By Mike Manzoni and Samuel Rubenfeld
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) severed ties with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., on Tuesday, one day after Wright addressed the National Press Club, calling Obama’s beliefs into question and affirming charges that the United States has caused the AIDS virus and was responsible in the Sept. 11 attacks, among other indictments.
Obama’s remarks at a press conference in Winston-Salem, N.C., were markedly different from the initial comments he made last month in Philadelphia, where he refused to condone the controversial preacher after his 20-year-long relationship to Wright became public.
“The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago,” 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, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church.”
At recent appearances by Wright, including an interview on PBS and an address Sunday at the NAACP in Detroit as well as his visit to the National Press Club in Washington, he has said the U.S. government invented the AIDS virus as a means of genocide against minorities.
“Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything,” Wright said.
Obama shot back at his former pastor, forcefully denouncing him.
“But what I do want him to be very clear about… is that when I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything that I’m about and who I am,” Obama told reporters at the press conference.
“When he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st centuries, when he equates the United States wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses,” Obama said.
On Wednesday afternoon, The New York Times reported that the Obama campaign will file a legal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against a pro-Clinton group called The American Leadership Project for violating election law. The group is registered as a 527, named for the portion of the tax code that deals with such groups, and it can accept unlimited donations from donors it must name in Internal Revenue Service filings, provided it does not coordinate with a campaign.
The American Leadership Project has been running ads praising Clinton and criticizing Obama in primary states, the Obama campaign said, calling the group “Swift Boat Wannabees” in a conference call on Wednesday.
The surge in crude oil prices found its way into the presidential campaign this week as Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) aligned herself with presumptive Republican nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.), calling for the government excise tax on gasoline to be suspended for the summer.
Clinton proposed suspending the tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, but Sen. Barack Obama dismissed the proposal as a political tactic ahead of next Tuesday’s crucial primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.
Meanwhile, McCain said he supports the temporary moratorium of the gas tax, but rejects Clinton’s idea to enact legislation to pay for the plan by imposing tax-windfalls on companies.
Clinton spent Wednesday morning “commuting” with a sheet metal worker, who drove his boss’ white Ford pickup so Clinton’s travel aide and a Secret Service officer could sit in the car with them on their way to work. The vehicle needed gas, and she paid $63.67 to fill the 16.9 gallon tank, which she did not pump, at a Marathon gas station in South Bend, Ind.-the station was closed for an hour for 30 reporters to capture the 10-van motorcade following the vehicle with Clinton in it, according to a post on The New York Times Caucus blog.
Campaigning across Indiana and North Carolina over the past week, both Democratic candidates scored three more endorsements, from superdelegates who will likely decide the nominee.
Clinton was endorsed by Pennsylvania AFL-CIO president Bill George and Puerto Rico superdelegate Luisette Cabanas on Wednesday. She picked up the support of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley and Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton over the weekend.
“It’s time for somebody to be in the White House who understands the challenges we face in this country,” Easley, a former supporter of John Edwards, said at a rally in Raleigh. “I’ve been accused of being persistent, and down right aggravating…but this lady right here makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.”
Obama was endorsed yesterday by California Rep. Lois Capps, the mother-in-law of Obama’s press secretary, Bill Burton. He was also backed by Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), Iowa superdelegate Richard Machacek and Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.).
The Democratic party has 796 superdelegates going to the convention in Denver in August, and fewer than 300 have not chosen a candidate.
Two polls were released Wednesday evening, which both show Obama with a slight lead nationally. The NBC/Wall Street Journal has Obama leading Clinton 46 percent to 43 percent, and the CBS/New York Times poll has him leading Clinton 46 percent to 38 percent.
This story was supplemented by reports from multiple news services.