And Obama Cuts Him Loose...

Just a few hours ago, Obama commented on Reverend Wright's rants yesterday, and basically renounced his former Pastor:

At a news conference in Winston-Salem, N.C., Obama said Wright is exploiting old divisions in a way that is antithetical to his campaign of bridging the racial divide. The comments "give comfort to those who prey on hate," Obama said.

Obama called "ridiculous propositions" Wright's assertions that the US government might have brought AIDS to black neighborhoods, that Louis Farrahkan is one of the greatest voices of the century, and that the US government has conducted terrorism. "There are no excuses," Obama said.

And this:

Obama said Wright's appearance Monday at the National Press Club in Washington was a "show of disrespect to me" and an "insult" to what his campaign is about.

Obama said he was particularly angered that Wright seems to believe that his prior denunciations of Wright's remarks were mere "political posturing." That shows that Wright doesn't know him that well, after all, Obama said.

"I may not know him as well as I thought, either," Obama said.

Indeed. I think, besides the vile rants that Wright spewed forth yesterday, what really got to Obama was the fact that Wright basically called him a phony. He called him a "typical politician," and basically echoed the charge of Obama's critics. Obama had to firmly break with him, although he cannot hide the fact that they had a relationship, which Obama didn't do. Wright has made himself Obama's adversary, and I think Obama has figured that out.