Hey Mike,

I'm not sure I'd call it a manufactured issue. Candidates associations, especially with controversial figures, always gets vetted at some point. Whether it captures an audience is a different matter.

Wright is a pretty radical fire-eater and Obama has a 20 year close association with him. That's more than a casual acquaintance or campaign donor.

I think the Wright issue would have faded away in the mainstream if Wright hadn't suddenly come out with fresh controversy the past few days. Obama has to find a way to muzzle Wright for the remainder of the campaign for this to fade out. If Wright continues to speak out then it's going to seriously hamper Obama's campaign by constantly being on the defensive.

>Obama was responding to the comments Rev. Wright made yesterday, not earlier ones. He didn't just out of the blue decide to backtrack on what happened before. If you read what Obama said, I think it sounds reasonable.
>
>http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/29/obama.wright/index.html
>
>The whole thing was a manufactured issue to begin with, the Clintons trying to tar Obama with guilt by association. I'm not sure what more they can try at this point. But they'll probably come up with something.