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Clinton Campaign on Supporter's Jeremiah Wright-David Duke Comparison: No Comment

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March 25, 2008 | 6:23 p.m

The Clinton campaign says it has no comment on the remarks Clinton fund-raiser Niall O'Dowd made to an interviewer on Irish radio comparing Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, to white supremacist David Duke.

O'Dowd said "I think the issue that the Clinton campaign has seized on is that Barack Obama, you know, never once raised his voice to his pastor and said, `I think your language is quite extreme here, and I think you language is probably wrong.' Because let's turn this around. If this was David Duke and he was preaching on behalf of, and Hillary Clinton was in the pew, there would be outrage about this. And there can't be this double standard. Barack Obama has used race where it suited him, but when it doesn't suit him he backs away from it."

O'Dowd's comments surfaced on a day when Clinton herself answered a question about what she would have done in Obama's place, by saying of Wright, "He would not have been my pastor." She added, "We don't have a choice when it comes to our relatives. We have a choice when it comes to our pastors and the churches we attend."

She hasn't said yet whether she has brought up the issue of Obama's relationship with Wright in conversations with superdelegates.

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