Democrat Obama "outraged" by former pastor

By Jeff Mason

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, trying to quell a political firestorm that has roiled his presidential campaign, strongly denounced his former pastor on Tuesday and called his racially charged comments "appalling."

The controversy over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been a major stumbling block for the Illinois senator, who is leading New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the state-by-state contest for the party's nomination for the November election.

Obama was forced to address the issue after Wright spoke on Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, where he repeated earlier suggestions that the United States deserved some blame for the September 11 attacks and that the government had had a hand in spreading AIDS to blacks.

"I want to be very clear that, moving forward, Rev. Wright does not speak for me, he does not speak for our campaign," Obama told reporters as he campaigned for the North Carolina vote against Clinton next Tuesday.

"I cannot prevent him from continuing to make these outrageous remarks, 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."

Wright's comments have undercut the campaign of Obama, the son of a white mother and a black father who has based his presidential candidacy on a promise to unite the country after years of sharp political and racial divisions.

Wright had also questioned Obama's honesty, saying he had been pandering to voters when he earlier denounced the pastor's words. "If Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected," Wright said.

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