also black in the general election). Was that not a proud moment? Why the need on her part (and seemingly her husband’s as well) to be have to hear and to support with substantial financial contributions the hatred being spewed on Sundays at Wright’s church about the ever-oppressive white America.

The renowned English Parliamentarian Edmund Burke once poignantly observed that “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Adam sinned in this regard in the Garden of Eden. When Satan’s temptation came, Adam should have stepped between the serpent and his wife and said to him, “God has spoken clearly about all this. You’re lying. Come on honey, we’re out of here.” Barack should have done the same.

Randall DeSoto is the author of the new book We Hold These Truths about how leaders throughout United States' history have appealed to beliefs found in the Declaration of Independence.