Passport Hubbub, Endorsement Offer Needed Relief for Obama
Barack Obama picks up the endorsement of Bill Richardson, right, at Portland's Memorial Coliseum in Oregon Friday. (AP Photo)
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.
He had a relief but it’s not over. America will not tolerate Obama’s ANTI-AMERICANISM and racism. Yes, he IS racist as it goes both ways. No one joins a church with the 12 point black value system such as this curch does and expect us to believe they’re not going to fulfill their promise to follow this sytem which is preferential treatment.
My President doesn’t pledge to an organization which requires of him to put his race, and to promote them, above all others. This is against the premise that “all men are created equal.” My President is representative of all people.
Give it up Hillary! McCain will eat you for breakfast!
Richardson is a traitor, there has to be something in thi for him–using rhetoric like Obama is a uniter when the racial tension and divide is higher nthan I have seen in years seems very hollow; also, his state went for Clinton; how disengenuous is that? If Obama is elected I suspect it will be truly nauseating.
175 british soldiers killed in action since March 2003; 3,979 US soldiers killed in action; 4,200,000 Iraqus displaced from their homes; 2,500,000 barrels of crude oil produced each year pre-war; 300,000 barrels of crude oil produced each day in May 2003. This is caused by Bush and Hillary Clinton who voted the war; She now turns around lieing about it; and lied about NAFTA when the facts are clearly revealed that she supported it. Such a leader will turn the world turpsy-turvy. Obama does not need to be as dirty as Hillary to win a nomination. The whole world is looking at her with disprespect.
It is time we get to facts and stop being petty about issues. It takes us to nowhere but backwards ever. Rev Wrights clips are all but distraction and part of the Clinton kitchen sink; but woe betide her and her camp for attempting to bring division into the Christian faith as she has already done in race and gender and FOX NEWS SEEMS TO BE A CO-JOINT with Hillary. America advocates for freedom of speech and yet assasinate another man’s opinion without reading the facts about him- the world sits back and laugh.
VOTE OBAMA! OBAMA SUPPORTERS KEEP ON WITH HIM YOU ARE FIGHTING A JUST CAUSE FOR ALL AMERICANS OF EVERY RACE, COLOR AND CREED AND YOU SHALL PREVAIL
I don’t know how the supporters of Obama can get up in the morning and dare to support this man. His small children are being taught Hate,this is a very serious matter,is this how he will run our country.It’s for sure the man is racist and a lier. I am a hillary supporter just because we do know she is a TRUE American,Obama my guess is’ he’s not a true american,if so he wouldn’t let his children be in this church
Superdelegates PLEASE save our country.
ademola adeniyi,
“Wright’s comments were bad but I have heard worse from other people who happens to be white. Obama did not make these comments or said these things; these are words of another individual.”
No one is accusing Sen. Obama of making those statements. However, Sen. Obama has been asked to explain why he voluntarily associated with such a hate-monger for twenty years, along with the nontrivial addition that he exposed his daughters to that hate for their entire lives.
Sen. Obama’s explanation is that he didn’t pick up on this stuff. The stuff that his church put on the HIGHLIGHT REEL. Look at the audience shots in those sermons… the audience is not sitting in the stunned silence of seeing a pastor making remarks out-of-character.
If this is Sen. Obama’s defense, just how bad a judge of character must he be?
Or, is Sen. Obama’s explanation a bald-faced lie from a typical politician trying to spin his way out of a jam? Since Rev. Wright had been dis-invited when Sen. Obama announced his candidacy, there is compelling evidence that Sen. Obama was well aware of how controversial his pastor was.
Amazing. I can’t believe some of you urging everyone to move on and forget and accept Obama’s explanation(s) about his relationship with his hate filled pastor and mentor. What would democrats and liberals think if McCain had an uncle named David Duke?
America is in big trouble no matter who we elect as Prez. Our population has changed from what has made us great. Lets face it America hasn’t been a leader in anything good for a long time, here or abroad. However, the young people seem to be waking up. I hope and pray that they can once again show the rest of world what can happen ”WHEN YOU WAKE A SLEEPING GIANT”.
Funny thing when a group of people tell you that they hate you. You just can,t believe they mean it. We are all in denial. If we could just ask the 6 million Jews who were destroyed, I bet they could not believe it either. Wake up, our political correctness might eventually kill us all.
I can not beleve that Mr Oboma Husane can honestly say he has sat under Rev. Right for 20 years as his spiritual leader and not aggree with him. I think his support with his tithes and offerings and personal encouragement puts him in the same catagoury as Rev. Right. He has already told three different versions of whether he had heard him preach his hate messages. Mr Oboma first said if he had heard him preach one, he would immediatly objected to it. However he still supports him with the his wife and childrens presence to hear him spue his hate messages. His speaches are great but empty words are not convincing, and unbeliveable.