Obama denounces former pastor

WINSTON-SALEM - To a crowd of 2,500 people at a town-hall meeting here, Sen. Barack Obama portrayed himself Tuesday as the only candidate capable of healing the divisions in the United States and doing something to alleviate the struggles of working-class American families.

But to a small gathering of reporters after that meeting, he not only denounced the incendiary remarks of his former pastor of 20 years, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but also the man himself.

He said his relationship with Wright was greatly damaged.

“I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw (Monday),“ Obama told reporters at the news conference after the town-hall meeting.

Obama’s remarks came the day after Wright, the former pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church of Christ in Chicago, spoke at the National Press Club in Washington and reiterated his belief that the federal government created AIDS as a way to infect and kill black people, and he defended his relationship with Louis Farrakhan, the polarizing leader of the Nation of Islam.

“This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright,“ Wright told the Washington media on Monday. “It has nothing to do with Sen. Obama. It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition.“

Obama is trying to tamp down the growing fury over Wright and his remarks, which threaten to envelop his campaign in the run-up to the primaries Tuesday in North Carolina and Indiana.

After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted snippets of sermons he made years ago, Wright made three public appearances in four days to defend himself, coming off as combative and colorful and reigniting a controversy that Obama had hoped was dying down.

Obama told reporters that Wright’s comments do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church and more importantly, they do not reflect the kind of positive campaign he has been running. He called the comments destructive.

“The person I saw (Monday) was not the person I met 20 years ago,“ he said of the man who officiated at Obama’s marriage and who baptized his two children.

For weeks, Obama’s presidential campaign has been dogged by the controversy surrounding Wright. Snippets of sermons Wright made several years ago as pastor of Trinity popped up on television and on YouTube earlier this year.

The most famous clip is of Wright saying “God damn America” for its mistreatment of minorities in and its foreign policy. Obama denounced the comments, most famously in a speech on race that he gave in Philadelphia last month. But until Tuesday, he had also defended Wright and Trinity, saying that media accounts did not reflect the man he knew.

During the town-hall meeting here, he did his best to avoid any mention of Wright. He touched briefly on the controversy in response to comments made by a woman who urged the audience to watch journalist Bill Moyer’s recent interview with Wright, which aired Friday on PBS.

Instead, he spent most of his time bashing both Clinton and Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, for what he called quick-fixes to the problems American families face.

He also got an endorsement from Mayor Allen Joines.

“Winston-Salem has had to undergo a lot of change and we still have a lot of change to come to move ourselves to a more successful, more solid economy,“ Joines said. “I believe Barack Obama is the person who can lead the change for Winston-Salem and this country.“

Obama criticized McCain and Clinton for supporting a gas-tax holiday this summer to lighten the economic pressure on people dealing with high gas prices.

“This isn’t an idea to get you through the summer,“ he said. “It’s an idea to get them elected president.“

The McCain campaign quickly responded with a statement.

“Barack Obama doesn’t understand the effect of high gas prices on the American economy,“ said Tucker Bounds, spokesman for the McCain campaign. “Senator Obama voted for a gas-tax reduction before he opposed, he has no plan for relief from record-high gas prices for Americans this summer, and he’s the empty-tank candidate in this race.“

But Obama argued that the better solution would be to invest in clean renewable energy and to stop giving tax breaks to oil companies that continue to rake in profits while gas prices go up.

As the son of a single mother who at times had to subsist on food stamps and a long-time community organizer in Chicago, Obama told the crowd, he understands their struggles.

His message resonated with some. Even before Obama took the stage, audience members chanted “You rock, Obama!“ and “Yes We Can!,“ clapping and sometimes whistling.

Tre Young, 12, asked Obama about how to truly make sure no child is left behind. Tre is a sixth-grader at Hanes Middle School and has been following the campaign, said his mother, Natalie Young. Tre and his mother volunteered for the campaign to attend the town-hall meeting. They went out Saturday to canvass one of their old neighborhoods.

“We’ve been following the campaign, both some of the good and the bad things; Jeremiah Wright, the whole nine yards,“ Natalie Young said. “It’s been a learning experience for him because I told him that my grandmother and my grandparents struggled to vote and it’s important for him to see the whole process and that we get out and vote as African-American people.“

Jeffrey Alan Wilson of Kernersville, who has worked for U.S. Airways for 24 years, wanted to hear Obama speak about rising fuel costs and health care. The fuel costs affect not only his commute to work every day but his industry as well, he said. And he said he’s interested in health care because he has a spinal cord injury.

He liked what he heard and he hopes people go vote.

“A lot of people think the primary is not that important,“ he said. “This year, the primary is very important.“

n Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at .

n Lisa Boone-Wood can be reached at 727-7232 or at .