While condemning his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright for “incendiary language” Barack Obama said he would not “disown” him.

“I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.  I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe,” Obama said.

He went on to say, “These people are part of me.  And they are a part of America, this country that I love.”

Obama decried Wright’s anti-American invective, but stood by his former pastor explaining his relationship:  “As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me.  He strengthened by faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children.  Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.  He contains within him the contradictions — the good and the bad — of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.”

Obama focused his speech on race and pointed out that race is an issue that he believes this nation cannot afford to ignore right now.  He said, “We would be making the same mistake that Rev. Wright made in his offending sermons about America — to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.”

It was a strong speech, which Obama wrote himself.  It will now be up to political pundits to review and determine whether the candidate put this issue behind him or whether he exacerbated a situation resulting in a downward spiral.