Obama on Rev. Wright: “He Does Not Speak for Me”

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) speaks during a news conference at Wilmington Airport in Wilmington, N.C., April 28, 2008.

 Sen. Barack Obama wants everyone to know that he is not the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the talkative Rev. Wright does not speak for him.

On a day when his longtime pastor at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ seemed to pop up every five minutes in the mainstream media and the blogosphere, Obama emphasized the distance between them.

"I have said before and I will repeat again that some of the comments that Rev. Wright have made offend me and I understand why they've offended the American people," Obama said in a brief airport tarmac press conference in Wilmington, N.C.

"He does not speak for me," Obama said. "He does not speak for the campaign. He may make statements in the future that don't reflect my values or concerns."

Obama was asked if he felt betrayed by Wright, who played a significant role in Obama's spiritual life for 20 years, performed his wedding and inspired the title of Obama's most recent book, "The Audacity of Hope."

"I just want to emphasize that this is my former pastor," Obama said. "Any of the statements that he's made both to trigger this controversy and that he's made over the last several days are not statements that I've heard him make previously. They don't represent my views. And they don't represent what this campaign's about."

Obama did not mention Wright at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where he spoke and took questions for about 80 minutes. In response to a question about his faith Obama spoke at length, but did not use it as an opening to say yet more about Wright.

No one in the enthusiastic 5,000-person crowd asked him about the controversy, nor did anyone tonight among 1,900 people packed into a high school gym in Wilson. Obama is due to lead a rally later in Chapel Hill inside the Dean Smith Center, better known as the Dean Dome, during his third and final event of the day.

Focusing on the crucial days before the May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, Obama seemed determined to wrench his campaign back to the basic messages that propelled him to a strong lead in pledged delegates. He spoke of moving away from "distortions and distractions."

And he got a standing ovation after telling the crowd that he was determined to move beyond a rough stretch of the campaign that he described as overly negative, not to mention injurious to the health of his candidacy.

"Having politicians bickering back and forth doesn't help you," Obama said. "Having them worrying about superdelegates doesn't help you. This election is not about me. It's not about Senator Clinton. It's not about John McCain. It's about you. It's about your struggles, your hopes and dreams."

The crowd roared.

Obama said that his campaign in recent weeks got "sucked into this whole negative thing. People throw elbows at you. You start feeling like, 'Oh, I got to throw an elbow back,'" Obama said. "I told this to my team, that we are starting to sound like other folks. We're starting to run the same negative stuff and it shows that none of us are immune from this kind of politics."

He added, "For the next nine days, between now and May 6, and the next nine months between now and November, and the next nine years" -- and here he was interrupted by cheers -- "I am going to spend all my time talking about you."

On the tarmac in Wilmington, Obama was asked how he intends to move beyond Wright, with all the attention Wright is getting from the media, as well as from Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.

"What I think is interesting is none of the voters I talk to ask about it," Obama said. "Now, there may be people who are troubled about it and are being polite in not asking me about it. But that's not what I hear from the voters. What I'm hearing is concerns about gas prices. I'm hearing from people concerned about their jobs being shifted overseas."

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