CBS Poll: Pastor's Remarks Hurt Obama
While Most Are Unaffected By Controversy, A Third Of Those Who Have Heard About It View Obama Less Favorably
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Obama On Racial Divide
After inflammatory comments made by his pastor, Barack Obama confronted the controversial issue of U.S. race relations. Byron Pitts reports.
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Obama: Pastor's Words Divisive
"CBS News RAW": In Philadelphia, Barack Obama calls the remarks of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, "wrong" and "divisive," but said "I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother."
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Obama Talks Race
Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia to address the controversial topic of race. Obama hopes his remarks will distance himself from inflammatory comments made by his pastor. Susan Roberts reports.
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Barack Obama
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The poll found that among registered voters, 25 percent said they had heard "a lot" about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments, while 33 percent said they had heard some. Forty-two percent said they hadn't heard about the comments.
Of those voters, sixty-five percent said it didn’t make a difference in their view of Obama. However, of those whose opinion is changed, the net impact is very negative. Thirty percent said it made them have a less favorable view, whereas 2 percent said it made their view more favorable.
Interviewing for these questions was completed Sunday and Monday, before Obama's speech on the subject today.
Democrats are especially apt to say their views are unchanged, with 76 percent saying it has made no difference of their view of Obama, 15 percent saying it made their view less favorable and 2 percent saying it made their view more favorable.See The Complete Poll Results
Obama Urges End To "Racial Stalemate"
Full Transcript Of Obama's Remarks
Video: Obama On Anger Between Races
Republicans are the most likely to say their view has been affected: 47 percent say they've become less favorable, and 53 percent said it did not make a different.
Sixty-one percent of independent voters say they are unaffected, but 36 percent said it made their view less favorable. Two percent of independents said it made them more favorable view.
Overall, unfavorable views of Obama are up somewhat from February. His favorable ratings remain largely unchanged at 44 percent, but there has been some movement from undecided views to unfavorable views, from 23 percent in February to 30 percent now.
Among Democratic primary voters, unfavorable views have doubled, but favorable views remain dominant: more than six in ten Democratic primary voters are positive.
Independent voters - a group Obama has successfully courted in many primaries and would try to draw in the general election - still view him favorably, about the same as last month. Unfavorable views have risen among Republicans.
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 844 adults nationwide, including 749 registered voters, interviewed by telephone March 15 - 17, 2008. Interviewing for the questions on Wright and Obama was conducted March 16-17, 2008 among a sample of 355 registered voters. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points and five points for those questions. The error for subgroups is higher.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See The Complete Poll Results
Obama Urges End To "Racial Stalemate"
Video: Obama On Anger Between Races



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See all 819 CommentsThats because its the Ahah yes this is a marketed plagiarized persona and yeah we were conned...boy are we DUMB,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and I wish you would have asked if it affects their view of which Party because will all these Wack a do Lefties out and the anti American Press attacking people for Obama as his attack dogs so his lack of qualifications and judgments were not vetted,
they have with their fringe Leftist movement been tearing down a Dem Party that attempt to eject them
Dem leadership better get out in the public and make their views of Anti American hate and the danger of their social justice agenda known before there are any additional incidents inflame and acted upon
I guess that must mean I am a bank robber and part of his "gang"!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!
sig heil, McCain????
This is really strange quoting, because in your own poll on this website, 61% of people were saying this issue would stay with Mr. Obama, and only 30-something percent said they were unaffected.
Swiftboating your own poll?
Poll this; He has my vote.
I''m guessing whoever thought up the poll is a Hillary supporter who still doesn''t understand how Hillary hasn''t already sewn up the nomination and was eager for ''good news'' . . .
Obama is the best choice for president. Great speech. He''s the best candidate we''ve ever had to deal with racial unity if that''s what people are worried about. That wasn''t at the top of my list frankly but it is VERY important. Right now, however, I''m concerned about the person who will appoint the next one, two or three Supreme Court Justices, end the war in Iraq, put our economy and military back together again, and help us become an even greater country than we already are. Go Obama!!
I guess that must mean I am a bank robber and part of his "gang"!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!
sig heil, McCain????
Posted by walt1944
If all your pastor does is scream and cry about money maybe you ought to find a different church. How does your being ignorant enough to sit in a church just to be screamed and cried at for money make you a bank robber and a member of a gang? Are you stealing money for your pastor?
realize that we should not expect perfection from our political leaders when we cannot deliver perfection ourselves.
Of course you don''t apply this to current leadership, do you? More leftist hypocricy
Your forthright leadership is like a breath of fresh air!
You definitely have my vote!
as the Clintons have discovered, it is hard in the real world to run against a candidate of destiny. For many Americans -- black and white -- Barack Obama is simply too good (and too rare) an opportunity to pass up.
Barack Obama has fellow-traveled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own mother. And what portent of presidential judgment is it to have exposed his two daughters for their entire lives to what is, at the very least, a subtext of anti-white vitriol?
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Posted by rohink at 01:57 PM : Mar 18, 2008
Please tell me you are joking. If not you are a lost ball in high weeds. He was making fun of the comparison.
God forbid if some of us had 1 minute out of our whole lives played on television over and over. What would people think?
At least Obama dealt with the problem head on and admitted his wrongs and shortcomings. Too bad others running for president can''t and won''t do that - always passing the buck, blaming others, and moving the goal posts.
Race has always been the big elephant in the room. Glad someone finally had the balls to deal with it.
Posted by gemstone1955
What are the hard questions you don''t feel Barack answered? And what would you have liked him to say?
He has refused to distance himself from his pastor of 20 years whom we now find out is a racist and hates America. NOT MY PRESIDENT!
Posted by SamTheTVCat
Well, he gave a speech so that he would not have to answer questions. Seems like a calculated move to have the press hear only what he wanted them to hear and not one that would actually resolve the situation and further proof this was just a political tactic and not something he really wanted to do. Also, it was done in Philly where the next primary will be held. Coincidence? Not really.
do you think it is O.K. to shout out G.D. in church ?
Obama is suggesting it is common in black churches ?
IT IS NOT ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Posted by exCoachKen
I too am a former Edwards supporter and in case the Democrats revive either Edwards or Gore, they''re going to lose an election they should have won in a landslide.
Obama supporters, like "excoachKen" have a tendency as does Ken to look down their nose on other voters, supposedly "less intellectual" than they are. This is one big problem Obama has, and his problems are multiplying. Yeah, sure, he''s a great and eloquent speechmaker, but that doesn''t cut it at this point in history. He is no Abe Lincoln, just as his supporter, fat Teddy, is no John Kennedy.
Obama talks the talk, but he has no record of accomplishment--where has he actually walked the walk? There are at least twenty Black Democrats I could name that would make better candidates than Obama, and I really hope that the Democrats put one of them on the ticket.
Both Obama and Hillary should resign for the good of the party and the nation.
Neither of them can win, although Hillary at least would have a shot.
Posted by davek455
The WSJ is pretending that they''re to dumb to goto Obama''s website and read the his positions on the issues. I have yet to hear any more or less "substance" articulated by either MCCain or Hillary. The only true difference in the Dem party is that Obama projects leadership quality which has not been seen in a generation.
Posted by trapbreak
That''s disingenuous because no matter what he would have said or done you''d have still said he was just acting for political gain.
The best course is to always be yourself which is how he came across, and quite frankly a lot of Republicans don''t like the idea of unity so you''re never going to have been happy . . .
Posted by crusherking
Well obviously politics were a good part of it, but are you saying that what he said wasn''t therefore reflective of his personal beliefs? Also, what do you mean by ''resolving the situation'' . . . please be more specific . . .
Obama is the best choice for president. Great speech. He''s the best candidate we''ve ever had to deal with racial unity if that''s what people are worried about. That wasn''t at the top of my list frankly but it is VERY important. Right now, however, I''m concerned about the person who will appoint the next one, two or three Supreme Court Justices, end the war in Iraq, put our economy and military back together again, and help us become an even greater country than we already are. Go Obama!!
Conservatives - how can you STAND such an overt bias???
1.
Do not judge Obama by a few radical statements made by his pastor. Please judge him by the content of his character. Vote against him if you disagree with him about Iraq, or healthcare, or taxes - but not because of his pastor. Because what you seem to imply, those that say the pastor''''s words are important, is that Obama is racist or unpatriotic, and that is not true - not one little bit.
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Posted by SamTheTVCat at
Sam - my guess is that g.a.y.s tend to view females as better allies to the g.a.y. community than straight black males....just a guess
I have heard the pastor rant on the radio - he is most frightening and dangerous.
He may have been of some positive unfluence in the past, but I have to hope that Obama will make a wise decision and distance himself from this Hitler-type personality.
He suggested that Rev Wright was somehow like other black preachers.
That was a huge insult to black preachers across this country.
To believe this poll, that they took in a matter of a few hours that supposedly represents mainstream America, they would have had to have about 10,000 people working the polls, at least. And have had to poll at least a third of Americans.
This is krap!
Where were the right-wing big mouths condemning these racist remarks. Should they insist that anyone associated with these people share the same outrage?
"You say you''re supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don''t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist."[ -- Pat Robertson
""The ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this. And I know I''ll hear from them for this, but throwing God...successfully with the help of the federal court system...throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad...I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the *** and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen." -- Jerry Fallwell on 9/11
"Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.%u201D -- John Hagee
Posted by trapbreak
The fact that he''s not like every other ''experienced'' politician is at the crux of his appeal - he laid all those unspoken issues out on the table for all of us to digest, which is the complete opposite of politics as usual which posits that you avoid controversy like the plague.
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