Was very worried about this press conference. However, I'm breathing a sigh of relief. This is obviously both painful and necessary for Obama. Will it put Wright in hi rear-view mirror? I don't know. But this is essential to the viability of his candidacy. We'll see where it goes from here.

I am worried about where Wright takes this from here.

Oh here comes the Republican (and Clinton) smear campaigns.

What kind of judgment does Barack Obama possess if he is unable to decipher thoughtful ministers from American hating activists.

Won't fly Barry-O. Too late, you had your chance and missed it. Meltdown.

elon, they were already saying that. Today, Wright (and Sharpton: "grandstand in front of white people") have made it easy for Obama to repudiate being 'too black'. I think they may have done him a favor...

I'll remind so many Obama supporters that they repeatedly said how refreshing it was to hear the honesty of Wright and that he is a good and great man.

And now we have: "I Might Not Know Him As Well As I Thought".

Bad judgment you say?
Twenty years of bad judgment you say?

Clinton is the best coice for the general and the presidency.

He knows very well that cutting gas taxes is idiotic pandering that will help oil companies and not consumers, too bad you're too stupid to know that.

I'm disappointed that he's toeing the Rethug line on Wright, but not surprised. The man IS a politician, after all.

Just wait until Wright's rebuttal. Obama is finished folks. This second wave of Wright doomed him.

Is the snippet from this press conference that you picked for the headline of the post really the most demonstrative of what he said? the vast majority of the speech doesn't deal with maybes and mights, but in clear, emphatic denunciations. sort of misleading, your headline makes it seem like he's still sorting through how he feels about wright.

Per Tweety (MSNBC) Rev. Wright is having a "press conference" this afternoon. What fun!

Enjoy your last bit of laughter, Hillary trolls. Barak just stopped the bleeding in Indiana and North Carolina. Everyone is talking about a Sister Souljah moment. But you don't have to racialize everything. This was a Prince Hal/Falstaff moment. Until yesterday, it wasn't clear what Rev. Wright's true nature was. Once he decided to capitalize on his Obama-inspired notriety with a speaking tour, it was time for the gloves to come off. Most Americans, who are pretty normal and decent folks (which is why they thoroughly distrust Hillary) will get this. It was the perfect move, perfectly timed, and perfectly executed.

There is a sense that many Obama supporters just want to run out the clock and claim victory. They cannot admit their mistake and refuse to pull their support purely out of misplaced pride. They just don't want to admit they were wrong. An understandable sentiment but this is serious business.

If you want a Dem in the White House, now is the time to realize that Clinton is the right choice.

Obama Divorces Wright

That was a very impressive, clear and constructive re-framing of his core message of his candidacy; and a moment given to him by Wright. No one will ever be able to say that Obama threw his father-figure and pastor under the bus. We all know that the reverse happened. We also know that this clear repudiation of Wright's toxic views on AIDS, 9/11 and permanent immiseration of people of color could not have happened unless Wright had made it necessary. Skeptics may wonder whether Wright actually did Obama a favor. I doubt it. But a favor it unintentionally is.

Maybe God does bring good out of bad. Maybe these racial and cultural divides can help us understand how better to move beyond them. Cynics may scoff - and certainly will. They will parse every nuance and try to paint Obama as another cynical, positioning pol. I don't believe it. He has more sincerity and integrity than the vast majority of politicians, more honesty, and more resilience in a very tough spot.

And today, we found that he can fight back, and take a stand, without calculation and in what is clearly a great amount of personal difficulty and political pain. It's what anyone should want in a president.

Good for Obama. He did the right thing. He's not toeing the Republican line. Wright never spoke for Obama. The Right used the Pastor's harsh words to speak for Obama and Obama repudiated that today. This was damage control.

Unfortunately, he's going to have to fight this all the way - the rightwing have nothing but "fear" to play in the race to the WH and they will use this again and again.

Sounds like politics as usual to me.

Barry-O:

“I can no more disown [Wright] than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”

Spot on.

The self-fulfilling prophecy of victimhood. Sharpton and Jackson know it well and now their is Wright.

Obama winning the presidency would blow their con game to pieces.

He has a way with words and I like what Obama said, but I can't help thinking that he's always a day late and a dollar short. He should have separated himself from Wright two years ago when he decided to run for president. He should have known that something like this would happen eventually. There's nothing much that he can do about it now. Saying harsh things about his former black pastor is more likely to lose him black support than it is to win him white votes at this point.

You know, none of this should have happened. It has no bearing on anything, it's personal -

It started with a dishonest sound byte.

I fucking hate every single media outlet in this country.

And every single American who encourages this kind of shit - Jonze.

Way to base a goddamn presidential race on something totally irrelevant.

I had such hopes that America would grow up.

This is still the same smear by association it ever was. Wright is not running for President, and neither is Clinton's crooked brother. Nor McCain's Catholic hating bigoted Pastor.

But Clintonians/Republican Trolls should really ask themselves if they want all future elections to hinge on candidates "vetting" everyone they know and shunning them before running for office?

I have a neighbor who I like very much. He and his wife watch our dogs when we leave town. We often share glasses of wine on nice evenings. They are right wingers who think Muslims are having babies to build up an army against us. Am I somehow supposed to be responsible for that? That's stupid, of course. I willingly associate with them, argue about politics, but still consider them my friends and neighbors. That's just humanity.

The fact that so many "Democrats" (and I use that term loosely around here) suggest that Wright is something I should base my vote on, instead of the many serious problems we're facing as our country is being run into the fucking ground, tells me that you are the real America haters. Loving America means putting aside this trite garbage while there's work to be done. You ignore the real problems at our nation's peril.

Obama will win NC and it will be close in IN.

But even if he did lose both, he'd still be well ahead of Hillary Liar Clinton.

Both Obama and Rev. Wright are brilliant and valuable leaders.

Rev. Wright is defending his ministry and his church from the haters who want to destroy Wright personally and also harm the extensive Christian works of the UCC church simply because the haters are following a vile strategy to destroy Obama politically.

Obama is defending his political candidacy from the raw and unreasoning emotions sparked by the attacks and defenses of the battle that has engaged so much attention.

Both Wright and Obama have much work to do to turn this manufactured crisis into an opportunity for a fuller awareness of what and how divisiveness is fostered, and what needs to be done to handle such divisiveness. Because they are both brilliant and courageous leaders, I think they are the very ones to have a chance to shepherd America toward some healing and healthy breaking up of old entrenched patterns.

And one more thing -

If Hillary gets the nomination and by some strange electronic miracle, wins - don't whine when she's impeached by the Republicans.

If you don't think they'll want to keep their record, think again.

Should be fun - I'll sit on the portal, blaze one up and enjoy the final destruction of the world's longest existing democratic republic.

I just have to go find that guy with the blueberry yum yum...

It's sick and sad that our media culture has made this story into what it is (and btw, the National Press Club event was set up by a Clinton supporter).

MarginalPlayer, you're just about enough to make me drop my previous promise to vote for HRC if she's the Democratic candidate. Enough with the vile hatemongering. You're as bad if not worse than what you purport to condemn. Your candidate has encouraged the hatemongering and division, the very thing that Obama is trying to help end in this country; I'm no longer sure I can stomach voting for her, based on YOU and YOUR COMMENTS HERE. If HRC becomes the nominee (before then, even), do your cause a favor and shut up.

Don't worry I and most African Americans still will not vote for Hillary Clinton.

Read the article and see what happens when African Americans stay home.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/kirsanow200410280838.asp

To me, this represents Obama refusing to partake of the politics of victimization. That isn't just part of the black church that Wright represents but also part of the feminist movement and part of the democratic party as a whole. And it is part of the legacy of the sixties as well and Obama wants to put it behind us. As a boomer I say more power to him. I think there are more folks who agree with him about this than the media is willing to show or admit.

is Andrea Mitchell a closet Hillary supporter?

Totally. Hanging around with Wright for 20 years shows far worse judgment than green-lighting the Iraq war, voting for the bankruptcy bill, promising to obliterate Iran, etc. etc.

Perhaps it is time for Obama supporters to repeat his line, except this time it would be about Obama himself:

"I Might Not Know Him As Well As I Thought"

Clinton is the right choice if you want a Dem in the White House.

Frankly, it's disappointing.

Wright's comments, especially the interview with Moyers, sheds light on what he's actually saying. That Obama essentially caved to the twisted perception promulgated by his opponents saddens me.

Is our country so far gone that biblical teachings (as you sow, so shall you reap) get turned into some vile thing that candidates have to repudiate?

Our country can be better than this. I was hoping Obama would point that out. Instead, rather than owning up to consequences of past actions of our government, the people seem to want to stay in denial and insist there is no blood on our hands.

Maybe Pontius Pilate wouldn't mind sharing that bowl of water with us so we can wash our hands, too.