Obama’s Test: Will Offensive Against Wright Pay Off in the Primaries?
Barack Obama looks on as he is introduced during a town hall-style meeting in Hickory, N.C., Tuesday, shortly after he addressed the controversy over his former pastor at length. (AP Photo)
Barack Obama went on a new offensive against his former pastor Tuesday, calling the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.’s remarks “appalling” and effectively breaking ties with him.
Obama used his strongest language to date to denounce Wright at a time when he’s still struggling to shake Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary race. Looking ahead to the nine remaining contests, analysts say Obama’s move could either pay dividends for the Illinois senator and douse the Wright controversy — or backfire.
“People are going to say that Barack Obama should have done this a long time ago, but what’s important in a political campaign is that you have done the right thing, and I think most Americans would agree that Barack Obama now has done that,” Democratic strategist Steve Murphy told FOX News.
Obama spoke at length about Wright between campaign stops in North Carolina. He said he was “outraged” by Wright’s remarks the day before at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
“All it was was a bunch of rants that aren’t grounded in truth,” Obama said, putting substantial distance between himself and the pastor, whose sermons put Obama’s campaign in a near-crisis state last month.
The last time Obama addressed the Wright controversy in such detail was March 18 in Philadelphia. But at the time, he said Wright still was “like family” and that he could not disown him. Wright officiated at Obama’s wedding, and one of his sermons was the inspiration for the title of Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.”
Obama’s language was much tougher Tuesday, and he repeatedly said Wright wasn’t the same man he had met 20 years ago before joining Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Former Bill Clinton adviser and columnist Dick Morris said Obama’s stand Tuesday was a “good move,” because Wright continued to threaten his non-racial image as “a guy running for president who happened to be dark-skinned.”
“Wright has become the poster child for everything that white Americans fear in a black politician or pastor,” he said.
But Morris warned that Obama could still be held “hostage” by any member of his church’s congregation who might claim to have seen Obama listening to Wright’s controversial sermons.
Wright attracted criticism for telling his congregation that the government was responsible for afflicting the black community with HIV and for suggesting America provoked the Sept. 11 attacks with its foreign policies.
“Isn’t politics fun?” Morris added. “A couple months ago Obama was trying to prove he wasn’t a Muslim, and now the more he can prove that he doesn’t go to church, the better he’s going to do.”
Another trouble spot for Obama could be that he reacted in large part to what he saw as a personal affront by Wright. Obama said he was “angered” by Wright’s suggestion that he was engaging in political posturing by denouncing his sermons.
“What seems to be most insulting to him was that he was insulted by Rev. Wright, more than the comments that some people see as being unpatriotic,” Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers said.
Conservative critics continued to hammer Obama on Tuesday for staying with the church for nearly two decades, and again questioned whether he was really unaware of Wright’s controversial views before he spoke out on them.
Roll Call Editor Mort Kondracke said Obama now risks more backlash from Wright, thereby prolonging the unwelcome attention.
“It would not do Obama any good if Wright comes back and starts having a fight with Obama,” he said. “I’m not convinced it’s the end of the story.”
Wright has in fact shown a new willingness to take on the media, and to challenge Obama, over the public treatment of his sermons.
Wright, whose remarks first stirred national controversy more than a month ago, broke his silence on the matter Friday in an interview on PBS. He followed up with an appearance at an NAACP dinner in Detroit and then his address Monday before the National Press Club.
There he taunted reporters and claimed the furor over his sermons was an attack on the black church.
Obama disputed that Tuesday and said Wright only caricatured himself.
Even before Wright’s public appearances, the issue was gnawing at Obama’s campaign. At the Philadelphia debate before the Pennsylvania primary, Obama again endured questions about his ties to his former pastor. And the North Carolina GOP produced an ad last week that hit Obama for his relationship with Wright.
It is unclear whether Clinton will raise the Wright issue again before the May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. As the controversy developed, the New York senator eventually made Wright a point of her campaign, saying she would not have stayed in the church if Wright were her pastor.
It’s also not clear whether Obama is considering leaving his church. He said Tuesday he was still a member, but that his relationship with the church has been strained as a result of the Wright controversy.
“When I go to church it’s not for spectacle. It’s to pray and to find to find a stronger sense of faith. It’s not to posture politically. It’s not to hear things that violate my core beliefs … and I certainly don’t want to provide a distraction to those who are worshiping at Trinity,” he said.
“As of this point I’m a member. I haven’t had a discussion with Reverend [Otis] Moss (the current minister) about it so I can’t tell you how he’s reacting and how he’s responding.”
Click here to read more about Obama’s criticism of Wright.
Click here to read a full transcript of Obama’s press conference Tuesday.
FOX News’ Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.
Obama had 20 years to do what he just did. Too late. it’s unforgivable. He only did it when it affected him personally. He chose not to say anything for 20 years when Wright blasted white people and others.
The move is just political.
Obama is done because he’s a democrat and democrats are done. (Hillary is done too but makes for good entertainment in the meantime.) Obama, like so many dems in recent decades, by trying to be whatever a particular audience wants him to be proves he has nothing the country wants on the inside, where it counts. Character and integrity remain the most critical traits in a presidential candidate - more than their statements on the issues even. Dem character and integrity is nonexistant in recent candidates which is why we see them always trying to climb out of some hole they’ve jumped into. They are trying to prove themselves to be something they are not. A presidential campaign starts long before the announcement, with the way the candidate has conducted him or herself and the decisions they’ve made over the years. Obama and Hillary both have lived lives and made decisions that demonstrate a character they now want to disown. It isn’t working, and I believe the American public is smart enough to see that no matter how much spin is applied.
Ho-hum, just another typical liberal politician throwing his old time mentor/friend under the bus to protect his own backside. What’s the “hope” and “change” in this?
Obama was basically running a campaign that was lacking any real substance from the begging. All the guy ever did was say he was for change - which is fine - but he never discussed how he would go about instituting change. I think that he thought he could glad-hand his way to the Presidency and THEN reveal what a fervent, radical, left-wing, socialist he really is. Obviously, I am as far right as I believe he is left. McCain would never be my first choice but I will vote for him before either Obama or Clinton. She trys to wrap herself up in a i’m-just-like-you, humble, centrist package - but hopefully enough people will remenber how she and her husband acted when leaving the whitehouse. Glueing file cabinets closed and taking the furnishings with them when they left the Whitehouse are only a couple of the indicators that they were a low-class act.
Anyone read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card? It’s considered a SciFi classic.
A side plot to the book:
A brother and sister, using psuedonyms, use public forums to debate politics, ethics, religion, and so forth. By plan, they take opposite sides of each debate. They each attract large crowds of emotional supporters and detractors. Again by plan, the brother tends to win the debates. His identity is later discovered, as planned, and he runs for office. He is elected to head the government. His sister is given a position in that government.
Life imitating art?
This doesn’t make Obama any different than he has always been. He only came forward now for political reasons and ONLY that. He is still the same person he was the day before he came forward. Don’t let this fool you. Vote HILLARY 08
It’s over for Obama. Rev. Wright effectively put the nail in Obama’s political coffin. But the good news is this: we found all of this out BEFORE Obama became POTUS. That is a blessing!!
Too little To Late Obama is done
Omamma is sooo funny. Only now are Mr. Wrights statements appaling after the media has shown that Obamma has been listening to him for years. Were his statements not appalling 6 months ago, 5 years ago? Obamma hates White people just as much as Mr. Wright does and now America knows it too. Obamma has made the Democratic party look like a bunch of fools for supporting a racist black person. John McCain is America’s only hope.
Liar, liar, pants of fire. . . who is Obama kidding? He never heard any of this Wright propaganda until now? Bull. . .
And people say they can’t trust Hillary. . .so is the question now who is the bigger liar? Do we compare lies to determine which was the biggest lie? And use THAT to determine who should win the Democratic nomination??
C’mon people. . .get a clue.
Obama’s posturing. . .of course he is! I pray that voters will see through all the charm and charisma and realize that this guy is A) not ready to be President, and B) easily beatable by the Republicans.
If you want the White House, you’d better be warming up to Hillary and fast! Like her or not, she is the only chance we have at avoiding 4 years of Mc Cain, who will carry on the Bush regime and continue down this economically destructive path that our country is on.