Item: Obama Calls Wright's Remarks `Ridiculous,' Offensive/Bloomberg

More Info: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama denounced “ridiculous” statements made by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, using his strongest language to date to distance himself from his former pastor. Obama cited Wright's contentions, repeated yesterday, that the government may have had a role in spreading AIDS in the black community, that U.S. actions overseas were partly to blame for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and about the importance of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Wright's statements “offend me, they rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced and that's what I'm doing very clearly and unequivocally today,” Obama said in a news conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Question: Is this effective damage control for Barack Obama? Or is it too little too late for Obama because his pastor's remarks have already caused extensive damage?

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