Voters don’t often bring up Jeremiah Wright at Barack Obama’s events, but today one did. “I was sick to death of the sound bites of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, “ a woman commented at a town hall meeting in Winston-Salem, NC. In response, Obama would only say on the matter, “I’m going to be having a big press conference afterwards to talk about this so I don’t want to distract from this issue.”

True to his word, following the event, Obama took the podium in front of members of the press corps. “I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That’s in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That’s who I am. That’s what I believe. That’s what this campaign has been about,” he began. “I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” he said of his former pastor’s engagement at the National Press Club Monday.

Following the Press Club event yesterday, Obama held a hastily arranged media avail in front of his waiting plane on a North Carolina tarmac, where he reiterated his previous opposition to his former pastor’s statements. But that was before he read the transcript or watched Wright’s defiant performance.

Today, for nearly 30 minutes, the candidate addressed the deeply personal matter that has become a very public issue in this race, using his strongest language yet and made it clear that his 20-year relationship with the man he once likened to a “crazy uncle” was no longer going to be part of the family. Today, for the first time, he admitted, “There’s been great damage. It may have been unintentional on his part, but you know I do not see that relationship being the same after this.”

While Obama has previously defended Wright for the snippets of audio that were looped on television as painting a “caricature” of the pastor, today Obama did not excuse him. “Yesterday I think he caricatured himself, and that was as I said, that made me angry but also made me sad,” he said. “There wasn’t anything constructive out of yesterday. All it was was a bunch of rants that that aren’t grounded in truth.”

Wright’s appearance at the Press Club seems to be the last straw for Obama. “I’ve known Rev. Wright for almost 20 years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. 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. They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs and if Rev Wright thinks that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, well I may not know him as well as I thought either,” he said.

When asked if he would continue to be a member of Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama acknowledged his relationship with his church had been strained as a result of the spectacle that’s been a result of Wright’s comments. “When I go church it’s not for spectacle, it’s to pray and to find to find a stronger sense of faith, it’s not to posture politically. It’s not to hear things that violate my core beliefs and so you know and I certain don’t want to provide a distraction to those who are worshipping at Trinity. As of this point I’m a member. I haven’t had a discussion with Reverend [Otis] Moss (the current minister) about it so I can’t tell you how he’s reacting and how he’s responding.”

Watch Obama’s opening remarks at his Winston-Salem press avail here:

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On a noisy, windy tarmac in Wilmington, North Carolina, Barack Obama took a few minutes to address his traveling press corps - despite running more than an hour behind schedule. “I wanted to make sure that I made myself available for you guys briefly. We’re running about an hour late, but obviously since Reverend Wright had his Press Club event today, I assume you guys wanted a response or a reaction of some sort,” he said, standing in front of his campaign plane, jets noisily running.

“Yeah,” someone in the gaggle responded.

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“I have said before and I will repeat again that what some of the comments that Reverend Wright have made offend me, and I understand why they’ve offended the American people. He does not speak for me. He does not speak for the campaign, and so he may make statements in the future that don’t reflect my values or concerns,” he said. Instead, Obama said his intention was to focus on the issues important to the American people along the campaign trail.

In the middle of his response, a helicopter rudely landed nearby, causing the senator to pause and smile. “Alright anyway, so I’m gonna take three questions and then we gotta go,” he declared.

When asked if he felt betrayed by his former pastor, Obama laughed. “What the last 3 days indicate is that we’re not coordinating with him. He’s obviously free to speak his mind,” he observed.

How will he handle the Wright issue going forward? Obama noted that most of the voters he’s met along the campaign trail have not been asking him about Reverend Wright, but about issues like the economy, gas prices, and health care. Since the Wright scandal, only a few questioners have asked Obama about his former pastor out of hundreds of questions fielded - not including those from reporters, of course.

“I think people will understand that I am not perfect and that, you know, there are gonna be, you know, folks in my past like Reverend Wright that may cause them some concern but that ultimately, you know, my 20 years of service and the values that I’ve written about and spoken about and promoted are their values, and what they’re concerned about and that’s what this campaign has been about and what it’s going to continue to be about,” he said.