Obama Attempts Damage Control, Fallout Over Pastor’s Sermons Unclear
Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting Saturday in Plainfield, Ind., where he addressed controversial sermons by his former pastor. (AP Photo)
The presidential contenders have all had their share of supporters whose insensitive remarks forced the campaigns to issue disavowals. This week, it was Barack Obama’s turn.
After a series of recorded sermons by Obama’s longtime pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. sparked controversy over Wright’s fiery views on race, America and the Sept. 11 attacks, Obama responded Friday by firmly repudiating Wrights’ views in lengthy written statement and a round of cable news interviews.
On Saturday at a town hall meeting in Plainfield, Ind., Obama broached the matter with the public, saying they’ve probably heard comments “that were incendiary and that I completely reject.”
The question now is whether Obama’s response worked, and whether his connection to Wright will haunt the Democratic senator’s campaign and dampen his presidential hopes.
Rival Hillary Clinton has not yet drawn political attention to the sermons, and deflected questions Saturday.
“Ask the Obama campaign,” she said to inquiries about Wright.
Pollster Doug Schoen said it’s unlikely the Wright issue will play big in the primary, but that it poses trouble down the road.
“In a Democratic primary this issue has limited viability and utility,” he said. “In a general election, however … I think this could be a real serious problem for Barack Obama.”
Obama tried to put Wright’s sermons in perspective Saturday, saying: “It reminds me that we’ve got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country … But what I continue to believe in is this country wants to move beyond these kinds of divisions.”
In an interview Friday with FOX News, Obama said he personally never had heard the pastor’s controversial comments, though he joined his Trinity United Church of Christ nearly 20 years ago. He said the sermons now sparking controversy didn’t resemble the ones he remembers from Wright, which, Obama said, stuck to messages of faith, values and helping people in the community.
But Obama’s pastor long has been a lightning rod for controversy. For starters, Wright’s relationship with Louis Farrakhan, once described by Obama as a “close” relationship, has been of concern to many in the Jewish community.
And once Wright’s remarks were publicized last year, Obama backed out of plans to have Wright speak at his Feb. 10, 2007, presidential announcement.
Author Larry Elder said he doesn’t buy Obama’s new, firmer denunciation of Wright.
“How can Barack Obama dis-invite him … and now claim he had no idea that Jeremiah Wright made all these incendiary comments? It doesn’t work,” Elder told FOX News.
There’s too many variables on the campaign trail to measure the direct impact on his poll numbers, but pollster Scott Rasmussen pointed out that Saturday’s Rasmussen daily tracking poll showed Obama nearly tied with Hillary Clinton.
“That’s a big drop from Obama’s 8-point lead a day before,” Rasmussen said.
Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President Bush, suggested that the controversy and the timing of Obama’s disavowal show him to be little more than a shrewd politician.
“I think there’s a reason Republicans I talk to are increasingly looking forward to running against Barack Obama,” Fleischer said.
Wright, who presided over Trinity’s congregation until his retirement earlier this year, officiated Obama’s wedding to Michelle and baptized their two daughters. In Obama’s first book, “Dreams From My Father” from 1995, he writes the pastor had great influence over him in the early 1990s. And it was Wright who delivered a sermon “The Audacity of Hope,” which had such an impact on Obama that he made it the title of his second book, published in 2006. The theme of hope continues to be central to Obama’s surging campaign.
His repudiation of Wright has gradually risen to a crescendo.
Three weeks ago, Obama spoke to the Cleveland Jewish Community Leaders group and was asked about Wright. Obama noted the pastor occasionally was known to “say controversial things,” adding most of those controversial statements were “directed at the African American community.”
Obama assured the Ohio Jewish leaders he never heard anything anti-Semitic, and said “he is like an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don’t agree with.”
Obama’s camp released a somewhat stronger statement Thursday after FOX News had reported more on Wright’s sermons — in one, he repeatedly said “God damn America,” while in others he blamed the United States for the spread of HIV and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and highlighted what he saw as a racial divide between Obama and Hillary Clinton.
“Senator Obama has said before that he profoundly disagrees with some of the statements and positions of Rev. Wright, who has preached his last sermon as pastor at the church,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said. “Senator Obama deplores divisive statements whether they come from his supporters, the supporters of his opponent, talk radio, or anywhere else.”
Then Friday, Obama issued the written statement calling what he’s heard from Wright “inflammatory and appalling.”
Later Friday, Obama told FOX News that he could no longer lay low as he heard more of Wright’s remarks.
“Once I saw them I had to be very clear about the fact that these are not statements that I am comfortable with,” Obama said. “I reject them completely - they are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals or Michelle’s.”
Democratic strategist Tanya Acker said Friday that Obama has nothing to be sorry for, and his campaign is in the clear.
“There’s no basis for attributing those statements to Barack Obama,” she told FOX News. “We don’t play guilt by association here, and it’s not fair.”
Throughout the campaign, candidates seemingly on a weekly basis have had to respond to, denounce and sometimes fire supporters who made offensive comments. Obama’s foreign policy adviser Samantha Power left the campaign after calling Clinton a “monster” in an interview with a Scottish newspaper. Clinton fundraiser Geraldine Ferraro left the campaign’s finance committee after saying much of the attention being paid to Obama’s campaign was because he is black.
And earlier this month, Republican candidate John McCain distanced himself from Iowa Rep. Steve King after King said terrorists would be “dancing in the streets” if Obama were elected.
Obama said Friday the pastor has never been active in his campaign and that he is no longer on his African American Religious Leadership Committee. The campaign said Wright left that unpaid post Friday, without elaborating.
Obama said Friday that with Wright retiring from the pulpit, he doesn’t see an issue with his family remaining in the congregation. Wright delivered his final sermon last month and retired as leader of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
FOX News’ Jeff Goldblatt and Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.
I doubt that the racial climate in America can ever change as long as there are pastors and prominent speakers like Reverand wright who fire up their congregations with hatred for America and particularly for white America. Bear in mind, Hitler once said “give me the youth and I’ll have the country”. He went to colleges and schools and preached his biases and convinced the germans that Arians were superior. This is no different. Youths grow up hearing this kind of rhetoric preached by respected leaders in their communities and they decide to fear and hate and mistrust white people. There is no end to this cycle. Every black person in America has the same rights and priviledges in this country as any other person regardless of race or color and in many ways even more priviledges because of affirmative action. There is never any realization that blacks work beside white people shoulder to shoulder all over this country. They buy homes next door to one another. They become super sports stars, singers, and actors and actresses. There are many black billionaires, millionaires, politicians, teachers, lawyers, doctors, etc. Where is this perception of injustice coming from? Not from the reality of life as it exists but from the state of mind that preachers like Wright instill in the minds of their congressions. Until someone has the courage to realize that black people are being taught to hate white people and confront that reality, racial situations in America will only widen as time goes on. In truth each of us is what we make of ourselves. If we grow up realizing that paying attention in school, respecting our teachers and believing in hard work, EVERYONE will grow and prosper in this wonderful nation. And a nation I might add that saw tens of thousands of white people die to correct the wrong of slavery. It is a sin to covet thy neighbors goods. It is wrong to hate anyone regardless of their color for having more then someone else. We all have the opportunity to succeed, but NO ONE OWES IT TO US. We are only owed the opportunity to achieve our dreams and the opportunities are there in America for everyone regardless of their color. It is time for preachers to uplift their congregations to believing in themselves and in God and stop hating those who DID believe in these principals and went and made something of themselves.
Elane Guardiani
Obama chose to stay in a church that spewed anti-American, hate filled sermons because he wasn’t offended by what he heard. He FEELS the SAME or otherwise he would have left that church long ago. His “Politics of Hope” have turned to politics of hate and division. I don’t know how any normal, fair-minded person could vote for him.
What did you expect him to say..did you really think he would be honest after 20 years of lies drilled into his head from his pastor..that he must agree with otherwise he would not stay, where his community, as he calls it, is decieved by pastors comments..what kind of senator is he and what kind of president would he be where he knowingly stays and allows his people to be decieved to keep them angry and raceiest…so he can be their great hope????? more deceptions..
“What did he know and when did he know it” woops silly me, that only works on people on the Rebublican side.
With his speech, it appears Sen. Obama was successful in shifting the focus from Wright’s hatred of whites (BLACK RACISM) and anti-American words. In channel surfing this morning, I couldn’t find any stories about the issue –EVEN on the Fox News channel. Maybe I didn’t get up early enough.
i will not vote for obama, i vote for fox.
right now on cnn. blog they have announced that hillary has released her doccuments. so far they only have 4 comments, all neg. for hllary, ill bet they will only post the negatives.they should be ashamed of them selves.check it out.
I don’t believe for a minute that Barack Obama believes in his heart the most extreme views of his pastor and spiritual advisor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. We should take Obama at his word when he distances himself from his pastor of 20 years until there is some proof otherwise. We should acknowledge that Obama donated over $20,000 to his church last year, but should not confuse this support with any beliefs that Obama may hold that the government of the United States was responsible for the AIDS virus, that the government was responsible for the attacks of 9/11/01, or any of the racially divisive, hateful black-separatist language we’ve all seen from the Trinity Church of Christ on the news this week. There is no doubt that the experience of being an African-American, especially on the hard streets of Chicago’s south side, is more difficult than many of us could imagine. Therefore the Sunday sermons might be, understandably more supportive of an oppressed people. What is not difficult to believe is that Senator Obama had to have been aware of Reverend Wright’s more extreme views long before the rest of us were. Most people would expect a parent, upon hearing the angry, bigoted, hateful ranting of Rev. Wright to leap up out of his pew and head for the door while covering the ears of his baby girls. Why this didn’t happen on any given Sunday in the last twenty years remains a mystery to me. Obama insists that he never personally heard any of these harsh remarks in person, yet he must have been aware his pastor would be controversial or why else would the Obama for President Campaign first invite Rev. Wright to give the invocation at his presidential campaign launch, then reverse course and have Obama personally ask Wright to stay away? According to the New York Times Obama had to call Wright saying, “You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.” Clearly there was recognition over a year ago that the explosive sermons of the man who was the inspiration for Obama’s best-selling book, The Audacity of Hope might become an huge political liability. Obama spent Friday last off the campaign trail appearing on a long list of political television shows assuring the American people that he had no idea of these hateful sermons until just ‘recently’. I have a very difficult time believing this, but am willing to reserve judgment.
This entire episode calls into question not only Obama’s judgment but his honesty as well. I for one am beginning to see a pattern of poor judgment from this self-described post-racial politician, a man who has assured us that, “Words matter. Speeches matter.” I am wondering why it took the media so long to expose this story until Obama all but has clinched the nomination. I also would like to know why it is considered racist or bigoted to question anything about the Obama campaign. Should we not be allowed to ask even a single question about race in this historic election without being immediately labeled a racist by the Obama campaign? When Bill Clinton called Obama’s record on the Iraq war a ‘fairy tale’ he was immediately called a bigot and the media never questioned it. Why exactly? Did anyone bother ask what he meant by that? Did anyone bother give the former President of the United States and long time supporter of the black community the benefit of the doubt? I’m a Hillary Clinton supporter and yet I am willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. I think his pastor has some extremely hateful views that Obama has assured us he doesn’t share, yet has depended on the good reverend’s support, credited Wright for bringing him to Christ, baptized the Obama children, inspired Obama’s book, supported Obama’s campaigns, campaigned for Obama from the pulpit, received thousands of dollars in donations, but never, ever, not even once did Obama sit through a racist, hateful sermon. I guess there’s no reason to believe otherwise, as far as I know.
Dear Dr. Hearn:
what research needs to be done? I speak english. I understand it when it is written and spoken to me. I do not need to go visit black churches to get a better understanding. Those comments that were video taped and played on the air are RACIST. I do not need a Doctorate degree to understand that.
Since you can call your church a black church, then I am going to call mine and continue to go to my multi-cultural church where we preach tolerance and diversity and the joining together to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you want to step into the 21st Century and quit feeling sorry for yourself, then please by all means, stop in. We will will welcome you with open arms and not blame your race for all the woes of the multi-cultural peoples world.
When Barack Obama speaks about uniting the country (i.e. “no Red states and Blue states,”) and that he’s the agent of “Change,” I’ve always wondered how he plans to do that. He’s been a state senator here in Illinois and was always just a hard-Left partisan. As my U.S. Senator he’s never looked for the middle ground. Now, seeing what his church believes, I can understand the “Change” that he must have in store for America. As for healing social divisions, his plan appears to be to lie his way into office and then ignore those that believe in traditional American values.
Sadly, it would appear that “Obama been lyin’.” Wake up America. “Change” only means ‘different’–NOT necessarily ‘better.’ And if the America his church has complained about needs to “Change,” listen to what they want as a replacement. It is all out there. These people aren’t hiding their intentions. One need only HEAR what the America-hating Left is saying (they *mean* to do what they say.) God *Help* America…
After hearing Rev. Right’s awful comments about our country, it is understandable now why Michelle Obama made those comments about her country of not being proud of America. After 20 years of such speech, she’s obviously on his page.
Martha