Tales from the Trail

INDIANAPOLIS – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Sunday it was time to move beyond the controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

 ”We should definitely move on,” the New York senator said in response to an audience member’s question on the ABC television program “This Week.”

“We should move on because there’s so many important issues facing our country that we have to attend to.”

Wright, who presided over the Illinois senator’s wedding and baptized his children, has dominated the news in recent weeks after repeating his position that the United States deserved some blame for the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and had created AIDS to harm black people.

Obama broke with the minister last week, calling his comments “outrageous.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Barack Obama sought to distance himself further Friday from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, telling a North Carolina rally that comments by his former pastor that have been  described as ”crazy” should not be used to judge his candidacy.

Obama has said his presidential bid was damaged by a recent series of public appearances by Wright, in which the pastor repeated earlier charges the Sept. 11 attacks were retribution for U.S. foreign policy and that the U.S. government had a hand in spreading AIDS to blacks.

But the Illinois senator, locked in a battle for the Democratic nomination with Sen. Hillary Clinton, said earlier on Friday in Indianapolis he would leave it to the pollsters to analyze the extent of the impact from the Wright flap on his campaign.
Obama broke publicly with his longtime pastor earlier this week when he called a news conference to criticize Wright’s remarks as “outrageous” and “appalling.”

Barack Obama says his campaign for U.S. president clearly has suffered damage from a series of controversies over the past few weeks, but he is trying to move forward without “obsessing” over the setbacks.

Obama says public comments by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, calling the Sept. 11 attacks retribution for U.S. policy and blaming the U.S. government for the spread of AIDS would no doubt be a factor in some voters minds.

But he said he would leave it to pollsters to analyze the extent of the impact.

“We’ve had a rough couple of weeks. I won’t deny that,” Obama told reporters. “I don’t think that what happened with Rev. Wright was helpful,” said the Illinois senator who forcefully denounced the minister’s rhetoric earlier this week.