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.
O.K. those of you who are quick to judge Obama for staying in his church for 20 years must also have a bad opinion about the 1,000’s of catholics who chose to stay in there church’s after the abuse scandal. Come on they where abusing helpless children.
Very suspicious that Wright hasn’t come out and attack Obama!! OBAMA’S “RAGE” WAS ALL A SET UP BETWEEN WRIGHT AND OBAMA!!!!!!!!!
The story of Wright is relevant because it shows a lack of judgement on Obama’s part. He very well knew his pastor’s views and whether he believes them or not he should have distanced himself from him a very long time ago. I am very uncomfortable with what I have learned so far. Obama appears indecisive in this matter and it makes me wonder if he will be this indecisive if he becomes the president. Remember all his missed opportunities in the State Senate to vote on important matters? His only decisive moment was when he did not support the Iraq war - but he wasn’t in the US Senate at the time so he didn’t really have to cast a vote!!!
If Obama ultimately makes it to the White House, it will be too late for any of us to do anything. After all, look at how we got stuck with George W until the end of his term, no matter what kind of crazy stuff he does in office. So, if we don’t stop Obama now, the chickens will really come home will either get a President (Obama) who was knowingly tied at the hip with an anti-American racist for 20+ years, or we will get a President who was too stupid to recognize an anti-American racist for 20+ years, or we will get a President who was in cahoots with an anti-American racist for 20+ years, who together are now trying to deceive us all.
What a bunch of fools we are! To be distracted by the antics of an aging, senile minister while our ship of state sinks. Such grand entertainment! Such hoopla! Whoopie! Maybe Clinton and Obama will mudwrestle next instead of debate. Meanwhile, we’ve had the highest number of US deaths in Iraq in seven months, the mortgage crisis continues, our dollar is failing, the Bush administration has admitted to approving torture, Hillary is threatening to bomb Iran, 47 million americans (including 9 million children) lack health insurance, our major industries are going or have gone under, oil companies are making record profits, price of gas is crippling the airline industry and raising the price of food, what kind of world will we leave our children. People are rioting over food. Thank you Fox news for keeping us posted on what Wright might or might not do next, this surely is a matter of great national consequence.
This is a JOKE Obama , Michele & Wright are joined at the hips I pray people open their eyes to this joker before it’s too late he will never win the general election the news media has been
far to BAIS between Obama & Clinton if they would have done their jobs like they are suppose to Obama would be gone already
O.K….I’ve heard alot of dumb comments but to say that Obama and Wright planned it is the most ridicules thing I have read. Get real, you must be Hillary supporters.
OBAMA was truthful in his denouncement of Rev. Wright yesterday.
Go OBAMA!
This tells me again: Obama is phony, fraud. American people are not that stupid as Obama thinks.
Obama only “outraged” after 20 years later ?
The truth is that Obama is outraged for his polls hurts, this is the truth for this so called “outraged” to his Pastor now.
Go figure!
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Clearly if Obama cannot handle a close friend of 20 years and convince him to lay low until after the election, then how are we supposed to trust that Obama can handle the leaders of Iran, North Korea, Russia, China…you know, folks who don’t like us. His words say he would be able to handle it, but his actions clearly shout otherwise.