Good Friday was a very good Friday for Barack Obama, as news of passport breaches in the State Department and a much-sought endorsement from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson shifted the focus away from the racial controversies that have dogged him for more than a week.

Obama tried to put to rest discussions of race on the campaign trail Tuesday, when he gave a speech addressing his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose anti-U.S. sermons dominated campaign coverage for days.

The Wright controversy proved difficult to shake, however. Obama’s speech did not immediately stop the media replay of Wright’s most heated sermons, and polls indicated the Illinois senator was losing ground because of the focus on the issue.

But as reports of high-profile passport breaches developed between Thursday evening and Friday afternoon, the presidential candidates were handed a common target: the State Department. And the endorsement from Richardson, the nation’s only Hispanic governor, also helped Obama move on.

“This is a real good thing for the Obama campaign, GOP strategist Andrea Tantaros said of the endorsement from Richardson, who called Obama a “once-in-a-lifetime leader.”

“They change the subject … it also sends a message to other superdelegates that Obama still has strength, still has power to move ahead,” Tantaros said. “This is bad news for the Clinton campaign. It’s just another crack in her political dam.”

Democratic strategist Julia Piscatelli said the endorsement from Richardson, who was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Bill Clinton, helps Obama with his foreign policy credentials.

And political analyst Keli Goff said the endorsement helps deflect reports that Obama is not popular among Hispanics, as well as shift focus away from Wright.

Speaking Friday at a town hall meeting in Salem, Ore., Obama referred to the Wright controversy as a “bunch of turbulence” for his campaign.

The passport flap — in which the files of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Obama were improperly accessed — brings a new set of turbulence, and could offer at least a temporary sense of relief to Obama’s campaign, which until recently was basking in the glow of front-runner status.

Clinton is still trailing in delegates, and Politico reported Friday that un-named campaign aides were giving her no more than a 10 percent chance of winning the nomination.

A photo was also posted on The New York Times’ Web site Thursday night showing Bill Clinton and Wright shaking hands at a White House prayer breakfast 10 years ago.

The Times site said the Wright photo was provided by Obama’s campaign, and in a statement Friday morning the Clinton campaign accused Obama of straining to shift the tide.

“It’s no secret that the Obama campaign is in political hot water given the news stories of the last few weeks and is desperate to change the subject,” the memo said. It accused Obama of peddling the Wright-Clinton photo and blasted the campaign for suggesting they were involved with his passport breach.

Obama’s campaign released a statement Thursday suggesting political motives were behind the breach, but on Friday it was clear the violations were not limited to Obama himself.

But if Obama is consciously trying to steer the political discourse away from the race topic, it’s an effort he proved only partially committed to Friday, when he responded to more questions about Wright at a press conference in Portland, Ore.

Obama said again that he was not aware of the most offensive Wright statements until they were broadcast on the Internet and TV, and especially was not aware of Wright’s claims that the government was responsible for HIV.

Obama called that “completely out of line and off the wall.”

FOX News’ Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.

 

 

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