Wright suggested that Obama's repudiation

of his controversial remarks was to be expected

from someone running for political office

"I do what pastors do. He does what politicians do."

He added with a wry smile,

"I am hoping to be vice president"

Racist Right Wing: Wright's purpose now seems quite clear: to aggrandize himself. The guy is going to be a go-to mainstream media source for racial extremist spew, the next iteration of Al Sharpton--and destroy Barack Obama.

The Radical Wright

Wright suggested today that Obama's repudiation of his controversial remarks was to be expected from someone running for political office.

"Whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be answerable to God," Wright said.

"I do what pastors do. He does what politicians do. I am not running for office." Drawing laughter from the audience, he added with a wry smile, "I am hoping to be vice president."

He started off cool and ended hot.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, recently retired pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, began his breakfast news conference at the National Press Club with an impressively scholarly half-hour speech.

He covered the history of the black church and the prophetic tradition of ministries since Biblical times.

He also gave, with a mix of wit and scorn, his side of the controversy that soundbites from some of his old sermons have stirred up, especially for his 20-year congregant, Senator Barack Obama.

But when the questions began, he reacted as if he was speaking less to reporters than to a church revival.

That's because much of the audience reacted that way, too.

Wright's audience was packed with friends and supporters. (Among other celebrity-guests were author and black theologian Cornel West, former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry and the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the Chicago-based activist priest.)

When emcee Donna Leinwand, national correspondent for USA Today, announced the standard disclaimer for National Press Club newsmaker breakfasts and lunches.

It's a statement directed to you, dear audience, that any applause that you hear from the crowd probably comes from guests of the National Press Club "and not from the working press." The announcement brought a big laugh from the audience.

Seldom has that disclaimer been more necessary than it was for the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's breakfast news conference this morning. From the moment his name was announced, most of the audience leaped into a prolonged, standing and cheering ovation.

From my seat at the head table, I wondered what the scene must look like to the folks watching at a home. There, I imagined, goes our efforts to fend off charges of a "liberal media."

In fact, the sold-out audience was packed so full of the reverend's friends and fans that many in the working press complained that doors were opened to the public too soon, leaving most of the real press to sit in the press club's balcony.

At first Wright responded to pointed questions with a pointed question of his own, like a schoolmaster teaching his flock.

That's fine for Sunday school, but on camera, it comes off as arrogant and evasive - quite the opposite of the humble and candid image that Obama has tried to project for himself.

"Did you hear the entire sermon?" he asked Leinwand, after she read a question about the soundbites that have stirred a headach for Obama's campaign.

Apparently someone pointed out to him that Leinwand was only reading questions passed to her from the audience, because he shifted to questioning "Whoever asked that question."

Why did Wright wait so long, letting the inflammatory soundbites speak for him for several weeks, before presenting his real self to the public? That was my question.

He answered with a quip. He cited "my mother's advice to me," paraphrasing a proverb, "Better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubts."

But after canceling speeches and keeping a low profile for weeks, he became fed up with the assaults, not only himself but on his congregation and, as he emphasized in his speech, the black church as an institution.

That's fine for him, but a headache for Obama's campaign.

Contrary to popular belief, Obama's aides say they had nothing to do with Wright's current tour of Bill Moyer's PBS program, the NAACP convention and the National Press Club.

In fact, the campaign probably would be just as pleased if the Rev. took a nice long vacation to remote Botswana for the time being.

But, he's a fiercely independent individual who, as he says, got tired of ducking the spotlight since inflammatory snippets from his long-ago sermons became a headache for Obama.

Ironically this was the third year in which Wright has held a news conference to launch the annual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, named for a noted religious scholar.

It brings black religious leaders from across the country to Howard University every year to discuss heady topics like black liberation theology.

But this is the first time that the press in significant numbers actually showed up, according to the Rev. Barbara Reynolds, a former Tribune reporter who invited Wright to address the press club.

Will Wright provide more fodder for attack ads? Probably. But the attack ads would come anyway. In my view, it is better that he face the public with the real Wright than to let the out-of-context sound-bites speak for him.

At least, for those who are willing to take the time, his context might end up on the Internet.

Wright Condemns Media Criticism As Attack on Black Churches

Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Chicago pastor whose provocative sermons have damaged Barack Obama's campaign, today condemned criticism of his views as an attack on America's black churches.

Today's appearance was Wright's third in four days as the clergyman tried to counter the media uproar over his sermons.

The controversy has turned Wright into a hate figure of the rightwing cable networks, and allowed critics to paint Obama as unpatriotic and divisive.

But Wright argued his comments were misconstrued by a mainstream America that was unaware of the traditions of black worship in America.

"The most recent attack on the black church, it is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. It's an attack on the black church," he told the National Press Club in Washington.

Obama sought last month to answer doubts about Wright by delivering a powerful address on race.

The pastor's latest comments, occasionally laced with sarcasm, were unlikely to put an end entirely to the controversy that has hurt Obama's efforts to win support from white voters, or silence those who have demanded the Democrat quit Wright's church.

The presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, on Sunday launched his first direct attack on Wright. Republicans in North Carolina have used footage of Wright's sermons in attack ads against Democratic candidates.

The racial divide exposed by Wright's comments carried over to today's appearance. A handful of picketers outside the National Press Club carried signs reading, "Wright is an Obamination", "Wright is Wrong" and "Chickens Come Home to Roost". Inside, Wright faced questions such as: "Do you think people of other races would feel welcome at your church?"

In his appearance today, Wright did not disown the most controversial of the soundbites - that America bore some measure of blame for the attacks of 9/11.

"You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic principles," he said.

Nor did he back away from remarks accusing the US government of deliberately spreading the HIV virus. He recalled the Tuskegee experiments, in which hundreds of black men in Alabama went untreated for syphilis so doctors could study the progress of the disease.

"Based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe that our government is capable of doing anything," he said.

He got the most enthusiastic applause as well as cheers for rejecting the notion that his criticism of the Iraq war or racism in America was unpatriotic.

"My goddaughter's unit just arrived in Iraq this week while those who call me unpatriotic have used their positions of privilege to avoid military service, while sending over 4,000 American boys and girls to die over a lie!"

Later on, he took a shot at the vice president, Dick Cheney, saying: "I served six years in the military. Does that make me unpatriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?"

But it seemed as if Wright was stung by suggestions that Obama had sought to distance himself from the man who brought him to the church, and presided over his marriage and the baptism of his two daughters.

"He distanced himself from some of my remarks - like most of you never having heard the sermon," he said. "He had to distance himself because he is a politician from what the media was saying I had said because it was anti-American."

Wright also said that he has put Obama on notice that if he is elected next November, he can expect his old pastor to be watching.

"I'm coming after you," he said. "Whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be answerable to God."