WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday called the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s attacks on the US government “offensive and outrageous” – and chastised Barack Obama for taking so long to condemn his pastor.
“He made his views clear – finally,” Clinton said during an appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel show, referring to Obama’s repudiation of Wright at a press conference Tuesday.
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Clinton’s forceful condemnation of Wright and slap at Obama gave more life to the story, as new polling revealed it could deeply damage Obama’s image as a popular, unifying figure.
Asked about Wright’s bombastic appearance in Washington Monday, Clinton told O’Reilly: “Well, I take offense at it. I think it’s offensive and outrageous.”
She then ridiculed Wright’s support for a conspiracy theory that the US government manufactured the AIDS epidemic to wipe out minorities.
“I sure don’t believe the United States government was behind AIDS,” she said.
Wright also called the Rev. Louis Farrakhan one of the great figures of the 20th and 21st centuries and blamed US “terrorism” for bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I believe our government is capable of doing anything,” he said.
The pastor also suggested that Obama’s denunciations of his controversial remarks last month were insincere, saying that if he didn’t do it, Obama would “never get elected.”
Obama angrily responded Tuesday, saying he was “outraged” by Wright’s comments, which he called “divisive and destructive.”
The controversy has injected new life into the Clinton campaign, as Obama searches for his bearings just days before Tuesday’s primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.
A new Fox/Opinion Dynamics poll catalogs serious damage: Obama’s favorable/unfavorable rating among all voters has dropped from 54 to 33 in February to 47 to 42 – a 16-point turnaround.
In fact, his favorable rating is not much better now than that of Clinton, who has famously high negatives after a life in the public eye. Her rating is 47/46.
Among Democrats, the swing has been even greater, dropping from 73/17 in February to 63/27 now – a 20-point reversal. Clinton’s rating is better among Democrats: She now stands at 73/22.
A stunning 36 percent of Democrats said Obama’s relationship with Wright made them less likely to vote for Obama.
The Illinois senator addressed the issue again yesterday while campaigning in Indiana with his wife, Michelle.
“The situation with Rev. Wright is difficult, I won’t lie to you. We want to make sure this doesn’t become a permanent distraction,” he said.
The Obamas had lunch with an Indiana family, where Michelle Obama described herself as a working mom.
“We are still so close to the lives most Americans are living,” she said.
Clinton made her own appeal to working-class voters, commuting to work with an Indiana factory worker in a pickup truck, and stopping as he filled up the gas tank for $63.
Obama’s camp filed a complaint with the feds against the American Leadership Project, a pro-Clinton group that is spending $700,000 in Indiana on anti-Obama TV ads. Obama’s people argued that the group is breaking election laws.