Q: Senator, I'm wondering -- to sort of follow on Jeff's question about why it's different now -- have you heard from some of your supporters, you know, do you have supporters who expressed any alarm about what this might be doing to the campaign?
Obama: Look, I mean, I don't think that it's that hard to figure out from if it was just a purely political perspective. You know, my reaction has more to do with what I want this campaign to be about and who I am. And I want to make certain that people understand who I am. You know, in some ways what Reverend Wright said yesterday directly contradicts everything that I've done during my life. It contradicts how I was raised and the setting in which I was raised. It contradicts my decisions to pursue a career of public service. It contradicts the issues that I've worked on politically. It contradicts what I've said in my books. It contradicts what I said in my convention speech in 2004. It contradicts my announcement. It contradicts everything that I've been saying on this campaign trail. And what I tried to do in Philadelphia was to provide a context and to lift up some of the contradictions and complexities of race in America of which, you know, Reverend Wright is a part, and we're all a part, and try to make something constructive out of it. But there wasn't anything constructive out of yesterday. All it was was a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in truth. And you know, I can construct something positive out of that. I can understand it. I, you know, the -- you know, the people do all sorts of things and, as I said before, I continue to believe that Reverend Wright has been a leader in the South Side. I think that the church he built is outstanding. I think that he has preached in the past some wonderful sermons. He provided, you know, valuable contributions to my family. But at a certain point, if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally, and then he questions whether or not you believe it in front of the National Press Club, then that's enough. That's a show of disrespect to me. It's -- it is also, I think, an insult to what we've been trying to do in this campaign.
Q: Did you discuss with your wife after having seen Reverend Wright?
Obama: Yeah, she was similarly angered. Joe?
Q: Reverend Wright said it's not an attack on him but an attack on the black church. First of all, do you agree with that? Second of all, the strain of theology that he preached, black liberation theology, can you explain something about the anger and the sentiments, how important a strain is liberation theology and why --
Obama: Well, the -- first of all, in terms of liberation theology, I'm not a theologian. So I think to some theologians there might be some well-worked-out theory of what constitutes liberation theology versus non-liberation theology. I went to church and listened to sermons, and in the sermons that I heard -- and this is true, I do think, across the board in many black churches -- there is an emphasis on the importance of social struggle, the importance of striving for equality and justice and fairness, a social Gospel. So a lot of people would, rather than using a fancy word like that, simply talk about preaching the social Gospel and that -- there's nothing particularly odd about that. Dr. King, obviously, was the most prominent example of that kind of preaching. But you know, what I do think can happen, and I didn't see this as a member of the church, but I saw it yesterday, is when you start focusing so much on the plight of the historically oppressed that you lose sight of what we have in common, that it overrides everything else, that we're not concerned about the struggles of others because we're looking at things only through a particular lens, then it doesn't describe properly what I believe in the power of faith to overcome but also to bring people together. Now, you had a first question that I don't remember.
Q: do you think [inaudible]
Obama: You know, I did not -- I did not view the initial round of sound bites that triggered this controversy as an attack on the black church. I viewed it as a simplification of who he was, a caricature of who he was. And, you know, more than anything, something that piqued a lot of political interest. I didn't see it as an attack on the black church. I mean, probably the only aspect of it that probably had to do with specifically the black church is the fact that some people were surprised when he was shouting. I mean, that is just a black church tradition. And so I think some people interpreted that as somehow, wow, he's really hollering and black preachers holler, and so that, I think, showed a cultural gap in America. The sad thing is that, although the sound bites I, as I stated, I think, created a caricature of him, and when he was in that [Bill] Moyers interview, though there were some things that, you know, continued to be offensive, at least there was some sense of rounding out the edges. Yesterday, I think he caricatured himself and that was -- as I said, that made me angry, but also made me sad. Richard?
Q: [inaudible] talk about giving the benefit of the doubt or the Philadelphia speech and trying to create something close to that. Did you consult with him before the speech or after the speech in Philadelphia to get his reaction?
Obama: I tried to talk to him before the speech in Philadelphia. Wasn't able to reach him, because he was on a -- he was on a cruise. He had just stepped down from the pulpit. When he got back, I did speak to him and the -- you know, I prefer not to share sort of private conversations between me and him. I will talk to him perhaps someday in the future. But what I can say is that I was very clear that what he had said in those particular snippets I found objectionable and offensive. And that the intention of the speech was to provide context for them but not to excuse them because I found them inexcusable.
Q: On Sunday you were asked to respond [inaudible]
Obama: There's been great damage. You know, I -- it may have been unintentional on his part, but, you know, I do not see that relationship being the same after this. Now, to some degree, you know, I know that one thing that he said was true was that he was never my, quote/unquote spiritual advisor, he was never my spiritual mentor, he was my pastor. And so to some extent how, you know, the press characterized in the past that relationship, I think, was inaccurate. But he was somebody who was my pastor and married Michelle and I and baptized my children and prayed with us when we announced this race. And so, you know, I'm disappointed. All right? Thank you, guys.
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