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Last week we saw the first ad of the campaign cycle linking Barack Obama and his controversial former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is once again making headlines today.

This week brings the second such spot. This new ad, like the last one, uses the Wright/Obama connection to attack a local Democrat. This time around, it's House candidate Travis Childers of Mississippi, who, the ad notes, was "endorsed by liberal Barack Obama."

“...when Obama’s pastor cursed America, blaming us for 9/11, Childers said nothing," an announcer says in the spot. "When Obama ridiculed rural folks for clinging to guns and religion, Childers said nothing. Travis Childers – he took took Obama’s endorsement over our conservative values. Conservatives just can’t trust Travis Childers.”

Watch it:

Whether you think he’s right or wrong, the public speaking tour by Barack Obama’s former preacher Jeremiah Wright is going to dominate the political discussion heading into a very pivotal week in the presidential campaign. And there are few positives for Obama’s campaign to be found in that reality.

In a combative appearance at the national press club this morning, Wright provided more ammunition for critics who contend that his brand of theology is divisive at best, troubling at worst. In his prepared remarks, Wright contended that such criticisms were not an attack on himself or Obama’s campaign but on what he called the “black church.”

And he did nothing to distance himself from earlier comments that have been looped and replayed over and over again. He praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as an important voice for black Americans while insisting that he did not agree with everything the controversial leader has said. Wright described Sunday mornings as the most segregated time in the nation, blasted the U.S. government and, asked whether he believes that it spread the AIDS virus within the black community, insisted, “I believe our government is capable of doing anything.”

Obama’s campaign says their candidate has said all he’s going to say about his former pastor but that’s not going to stop the questions he’ll get as he stumps in North Carolina and Indiana this week in advance of very important contests in those states.

Rev. Wright has made a point of insisting that his role is not that of a politician but of a religious and community leader. That’s not going to be of much comfort to Obama’s campaign. Whether he sees himself as a politician or not, Wright has thrust himself right back into the middle of the political conversation – and has done so in a very confrontational manner.

Wright insisted that he’s not Barack Obama’s spiritual adviser, but the two are linked in the minds of voters and provides an opening for political opponents to use in or out of context. “Maybe now an honest dialogue about race in this country will begin,” Wright said according to prepared remarks. “Just maybe now as that dialogue begins the religious tradition that has kept hope alive for a people struggling to survive in countless hopeless situations will be understood." The dialogue will certainly continue – and not in the way Obama’s campaign would like.

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As we noted in a story today, John McCain has called on the Republican Party of North Carolina not to run a controversial ad criticizing two state Democratic gubernatorial candidates for endorsing Barack Obama.

The spot, which you can see here, calls Obama "too extreme" for the state and shows Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, exclaiming "God Damn America." The North Carolina branch of the NAACP has suggested the ad is injecting "racial sentiments" into the campaign.

Now the Charlotte Observer is reporting that two of the state's television stations are refusing to air the ad, which the state party says it still plans to run.

"I just don't think it's appropriate to be on our air," the general manager of one of the stations told the paper. "I think it's offensive, and I'm not real comfortable with the implications around race."

The stations have a legal right not to air the ad, but Brent Woodcox, the state party's spokesman, told the Observer the decision was disappointing.

"You're going down a very dark path that could end up saying, 'these are the kinds of things you can say in a political debate, and these are the kinds of things you can't,'" he said. "Those aren't the principles this country was founded on."