Obama criticizes, rejects pastor in damage control

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

April 30, 2008

WASHINGTON - Seeking to stanch political wounds inflicted by his longtime pastor, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama yesterday sharply criticized the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, calling his comments on race "ridiculous propositions," "outrageous remarks" and "a bunch of rants."

At a news conference in Winston-Salem, N.C., called to address Wright's controversial appearance at the National Press Club here Monday, an angry Obama said, "I'm outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday."

Forced to once again address an issue he had hoped he had put to rest, Obama and his supporters tried to limit the damage Wright might have done in the week before the crucial Indiana and North Carolina Democratic primaries next Tuesday.

But supporters of his rivals, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican John McCain, predicted Obama would not be able to shake questions about his judgment for his ties to Wright, who officiated Obama's wedding and baptized his children.

Wright, who recently retired from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, had kept quiet after an uproar over videos of his sermons alleging racist and genocidal acts against blacks by the U.S. government. But he repeated many of those charges in three appearances in the past week.

After giving Wright the benefit of the doubt while denouncing his views in a speech on race last month, Obama said he was "shocked and surprised" by the "offensive" comments and yesterday appeared to break with his pastor personally. "The person I saw yesterday is not the person that I had come to know over the past 20 years," Obama said. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate."

That divisiveness, Obama said, strikes at the heart of his campaign, which he said he started "with the idea that the problems that we face in this country are too great to continue to be divided."

Obama specifically rejected Wright's contentions that the U.S. government had spread AIDS to wipe out blacks and that Black Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has called Judaism a "gutter religion," is one of the greatest voices of the century.

And Obama took umbrage at Wright's accusations Monday that he had not meant it when he previously denounced the pastor's statements and that he needed to do so otherwise "he would not ever get elected." "That's a show of disrespect to me," Obama said, and "an insult to what we've been trying to do in this campaign."

In turn, Obama dismissed Wright's assertion that the attacks were not on himself but on the black churches.

Obama called Wright a distraction from his campaign, but when asked about his impact next Tuesday, he said, "We'll find out."

Jay Jacobs, the Nassau County Democratic leader and a Clinton supporter, said he thinks Wright hurts Obama. "I've seen it as an issue of judgment," not race, Jacobs said. "What people want in a president is someone who steps up quickly and clearly and reacts swiftly," he said, "and that's not what we've seen."

But Obama supporters said he hit the right tone yesterday. "I would have liked to have seen it earlier," said Long Island Obama chair Jon Cooper, a Suffolk legislator. "But it's a strong, powerful and obviously heartfelt reaction to the Rev. Wright's comments."

Added State Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Harlem), a leading Obama supporter in the state, "Clearly it has been a distraction, to say the least. Fortunately, today he stood up and refocused us."

IN THEIR WORDS

OBAMA on WRIGHT

MARCH 14

"If I had heard Rev. Wright making these statements when I was in the pews," Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times, "I would have talked to him afterwards and said, 'I am very troubled by these statements.'" But, noting that Wright was retiring, Obama said he had no plans to leave Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ: "He's like an uncle you love and respect but has lately said some things that you disagree with."

YESTERDAY

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama said of Wright's appearance Monday before the National Press Club in Washington. "The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago."

WRIGHT on OBAMA

APRIL 25

Speaking on "Bill Moyers Journal," Wright said he understood when Obama denounced his remarks: "I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bites, he responded as a politician."

APRIL 28

Talking about Obama's speech in Philadelphia in March that criticized the pastor as divisive, Wright said, "If Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would not ever get elected. Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability ..."