Obama Seeks to Stop Wright Coverage ‘Loop’
Tuesday: Barack Obama delivers a speech in Philadelphia on race, politics and unifying the country. (AP Photo)
As Barack Obama wrapped up his ambitious speech on race, politics and the historical origin of his longtime pastor’s heated sermons Tuesday, advisers questioned whether he had achieved a simple and practical objective: halting the “loop.”
The “loop” is the barrage of anti-American invective from Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. that has saturated national television for the past week.
Obama has vigorously disavowed Wright’s inflammatory remarks, but in Tuesday’s speech refused to disavow the pastor himself or the 20-year relationship he’s had with him. Some political observers say the Illinois senator still has some more mending to do.
“I think it goes on,” National Public Radio national correspondent Juan Williams said of the controversy.
Williams, a FOX News analyst, questioned why Obama allowed himself to remain publicly associated with Wright. He said Obama did not address the “judgment and character” issues that he’s running on.
“I think he had to take responsibility … and that’s what he didn’t do,” Williams said.
But CitizenJane.com Editor Patricia Murphy said it’s too late for Obama to try to divorce himself completely from Wright.
“There’s no way he didn’t know the nature of that church. He knows what goes on there, both good and bad. If he were to denounce this church and leave this church right now, it would look like nothing more than political gamesmanship, and for somebody who is selling himself as an honest broker and trying to paint Hillary Clinton as someone cold and calculating, that will be totally unproductive,” Murphy said. “The horse has left the barn on that.”
GOP strategist Fred McClure praised the speech but said it’s no antidote for Obama’s pastor problems.
“The winds are going to keep swirling around Senator Obama as this campaign goes forward, even though he, I think, very strongly denounced the words of Reverend Wright,” he said.
For a solid week, Wright’s comments have been in heavy rotation, with sermon highlights showing Wright blaming the United States for HIV and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, rejecting the Clintons as anathema to the welfare of American blacks and portraying the country as institutionally racist.
Obama’s association with Wright, who officiated his wedding, baptized his children and served as his spiritual adviser, was developing as a potentially damaging credibility problem for his campaign of hope and change. The direct political effects of the relationship remain unclear, but some telling clues showed Obama had a pastor problem.
A Rasmussen survey taken from March 14-16 of 1,200 likely voters showed 56 percent of those interviewed were less likely to vote for Obama because of Wright’s comments.
Other national polls continue to show Obama and Hillary Clinton flirting with the lead in their ongoing fight to become the Democratic presidential candidate.
Seeking the quell the outcry, Obama condemned Wright’s statements on Friday, Saturday and again on Tuesday. But he walked a fine line, using his address to explain and give context to his pastor’s commentary.
“As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. … I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother,” Obama told an audience at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
He later added: “To simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.”
Crisis management consultant Mike Paul told FOX News that Obama needs to go a step further.
“Any time you are dealing with a crisis, you have to go to the root of the problem. The root here is the pastor. As those comments continue, the crisis will continue. Unfortunately, the rhetoric of the speech will not solve that,” he said.
Paul suggested Obama sit down with Wright and try to “melt his heart” and change his way of thinking. He said Obama needs to offer the public a “solution” to the controversy Wright has caused.
“That’s something that Barack Obama should be able to do as a potential president,” Paul said. “You’ve got to have a changed man come out.”
But Rev. Jesse Jackson told FOX News he thought the speech was effective.
“I thought he bared his soul today,” Jackson said, urging the candidates to return to the issues. “This campaign is ultimately about candidates, not surrogates and not about supporters.”
Obama is making a clear attempt to move back to issues, announcing what the campaign billed as back-to-back “major speeches” over the next two days on Iraq and the economy. He plans to speak on Wednesday in North Carolina and Thursday in West Virginia.
For her part, Clinton has not drawn attention to Wright’s sermons. On Tuesday, she said she didn’t hear Obama’s speech.
“I did not get a chance to see or read Senator Obama’s speech, but I’m very glad that he gave it,” she said in Philadelphia.
“It’s an important topic. Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history,” Clinton said. “But we should remember that this is an historic moment for the Democratic Party and for our country. We will be nominating the first African-American or woman for the presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate.”
Democratic strategist Tanya Acker, an Obama supporter, said she had no idea whether the speech would put the controversy to rest, but she downplayed the fact that Obama never explicitly disavowed Wright.
“What he tried to do is explain that some of those statements … he was really addressing a bitterness in the African-American community,” she said. “That may make other people feel uncomfortable, but it is truly there.”
FOX News’ Aaron Bruns and Major Garrett contributed to this report.
Keep the Faith and Stay Focus… Exceptional moving speech based on undeniable facts.
We support you…
Wow i can’ believe how blind all of you people are.You are all bashing Obama and trying to keep him out of office, and screaming God help America if he becomes Pres. for his friendship with rev. Wright, but I don’t see any of you trying to get our current pres. out of office when his family is in bussiness with the bin Laden family,and oh yea have any of you heard of Prescot Bush the man who was a founder for our national tressury who funded and laundered money for Adolf Hitler this man is Pres. George W. Bush’s grandfather,and if I’m not mistaken Bin Laden and Hitler seem Alittle more threatenig to me than rev. Wright.Wake up people their trying to distact us from the real threat’s to our nation and that is the people who are already in control of it,they know we’re hungry for something to feed off of and their feeding us Bull,to divied us when we all want the same thing for our counrty htat sen Obama wants a liveable nation of equallity and justice for all and if you think otherwise your sadlly mistaken.Think about this ,HOW CAN A MAN OF MIXED HERITAGE BE A RACISTwho is he gonna hate?
I’ll make it simple. Black people make race an issue. I thought Obama was better than that. His speech was the same complaint a “normal” black person would complain about at the “barber shop”, but spoken like someone who went to college. I am hispanic and a single dad. I will never let my son think that he got pulled over because of his skin color. Or that he’s getting followed around a department store because of his skin color. That is just plain ignorance and just an “excuse” to get away with something. Rev. Wright is that person. He’s feeding ignorance to all his church goers. I’m disappointed in Obama and his presidential race is now just about race, he chose to make it. If he wins its because of his race. If he loses its because of his race. I can already hear his concession speech. Thank god for Nader, cause McCain is an idiot. -Mario
It doesn’t matter what his pastor said or says. All that matters is what Senator Obama says and does. It is typical of the media to focus on the “glitter” and not on the issues. Every American has a right to his or her own views and has the ability and freedom to place blame wherever they so choose. Who cares? It only matters what both Obama and Clinton think and do. Obama has been straight forward, direct, and to the point. Focus on the main issues at hand which is policy and change. Quit doing the dirty work of the opposite parties just to get a distraction and headline!
Hey Belinda this is a qoute from your comeent….”Those of you harboring those old feelings of racism”…
Your comment in light of recents events is ludicrious !! The race holding on to racism in the USA is the black community !! Barack is black, Rev ‘Wrong’ is black, therefore the black community ownsthis one, and an apology for the reverse racism that has been exposed is in order !!!
Last night on hannity and colmes i heard he has received more hate mail on this issue then he has ever received in his 12 year career, it would be interesting to see who’s sending this hate mail, which race is actually more racist. i think we all know the answer to that.
apinkn1- If you are so against Fox News why are you on this site. It amazes me how people are against Fox but yet they are still reading the articles and comments. Some people don’t have the luxary or reading all the articles or the time to search for others.
first, how could an educated man with four degrees such as reverend wright make such outrageous statements? second, the remarks are not even logical. around the globe in third world countries, america has done more for the poor, the sick and downtrodden, the oppressed and starving, than any other country on earth. third, most “white” americans weren’t even here during slavery.
we are a melting pot–we are jewish and had relatives die in concentration camps, we are roman catholic and protestant from ireland and scotland; we are russian, polish, canadian, british, and lutherans from germany - we immigrated escaping bigotry and pograms - and were discriminated against here; we were peddlers and peons but not consumed by hate. this is my ancestry, this is my country. no matter how we arrived, even on slave ships, we will overcome as MLK dreamed. god never promised our journey would be easy.
are we not put on earth to serve others and to be our brothers’ keeper, to love one another? what gospel is pastor wright preaching from when he makes those incendiary statements? it is definitely not christian!
I simply can not understand how Obama still considers this man a good friend and family. I have a cousin, we are three years apart and she was my best friend through out my childhood and most of my adult life. I gave her son the Mulian cartoon and gift set for his birthday and she went on a Asian racist rant. I could not understand where this was coming from, we are white and grew up in the MS delta. Her comments and attitude bothered me so much that I could not really bring myself to be around her anymore. What is she rasising her son to believe? My husband’s step mother and step sisters are asian and I just could not allow her to hurt them or my husband this way and I did not want my daughter raised around that sort of hatred. Our responsibility as parents is to each raise our children better than we were. Living in the MS delta I have know rasism my whole life. I don’t want want my child to grow up hearing what I have heard by both black and white, so if there is a person who I feel is exposing my child to these things there place in my life becomes very small. I love my cousin very much but she is not willing to change her views so I had to change her influence in my life. They are no more weekend get aways, dinner at each others house and sleep overs for our children. If I could make that decision about a family member who is like a sister how can Obama have allowed his children and wife to be exposed to that type of hatred for so long? I think his true judgement has finally came out but it is probally to late for the democratic party. I can’t see him stepping down and I can’t see how Clinton will get the needed deligates, So I guess McCain is White House bound.
One basic truth…he outright lied and did it believably….he’s very good at lying….
A couple days before the speech Obama said he did not know about the Rev. Wright’s sermons of hate and he was believable on first glance, when he saw no one was buying that, he made a great speech where he said, of course he knew about them but you gotta forgive old people.
Obama joined that church because it was the largest in the district he was running for state legislator in, he stayed in the church dispite it being radical and even in his Great Speech because his base is the 90+% blacks that support him, without them he would be far below his competition.
The man has great speechwriters and can deliver anything with a believable face. Obama is quite possibly the most skilled politician of our age.
Sadly, he gave such a great speech…pushed all the buttons so most people will give him the nomination so they can feel good about themselves, that they have “progressed”, but in the general election there is no way he can win, by then the awe at the speech will die off, and the fact will remain that he was a member of a radical church for 20 years, and few will actually push that button to give him the Presidentcy of the United States.
Even more sadly, this means another Republican term…sheesh I was so looking forward to what was once almost a slam-dunk for democrats, our last time with a democratic president was a great economy and the world didn’t hate us as much.