The Hiller Instinct: Hiller Instinct: Wright controversy

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle."

Barack Obama finally said today what he should have said weeks ago: that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is dead wrong:

"His comments were not only divisive and destructive. I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, " Obama said.

Wright erupted as a campaign issue last month, when excerpts of his sermons seared through the Internet:

"'Not God bless America, God "bleep" America!"

Back then, Obama tried to defend the pastor who officiated at his wedding and baptized his children:

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said.

But Wright has recently re-ignited the controversy surrounding him:

"You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come unto you. Those are Biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic principles."

Now, Obama says, Wright's views don't reflect his own values:

"They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced and that is what I am doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.

But that doesn't mean it's over:

"Reverend Wright does not speak for me, he does not speak for the campaign. I cannot prevent him from continuing to make these outrageous remarks," Obama added.

Reverend Wright has committed a black-on-black political crime...big enough to cost Barack Obama the White House.

Race is--and always has been--an issue in this country, and in this campaign.

Now, anyone who wants to vote against Obama has an easy excuse.

Obama may still win, but he will never lose the political scars Reverend Wright has given him.

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