(CNN) — Is Barack Obama's former pastor still an issue for voters? We asked West Virginia Democrats whether they think Barack Obama shares the views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Just over 50 percent say Obama does share Wright's controversial views while 47 percent say he does not.

These numbers suggest Wright continues to be an open issue for at least West Virginia Democrats

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Politics is a business of numbers, and the numbers favor Sen. Barack Obama. But they are changing in ways that give Sen. Hillary Clinton some hope, and have dramatically changed how Republicans look at the presidential election.

In a world of so many polls and findings within those polls, a few stand out:

• Six in 10 Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, according to the latest CNN Opinion Research Corp. survey.
• Nearly four in 10 Americans (38 percent) have an unfavorable opinion of Obama in the latest CNN polling — up 10 percentage points from the beginning of the year.
• Half of Americans think a John McCain presidency would bring different policies than the Bush administration.

And in a new Pew Research Center national survey, Clinton's lead among whites who didn't attend college has increased to 40 percentage points from 10 in March.

Read more

A group of black ministers has announced support for Sen. Obama in the wake of the Wright controversy.

CHICAGO (AP) — About two dozen black ministers from the Chicago area say they're behind Barack Obama despite his split from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The ministers said Friday they're speaking out because they believe media attention on Wright has detracted from important issues in the presidential race.

The pastors refused to answer reporters' questions about Wright. They only mentioned that the rift between Wright and Obama has been a distraction ahead of Tuesday's critical Democratic primary in Indiana.

Over the past week, Wright has characterized criticism of his fiery anti-government sermons as an attack on the black church.

Obama has denounced Wright's comments as "divisive and destructive."

CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from the Best Political Team.

(CNN) — A day after Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr's speech at the National Press Club, Sen. Barack Obama decided that Wright is all wrong.

In the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily, Suzanne Malveaux reports on Obama's effort Tuesday to cut his ties with Wright in the hopes of limiting the political fallout from Wright's return to the public spotlight.

Sen. John McCain also laid out his plan for health care reform Tuesday. Dana Bash reports on how the Arizona senator would like to treat the nation's ailing health care system.

Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider has another report about health care. Schneider takes a look at how health care is increasingly becoming an economic issue for voters.

Carol Costello does a reality check on proposals by Sens. McCain and Hillary Clinton to provide a federal gas tax holiday.

Finally, Wolf Blitzer gives you an update about whether Sens. Clinton and Obama stand with the Democratic Party's all-important supderdelegates.

Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.

(CNN) — Barack Obama will hold a press conference Tuesday on Rev. Jeremiah Wright's most recent comments, the Illinois senator said.

Responding to supporter's comments in defense of his former pastor, Obama said would hold a "big press conference" during which he would address the issue.

(CNN) — Barack Obama would not say Monday whether he thought fresh headline-grabbing statements from his former minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, could harm his presidential bid – and continued his effort to distance himself from the pastor’s controversial comments.

“I think certainly what the last three days indicate is that we're not coordinating with him,” he laughed. “He's obviously free to speak his mind, but I just want to emphasize he is my former pastor.

“Many of the statements he made both to trigger this initial controversy, and that he's made over the last couple days are not statements that I heard him make previously. They don't represent my views and they don't represent what this campaign is about. But he's obviously free to make those statements.”

McCain has begun to publicly address the Wright controversy.

MIAMI (CNN) — Despite his newfound willingness to make political hay out of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, John McCain insisted three separate times on Monday he does not believe Barack Obama shares Wright’s “extremist views.”

McCain, campaigning in South Florida, faced a series of questions about Wright from reporters shortly after the pastor made a defiant public appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, in which he defended his church and condemned the national media.

“I’ve said again and again, I do not believe that Sen. Obama shares Rev. Wright’s extremist views which he has stated, whether it be the United States Marine Corps or the flag or what,” McCain said. “I am leaving that issue to a dialogue between Sen. Obama and American people.”

In another press conference held Sunday, McCain broached the topic of Wright unprompted for the first time, despite previous suggestions that the Wright issue would be an out-of-bounds topic in the presidential race.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wright gave a speech at the National Press Club Monday morning.

(CNN) — Barack Obama’s former pastor on Monday said it was not him, but the black church that has been the subject of recent attacks.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, speaking before an audience of 300 at the National Press Club, sought to explain the black religious experience. He said the theology of the black church is a “theology of liberation, it is a theology of transformation and it is ultimately a theology of reconciliation.”

Wright said the black religious tradition, despite its long history, is in some ways “invisible to the dominant culture.”

His remarks came one day after he addressed an audience of 10,000 at the NAACP dinner in Detroit.

Reiterating some of the same points from that dinner, Wright on Monday said “being different does not mean one is deficient – it simply means one is different, like snow flakes.”

Wright said reconciliation means “we embrace our individual rich histories.”

He said this means rooting out “any teaching of superiority, inferiority, hatred or prejudice” and recognizing that each person “is one of God’s children … no better, no worse.”

“Only then will liberation, transformation and reconciliation become realities and cease being ever-elusive ideals,” he said.

Wright is a retired pastor from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, where Obama worships.

Full story

Earlier: Obama's ex-pastor gives fiery speech to NAACP

Huckabee and McCain spoke with reporters Friday on the Straight Talk Express.

(CNN) – Mike Huckabee, a former contender for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, said it would be “a little bit presumptuous to ever assume” that a congregant agrees with everything a pastor says.

“Influential? Sure. Necessarily transferable? Usually not,” Huckabee told a reporter while speaking with the press aboard Sen. John McCain’s campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express.

Huckabee, who was a Baptist pastor before eventually becoming Arkansas’s governor, is campaigning with McCain in Little Rock Friday. The former rivals maintained a cordial relationship before Huckabee ended his presidential bid leaving McCain as the GOP’s presumptive nominee.

Related: Huckabee and McCain do the rounds

Obama held a press conference with reporters Friday.

(CNN) — Barack Obama said Friday he expected the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to take issue with his recent denouncement of Wright's past sermons.

"I understand he may not agree with me on my assessment of his comments, that’s to be expected," Obama told reporters Friday at a press conference. "He is obviously free to express his opinions on these issues. I have expressed mine very clearly."

Obama's comments follow recent remarks from Wright in a PBS interview to be aired Friday night. According to released excerpts, Wright did not back away from his controversial comments, and said of Obama, “He goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician.”

“I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God,” Wright also said.

Earlier: Wright breaks silence, says attacks 'unfair'

Wright says his sermons have been taken out of context.

(CNN) – In Jeremiah Wright's first television interview since clips of his controversial sermons circulated the Internet, Barack Obama's former pastor says his words were unfairly taken out of context for 'devious' reasons.'

In an interview on PBS set to air Friday, Wright expressed frustration with how his sermons had been portrayed by the news media and critics of Obama's White House bid.

“I felt it was unfair,” he told PBS' Bill Moyers according to released excerpts. “I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt that those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious reasons.”

Some of Wright's past sermons came under fire after a news report turned some of his most contentious comments into a YouTube phenomenon last month. In one, the minister said America had brought the September 11 attacks upon itself. In another, he said Clinton had an advantage over Obama because she is white. He also accused the U.S. government of adopting policies to systematically oppress African-Americans. (Listen to some of Wright's sermons via Roland Matin's blog)

Obama immediately rejected the comments, though critics charged the Illinois senator should have denounced the minister long ago. In a widely-praised speech on race relations, Obama said he could no more disown Wright than "I can disown the black community."

Speaking to PBS, Wright did not recant his past sermons. "The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly," he said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Obama's former pastor preached a sermon at a Virginia church Sunday but did not mention the Illinois senator.

NORFOLK, Virginia (AP) — Barack Obama's retired pastor has made his first public appearance since the furor over his remarks criticizing the United States. He said nothing about the Democratic presidential candidate or the uproar itself.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright preached Sunday at a Baptist church in Norfolk, Va., where his late uncle had been the pastor.

He delivered a sermon on the topic of overcoming trouble.

Wright never mentioned Obama, who worships at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Wright had been the longtime pastor.

Wright touched on the controversy just briefly when he told the Virginia congregation that reporters sneaked into a private funeral service on Saturday in Chicago, where he delivered the eulogy.

CHICAGO (AP) — Thousands have gathered at a Chicago church to honor the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor who's been at the center of a media storm since snippets of his sermons showed him denouncing America for allegedly racist and genocidal acts.

Wright was honored at Trinity United Church of Christ, where he still serves as senior pastor. Barack Obama is a member of that church. After Wright's comments, Obama sharply condemned some of the remarks but didn't leave the church or repudidate the minister himself.

At last night's ceremony, friends and colleagues called Wright a hero who has "fought the fight." He didn't speak during the
two-hour service. He hasn't spoken publicly since the controversy over his sermons started.

Rep. Lewis sung and locked hands with Sen. Obama at a church service in Selma, Alabama last year.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, Democrat-Georgia, said Sunday that the controversy over Barack Obama's former pastor has reignited a conversation about race that could ultimately be beneficial for the country.

"The civil rights movement had the power to…what I call bring the dirt, the filth from under the American rug out of the cracks and corners, into the light so we can deal with it," said Lewis, a superdelegate who supports Obama, at a forum on faith and civil rights at Washington's National Cathedral. "Just maybe, just maybe, what is happening now will bring something out, so we all can be educated and sensitized."

While he did not mention Wright by name during a sermon he gave at the cathedral, Lewis indirectly addressed the Chicago pastor's fiery comments on race.

"During the past few days, the issue of race and the need for reconciliation have emerged through the presidential campaign. We know, and we all know, it's not a secret America had a dark past of division and separation," Lewis said. "But if we are to emerge unscarred by hate, we must learn to understand and forgive those who have been most hostile and violent towards us."

Full story

–CNN's Rachel Streitfeld and Cody Combs

Video clips of some of Rev. Wright's sermons caused an uproar and Obama responded by giving a speech about race relations in America.

CHICAGO (AP) — Barack Obama's controversial former pastor got a big round of applause last night during a surprise appearance before a congregation in Chicago.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright showed up for an event to celebrate poet Maya Angelou's birthday at Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church.

Video shows the surprised audience giving him a standing ovation.

The pastor of Saint Sabina says he invited Wright because Wright is a fan of Angelou's.

Wright gave the benediction, followed by more applause, and did not speak about the Democratic presidential hopeful.

Wright had canceled several public events following an uproar over incendiary comments about the U.S. and it's historic treatment of blacks.

Obama has condemned Wright's remarks denouncing America for allegedly racist and genocidal acts.

Watch parts of Obama’s interview on “The View”

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama says in an interview scheduled to air on TV Friday that he would have left his church if his pastor had not retired and had not acknowledged making comments that "deeply offended people."

Obama talked about the dispute as it continued to brew over some of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons and comments, which many viewed as anti-American and racist toward whites.

Bulletins from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ in 2007 include comments — reprinted from other sources — that maintain South Africa and Israel worked on "an ethnic bomb that kills blacks and Arabs." They also quote a historian who said that "what the Zionist Jews did to the Palestinians is worse than what the Nazis did to the Jews."

The articles appeared in a church bulletin section called the "Pastor's Page," and include one that originally ran in The Los Angeles Times. That article was written by a senior official with Hamas, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization.

Full story

Video clips of some of Wright's sermons have caused an uproar.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, has canceled his plans to speak at church services in Houston, Texas, this weekend in the wake of the recent uproar over portions of his past sermons.

Video clips of those sermons caused a public stir this month after being widely circulated on the Internet.

The clips in question include several racially charged statements and accusations the U.S. government has adopted policies to systematically oppress African-Americans.

Full story

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Clinton criticized Obama's pastor Tuesday, her first direct comments on the matter. (AP Photos)

(CNN) — Hillary Clinton would have long disassociated herself from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright if she was a member of his church, the Democratic presidential candidate said Tuesday — the first time she or her campaign has commented directly on the issue that has swirled around rival Barack Obama's campaign in recent weeks.

"I think given all we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor," Clinton said in a press conference in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The comments came hours after the New York senator made similar comments to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in an editorial board interview. (Watch Clinton's comments)

"You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend," she told the paper. Clinton also repeated those remarks in the press conference.

An Obama campaign spokesman said Clinton's comments were part of a "transparent effort to distract attention away from the story she made up about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia."

“The truth is, Barack Obama has already spoken out against his pastor’s offensive comments and addressed the issue of race in America with a deeply personal and uncommonly honest speech," Obama Campaign Press Secretary Bill Burton said. "The American people deserve better than tired political games that do nothing to solve the larger challenges facing this country."

– CNN's Alexander Mooney and Peter Hamby

Sen. Obama spoke in Philadelphia last week about the controversy surrounding some of his former pastor's comments. (Getty Images)

CHICAGO (AP) — The new pastor of Barack Obama's Chicago church said during Easter Sunday services that recent national scrutiny of the church is a test that will only make the congregation stronger.

"Any time you go through a crucifixion experience … eventually they have to lift you up," said the Rev. Otis Moss III, who did not shy away from the controversy surrounding his predecessor at Trinity United Church of Christ, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

Wright retired from Trinity's pulpit last month but retains the title of senior pastor. Video from some of his more inflammatory sermons has surfaced online and on television in recent weeks.

Moss said Sunday that Wright's critics and the news media "are just lifting us up to give us the opportunity to speak love to this situation."

Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate, has responded to the flap by condemning Wright's statements but expressing admiration and support for the pastor who officiated at his wedding, baptized his two daughters and inspired the title of his best-selling book, "The Audacity of Hope."

In a speech last week that took the country's racial divide head-on, Obama — the son of a white woman from Kansas and a Kenyan father — said black anger persists over injustice in America, and whites shouldn't be surprised about the way it's expressed in sermons.

"The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning," Obama said.

Obama did not attend the Easter Sunday service.

Read the rest of this entry »

Obama will deliver a speech on race and politics Tuesday.

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Far from putting the controversial issue of race behind him, Barack Obama has decided to address the issue head on in a speech Tuesday.

"I am going to be talking not just about Reverend Wright, but the larger issue of race in this campaign — which has ramped up over the last couple of weeks," Obama told reporters in Monaca, Pennsylvania.

Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod characterized the speech, to be delivered in Philadelphia, as "a discussion on race and politics."

"Given the events of the last few weeks, Obama felt it was time to address the issue of race and politics directly, and what it means in our country," Axelrod said.

News of the speech comes days after the Illinois senator formally denounced controversial sermons delivered by his former minister and longtime friend, Jeremiah Wright. The racially-charged remarks came under fire after being the subject of an ABC News report last week.

Axelrod described the Illinois senator as "a force for reconciliation" and said he wants the opportunity "to put this into context."

Speaking with reporters, Obama said the media is portraying Wright inaccurately.

"I think the caricature that is being painted of him is not accurate, and so part of what I will do tomorrow is to talk about how these issues are perceived from within the black church community for example which I think skews this very differently."

UPDATE: Axelrod later told CNN's Gloria Borger that the Illinois senator has "always contemplated giving a speech like this."

“He will address the broader questions of race and politics, these are complex issues that transcend Barack Obama, and are fault lines in our politics and society, and, ultimately, can be a barrier…They’re easily exploited, and hard to address," he said.

(Updated with Obama comments)

– CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux and Mike Roselli contributed to this report