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WASHINGTON: Barack Obama said Tuesday he was outraged at his fiery
former pastor, casting loose his friend of 20 years in a bid to mend
damage to his White House hopes at a pivotal point of the campaign.
The Democratic Senator flashed with anger as he
denounced comments by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who rocked the
Democratic race when videos of his inflammatory sermons appeared on
YouTube and were picked up by US cable television stations.
In one incendiary video, Wright said black
citizens should not sing “God Bless America” but “God Damn
America” over their treatment by whites. He also said that the
September 11 attacks in 2001 were a payback for US foreign policies
overseas.
“I am outraged by the comments that were made
and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Obama
said, portraying Wright, who made headlines in Washington Monday, as
antithetical to his calls for unity.
Obama’s attempt to quell the drama, at a
surprise press conference, came a week before his next clash with
Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the Indiana and North Carolina
primaries, as their frenetic race reaches its endgame.
“I have known Reverend Wright for almost 20
years,” he said of the man who conducted his marriage and baptized
his two daughters, as he spoke to reporters in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina. “The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I
met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and
destructive but I believe they end up giving comfort to those that
prey on hate.”
“Based on his remarks yesterday, then I might
not know him as well as I thought either.”
Obama addressed a growing furor over Wright
after the preacher carried out a flurry of media appearances over
the weekend.
In a press conference at the National Press Club
in Washington on Monday, Wright said attacks on his comments were
not directed at himself or Obama, but were an attempt to damage the
black Church by people who knew nothing about it.
The row over his comments appears to have
hampered Obama’s attempts to challenge Clinton for the support of
white, working-class conservative voters, and has fanned Republican
attacks which could damage him in a general election.
A new Howey-Gauge poll Tuesday in Indiana, which
votes on May 6, showed Obama locked in a statistical dead heat with
Clinton, leading by 47 to 45 points, well within the four-point
margin of error.
In North Carolina, which votes on the same day,
a Rasmussen poll had the Illinois senator leading Clinton by leading
by 51 to 37 points, in a state he is expected to win.
Obama noted in his press conference that he had
given Wright “the benefit of the doubt” by refusing to disown
him in a major speech on race in Philadelphia in March, and
expressed acute personal disappointment.
“I want to make absolutely clear, that I do
not subscribe to the views he expressed, I believe they are wrong,
they are destructive,” Obama said.
-- AFP
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