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.
You are entitled to your own “dem” opinion am not sure you are voting either dem kwash … I still stand for change !
Not for me, I mean for the Messiah. If he does not kick ass under the Pastor, typically white persons will see the truth and leave him stranded November; if he does kick ass with the Pastor his credibility with Clyburn’s 92% will be severely tarnished. He can’t even make a speech for fear of some credibility evaporating because he is in critical short supply of that commodity [never had much anyway]. Poor fellow talked himself into a hole!
I for one agree. Obama can not explain those 20 years of membership at that church listening to Reverand Wright. The only reason he is trying to distance himelf now, is to try and save his failing campaign. Well, I hope the american people are paying close attention to this and realize that Obama may not be the man that everyone thought. Sure he can give a great speech and mezmerize people when it scripted and rehearsed, but when he on his own, boy does he have trouble. Look back at the last debate in Philadelphia. What a disaster? I just don’t think he is the one that america needs to get us out of the mess that we are in.
I guess my questions are not nice enough to post. So i will ask them again Why didn’t OBama get angry when his beloved mentor, like a member of the family, made those ridiculous claims about HIV and this evil plot to infect blacks? Why didn’t he get angry when the good Rev said GD America from the pulpit? Why didn’t he get angry when he accused the rich white man for holding blacks back? Why didn’t he get angry when the pastor insights hatred and anger and reverse racism? Why now?
why did he support him and throw his Grand mother under the bus calling her a typical white racist and now throw his mentor under the bus?
Why now? Why not when America was insulted? I guess all that matters to OBama is Obama.
he is the biggest lair that ever walked on the face of the earth. Obama is nothing more than UBL.
Only God can help us now!
If Sen. Obama sat in his church for 20 years and didn’t hear the message, How can we trust him to set in the White House and know what’s going on?
Rev. Wright said it loud and clear Sen. Obama is a Politician he says what he needs to say to get elected. Sen. Obama claims to be a different kind of Politician a unifier, someone who brings people together. I’m not seeing it that way I have never seen such a divide. Divide in the Democratic Party and racial divide. When I see the surrogates speak on behalf of the candidates I hear Hillary Supporter talk about coming together behind the Party Nominee, I NEVER hear that message from Sen. Obama’s supporters.
Sen. Obama speaks eloquently but I’m only hearing words we need solutions to the tough problems we’re facing. When he speaks those words we need them to be true I’m not seeing the truth I’m seeing someone that’s willing to say or do anything to get the nomination even if its not best for our Country.
Dear Rush, Sean, The Great One Mark, Bob, Laura, and Monica:
I want to start a new O.C. Let’s call this PROJECT MAY-HEM.
I have been carefully observing all the coverage regarding Rev. Wright at the National Press Club and Obama’s response WAY late and I’ve reached one conclusion:
They cooked it up together. This was planned by both of them. They are both second-nature when it comes to fooling crowds of ZEALOTS. You might ask why:
1) the Pennsylvania loss
2) the comments regarding clinging to guns and religion regarding small town folk (elitism) would hurt Obama in the upcoming primaries (the two biggest: NC and IN)
REMEMBER-It all boils down in the month of May.
3) the Ayers controversy and terrorism.
4) since the old issues of Rev. Wright just wouldn’t go away.
The result that benefits Obama after yesterday—PITY for the betrayed parishioner at the hands of his mentor. Now he can pretend they’re enemies and Rev. Wright gets media for his immense ego and he gets a chance to say whatever he likes about this country. Obama, in turn, is allowed to cut him off and rightfully so since he wouldn’t admit to 20 years of attendance and witness such heinous talk.He stays away from the pastor and it’s acceptable now but later on has to pay up the favor by granting him a position somewhere in a cabinet.
Mr Obama colors are coming to light…..he is a politican. I saw all of Rev Wright´s videos online and I thought he truly fulfills the capacity of being a pastor according to his biblical tradition. Instead of sound bytes let us start looking at history which shape the world as it is today.
Sen. Obama cannot explain away 20 years of ignorance. He either knows and supports what his pastor is teaching, or he doesn’t belong to the church.
Any pastor’s teachings set the charactor of the church in which he/she is pastoring. His/her character and beliefs are reflected by the leadership (deacons and elders) and in the written communications that go to the congregation. There is no possible way that the Obama’s didn’t know what the church and therefore Pastor Wright stand for.
His comments make a mockery of church membership in general, and no church member, of any church, is going to buy that he didn’t know and support the message after 20 years of membership.