A new book from Newsweek's White House correspondent Richard Wolffe reveals that Barack Obama held a secret meeting with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, towards the end of the 2008 presidential primary season.

The purpose, according to Wolffe's "Renegade," was to persuade the former minister of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ to end his public appearances, which were believed to be hurting Obama in the battleground states of North Carolina and Indiana.

"It was time to talk directly to Wright," Wolffe writes. Over the next week, Obama's friends at Trinity tried to talk their pastor out of his comeback tour. But by now the church was deeply divided between Obama supporters and Wright supporters, and the conversation was going nowhere.       

"So the candidate decided to go see Wright himself in secret, in Chicago. First came the dance over where to meet: one intermediary suggested a neutral location, but Obama said he was happy to go wherever Wright wanted. They ended up talking at Wright's home, and Obama tried to adopt the tone of a concerned friend giving advice.      

"He did not want to tell his former pastor what to do, but he did want to nudge him in the right direction by making him aware of what was about to happen. Wright wasn't heading for vindication; he was heading for vilification."
     
Obama was ultimately unable to keep Wright sidelined, but he did go on to win North Carolina by 15 points. He lost Indiana by just one point.

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Wright's been who is forever, acting a fool is in his character and timing wasn't an issue with him on this. Obama did what Wright should have done, met with him in private, instead of giving the perception that he was "hatin'" as the young kids say. I don't think he was trying to sabotage Obama, and clearly his antics did not do that, but I think he had some of that Super Black Man Pride going on and got caught up. Wright's a great man, he will forever be known now, not for the good he has done, but by this display of crazy he had during the campaign.

by   
Msliz_31
June 6, 2009, 3:00 pm
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rev wright was right. prez obama is a politician and did what politicians do to get ahead. i ain't mad at him.

by   
Kwelii
June 5, 2009, 7:27 am
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Rev. Wright took the opportunity to also advance his own personal agenda when he realized he had the attention of the "national" media. The entire thing came across as a display of the infamous "crab" mentality that plauges our community, with respect to success. Now that Obama is the President I hear nothing about or from Rev. Wright. The Rev. is very intelligent and knew this would be the case regardless of the election outcome. He believed he needed to exploit his opportunity regardless of the political risk to Obama.

by   
Blkbybirth
June 3, 2009, 11:04 am
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Say whatever you will, Wright told the truth. And Obama's throwing him under the rolling wheels of political villification just to win the Office told me a lot about Obama. Sure, Obama's the lesser of two evils, but he's still, well, a career politician.

by   
Covertrage
June 3, 2009, 10:27 am
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i am not surprised at all.richard wolfe used to worked for newsweek and he knows about obama's campaign as well who were his close confidents.rev.wright didn't say anything wrong.he kept it real.the rigth-wing crew are making fools of themselves when it comes to pres.obama and sonya s. for supreme court nomination.rev.wright was right when folks show their true colors dealing with racism and other issues.pres. obama is a smart politican who knows everything and plays it so cool towards the public.

by   
Quita32
June 3, 2009, 5:35 am
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