There have been some rumors floating around the internet suggesting I engaged in illegal drug use when I was a professional guitar player in the late1980s and early 1990s. I want to take the time to address these rumors because they are grossly inaccurate and unfair. To be specific, they are grossly inaccurate and unfair because they grossly underestimate my former involvement in illegal drug use.

In addition to smoking marijuana – sometimes laced with substances like PCP - for a number of years, I also experimented with drugs like hashish, powdered cocaine, LSD, and methamphetamines (including ecstasy). I regret my decision to use illegal drugs in my youth and I’m really sorry. Now that my past drug use is out of the way, let’s move on to Barack Obama.

I may surprise a number of people by saying that I don’t think Obama’s past drug use - including the use of powdered cocaine - in any way disqualifies him from being President. I know I’ve had no trouble refraining from illegal drug use since I joined a Christian church many years ago. I have no intention of returning to my former days as a drug-using atheist. And I’m sure Senator Obama could easily remain clean and sober for four (or eight) years if elected president of the U.S.K.K.K.A.

If any Democrats reading this column are still gasping for breath over my defense of Obama, they should probably take a few minutes to rest before reading the next paragraph, which defends his controversial spiritual advisor. I believe that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is completely innocent of the charges of racism that have been leveled against him by Fox News and other fairly imbalanced news sources. But at first I was concerned about Reverend Wright when I heard the following assertions coming straight from his mouth (and his pulpit):

1. White people invented the AIDS virus to kill off the black race.
2. Crack cocaine was invented by white people as an excuse to lock up blacks in prison.
3. The Bush Administration is paranoid (please re-read #1 and #2).
4. We got what we deserved on 911.
5. The U.S.A. should be referred to as “G******N America” when not referred to as the U.S.K.K.K.A.
6. Bill Clinton “stuck it” to the black man the way he stuck it to Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office.

These comments - along with others too numerous to list - have led many to the conclusion that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a racist. After listening to an interview with Senator Obama I disagree.

Obama has made it clear that such remarks from the pulpit were so sporadic that he never heard them in person. That leads me to admit that I was wrong when I previously dubbed Wright to be a racist suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. If that conclusion were correct, Wright would have made such remarks with far greater frequency – so much so that Obama could not miss them because of sporadic church attendance. Continued...