In 2008 Wilentz was an outspoken supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for the presidency. He wrote an essay in the "New Republic" analyzing Senator Barack Obama's campaign, charging Obama with creating "manipulative illusionand "distortions," and having "purposefully polluted the [primary electoral contest" with "the most outrageous deployment of racial politics since the Willie Horton ad campaign in 1988." During the Democratic National Convention, Wilentz charged in "Newsweek" that "liberal intellectuals have largely abdicated their responsibility to provide unblinking and rigorous analysis" of Obama. "Hardly any prominent liberal thinkers" have questioned his "rationalizations" about his relationship to his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., or "his patently evasive accounts" of his "ties" to the "unrepentant terrorist William Ayers." For Wilentz, Obama is untested, cloudy, problematic, and liberal intellectuals have given him a free ride. Wilentz was criticized by bloggers and others for his criticism of Obama.