Following a week of controversy over statements from his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and distancing himself from Wright, Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama is hoping that the effect on his campaign is not as detrimental as many may predict.

If his picking up of one of rival Hillary Clinton’s supporters, superdelegate Joe Andrew, is anything to go by, the Illinois senator may not be that bad off. However, the most recent CNN poll shows Obama at 46 percent and Clinton at 45 percent in the national polls – a big decline for Obama who was at 52 percent in mid-March. Clinton’s number remains the same, which suggests that even though Obama has lost ground, she has not gained any.

Another interesting finding is that about two thirds of Democratic voters say they are not affected by the Rev. Wright controversy, and only 19 percent said it had made Obama less favorable.

In the upcoming Indiana and North Carolina primaries, a CNN poll is showing Obama and Clinton is a 45 percent tie, with 10 percent unsure and a North Carolina poll showed Obama leading Clinton by 7 points, from a double digit lead he enjoyed last month.

North Carolina and Indiana, which vote on May 6, could play the role of deciding who stays and who goes in the flagging democratic primary, which many Democrats and other voters are saying has gone on too long and has become way too negative.

Obama distances himself

Wright, the retired pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, has been a major setback to Obama’s campaign since his soundbites were circulated ad infinitum in the media, but escalated after the Rev. attempted to defend himself publicly. He appeared at three speaking engagements, one before the National Press Club, which drove Obama to further distance himself from the pastor and his remarks.

Obama said, “At a certain point if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally ….. and then questions whether or not you believe it …. then that's enough."

Wright had said in the nationally televised event, that Obama did what he had to do as a politician when he renounced his statements.

Wright also told Press Club members that criticism surrounding his fiery sermons wasn’t an attack on him but an attack on the Black church. He said the black religious tradition, despite its long history, is in some ways "invisible to the dominant culture." It was this dominant culture that criticized his preaching style as too aggressive, bombastic and controversial, but but Wright said his style was misunderstood; it is only different and a part of the Black church tradition.
"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama told reporters on Tuesday. He said that Wright's comments did not accurately portray the perspective of the Black church. "The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," Obama said of the man who married him to his wife Michelle, and baptized their two daughters.

In a highly publicized speech on race made in Philadelphia last month, in response to media exposure of segments of Wright’s fiery sermons, Obama sharply condemned Wright's remarks, but did not repudiate him as a person. Then, he referred to Wright as being like a family member.

However, on Tuesday, Obama said when Wright stated and “then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS. ... There are no excuses. They offended me. They rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced.

The emergence of Reverend Wright, pundits think, contributed to Obama’s loss to Clinton in Pennsylvania, on April 22.