Barack Obama told reporters the day his former pastor spoke at the National Press Club that voters don’t ask him about Reverend Wright on the campaign trail. “What I think is interesting is nobody, none of the voters I talk to ask about it. Now there may be people who are troubled by it and are being polite and not asking about it, but that’s not what I hear from the voters,” he said in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Yesterday, after he watched Wright’s performance himself, Obama held an extensive media avail on the issue, hoping to nip the problem in the bud (or in this case, full on blossom) once and for all. But just one day later, a voter at an event in Indianapolis brought up Reverend Wright at a forum meant to focus on middle class tax cuts.
“Recently you have been forced to basically turn your back on someone who had been a good friend for a long time and I wonder if you could tell us how much of a toll this takes on you to be forced by attacks sometimes unfair attacks on people to have to turn your back on people who have been good to you in the past,” a middle-aged voter asked the candidate.
“The situation with Reverend Wright was difficult, I won’t lie to you,” Obama began. “He’s somebody who married us, he baptized our children – he’s done good things in terms of building the church, but frankly what he said over the last few days and in some of the sermons that have been excerpted were unacceptable and weren’t things that we believed in or cared about or cared to believe in. I’ve made a statement yesterday that was hard to make but it was I believed, and what we want to do now tho is to make sure that this doesn’t continue to be a perpetual distraction,” he said with Michelle at his side.
He acknowledge this kind of scrutiny of people who are “tangentially” associated with you is “part of the job when you’re running for president,” but then said it’s unfortunate. Downplaying his relationship with his former pastor of twenty years, Obama continued, “‘Cause most of us in our lives – we meet people, we know people – some people we work with or we sit on a board with – we don’t really go vet them and find out all the terrible things they might have done ‘cause you know we don’t know – or what they said to see if it’s politically correct,” he said, but then noted it’s important for the American people to “know who I am and what my values are and what I stand for, and I don’t stand for some of the things Reverend Wright said.”
It’s time to get back to the issues, he said, clearly wanting to move beyond what has plagued his campaign for months. “We want to get back to talking about you. This campaign’s not about me – it’s not about John McCain, it’s not about Hillary Clinton – it’s about you and your struggles and your dreams and I don’t want to continue to play the same politics that we’ve been doing for the last eight years where you just have this back and forth, tit-for-tat, trying to dig up dirt on other people, trying to you know, call each other names and not get anything done,” he said.
When Obama asked his wife if she had anything to add, she declined the microphone. Obama laughed, “You do, but….Remember there are a lot of reporters around though.”
With the focus of the election focusing on Reverend Wright and not the issues, it’s no wonder that just before the question came up, Michelle noted her distaste for politics. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to convince him not to be a politician. It’s like, ‘teach, write, sing, dance – I don’t care what you do, just don’t do this! these people are mean. It’s like no!’” she said with a laugh.
