Obama distances himself further from Wright

HICKORY, N.C. — Barack Obama on Tuesday abandoned his defense of his former pastor and blasted Rev. Jeremiah Wright for repeating "divisive and destructive" comments that threaten Obama's effort to put together a multi-racial coalition to carry him to the White House.

He also expressed anger at Wright's assertion on Monday that Obama's public disagreements with the pastor were political posturing.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama told reporters in Winston-Salem.

Later Tuesday, at a campaign stop in Hickory, Obama acknowledged Wright as a campaign issue, noting that others have said "his former pastor said some crazy stuff."

Obama's sharp rebuke came after Wright re-emerged to defend himself in recent days, culminating in a combative speech and Q&A session at the National Press Club in Washington. The event was Wright's third in four days after weeks of lying low as the controversy sparked by his previous sermons had started to die down.

"His comments were not only divisive and destructive, I believe they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate,'' said Obama, who had offered a far milder response Monday before seeing recordings of Wright's latest remarks.

Obama said the recently retired Wright "has done great damage, I do not see that relationship being the same."

In his Washington appearance, Wright said the heated reaction to his previous sermons were not an attack on him or Obama.

"It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about African-Americans religious tradition," he said.

Obama summed up his outrage by telling reporters in Winston-Salem that "the person I saw (Monday) was not the person that I met 20 years ago."

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia explaining that he's done enormous good," Obama said, referring to his speech on race in the wake of news reports on Wright's fiery rhetoric about the United States.

"But when he states and them amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS. . . . There are no excuses. They offended me. They rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced," Obama said.

Wright on Monday indicated Obama secretly agrees with him but could not acknowledge it.

"If Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected,'' he said "Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls."

Not so, said Obama, rejecting the comment by Wright, who was his pastor for 20 years.

"They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs," Obama said of Wright's views. "And if Reverend Wright thinks that that's political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn't know me very well. And based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

Obama campaigned Tuesday in North Carolina in advance of next week's primary, in which he is favored over New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Twin wins in North Carolina and Indiana next week could end Clinton's campaign, which got a boost with a win in Pennsylvania last week.

Obama said he had not seen a recording or transcript of Wright's Monday remarks before he initially responded in a milder tone.

"What I had heard was he had given a performance, and I thought at the time that it would be sufficient simply to reiterate what I had said in Philadelphia," Obama said. "Upon watching it, what became clear to me was that it was more than just him defending himself. What became clear to me was that he was presenting a world view that contradicts who I am and what I stand for."

In sermons delivered before his retirement from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago – widely distributed on the Internet – Wright condemned the United States, called on God to "damn America" and said the Sept. 11 attacks were a response to U.S. imperialism. He also has called AIDS a government-created effort to wipe out "people of color."

An ad being aired by the North Carolina Republican Party tells voters "for 20 years Barack Obama sat in his pew listening to his pastor" and includes a clip of a Wright sermon in which he said blacks are oppressed and then asked to sing "God Bless America."

"No, no, no. Not God bless America. God damn America," Wright said in the sermon now on the ad.

Probable GOP presidential nominee John McCain has asked party officials to withdraw the ad. They have declined.

Wright has refused to back away from his previous statements.

"Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything," he said.

Obama said Wright was never his "spiritual adviser."

"But he was somebody who was my pastor and he married Michelle and I and baptized by children and prayed with us when we announced this race," he said. "And so I'm disappointed."

Later Tuesday, campaigning in Hickory, Obama stuck with his unity message, saying he is running because "if we could bring the country together across racial lines, across religious lines, if we could remind ourselves that we are all Americans – blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians – there would be no problem we couldn't solve."

As Obama distanced himself from Wright, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley – who endorsed Clinton on Tuesday – predicted the pastor's comments would not be an issue in the North Carolina contest.

"We have great race relations," Easley said on MSNBC, "and I think Barack Obama has gotten beyond all of that. I don't think that's going to be an issue at all. You know, we're used to hearing more of that – you know, the Jeremiah Wright-type comments – than maybe some of the northern states would be."

"I'm sure the Reverend Wright has said some things he wished he hadn't said," Easley said. "We all do. We all wish we could take them back."

But Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest-ranking black in Congress, said Wright's comments could hurt Obama.

"It is so unfortunate. I happen to respectfully disagree with the Reverend Wright. This is no attack on the black church. In fact, I'm not too sure what people mean by the black church," Clyburn, who has not endorsed a presidential candidate, told CNN.

"You know, I was thinking just this morning, with supportive uncles like Reverend Wright, Senator Obama's opponents don't need any 527s," Clyburn said, referring to the unaffiliated political committees known for pouring millions of dollars into attack ads.