'Outraged' Obama Blasts Away Ties to Wright

Barack Obama fired back at Jeremiah Wright today, calling his former pastor’s media tour a “spectacle,” and saying his “rants” give “comfort to those who prey on hate.” In all but severing ties with Wright, the Boston Globe reports, Obama said the reverend had done “great damage” to their personal relationship—and added “I may not know him as well as I thought.”

Obama expressed particular anger the pastor called his Philadelphia race address mere “political posturing," further deeming Wright's recent appearances a “show of disrespect to me” and “an insult to what we’ve been trying to do in this campaign." The Democratic front-runner went point-by-point through some of Wright's more extreme claims, calling them "ridiculous propositions." (More Barack Obama stories.)