It was a major shift in tone for Barack Obama on Tuesday, as he decided on a very public break with his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama said Wright's speech in Washington, D.C. on Monday was filled with a "bunch of rants."
Just a day earlier, Obama had again attempted to draw a line, breaking with Wright on some of his controversial sermons from the past, while not denouncing the Reverend.
That all ended early Tuesday afternoon, as Obama threw Rev. Wright under the Obama Campaign Bus. And threw him under the bus again. And again.
Obama used words like "wrong" and "destructive" to describe Wright's remarks, giving off the feeling that he was very aggravated, almost insulted by Wright's media offensive.
"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama said in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Things can always change, but right now, Obama and Wright aren't on each other's Christmas card list.
"The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," Obama said.
One thing Obama certainly did here was he pulled the ripcord on Rev. Wright, allowing him to answer future questions about his former pastor in a much different manner.
"I do not expect those views to be attributed to me," Obama declared.
The move came as a new poll was released in North Carolina by Survey USA, which showed Obama just five points ahead of Hillary Clinton. That poll had shown a 9-point Obama lead last week.
Meanwhile, another poll in Indiana showed an expanding lead for Hillary Clinton in the other state that votes May 6. The last two surveys had Clinton up by eight and nine points. Last week, Obama had led by one.
It certainly makes you wonder whether Team Obama decided they had to act, or they risked going into an Election Free Fall because of the Wright fallout.
This was not a mild rebuke. This was not walking a fine line. This was a full break.
A political and personal divorce.
Can Obama turn the corner now? In the short term, he should be fine if he wins both Indiana and North Carolina next week.
But if Hillary Clinton wins both, or comes close in North Carolina while winning Indiana, then more rocky shoals may lie ahead.
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