Obama On Rev. Wright: "He Does Not Speak For Me"

Sen. Barack Obama wants everyone to know that he is not the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the talkative Rev. Wright does not speak for him.

On a day when his longtime pastor at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ seemed to pop up every five minutes in the mainstream media and the blogosphere, Obama emphasized the distance between them.

"I have said before and I will repeat again that some of the comments that Rev. Wright have made offend me and I understand why they've offended the American people," Obama said in a brief airport tarmac press conference in Wilmington, N.C.

"He does not speak for me," Obama said. "He does not speak for the campaign. He may make statements in the future that don't reflect my values or concerns."

Obama was asked if he felt betrayed by Wright, who played a significant role in Obama's spiritual life for 20 years, performed his wedding and inspired the title of Obama's most recent book, "The Audacity of Hope."

"I just want to emphasize that this is my former pastor," Obama said. "Any of the statements that he's made both to trigger this controversy and that he's made over the last several days are not statements that I've heard him make previously. They don't represent my views. And they don't represent what this campaign's about."

Read more: The Washington Post