US: BARACK OBAMA is struggling to move past the controversy over his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, as new polls suggest the furore could affect next week's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.
Mr Obama's wife, Michelle, said yesterday that the public was tired of hearing about the pastor, whom the Illinois senator disowned after 20 years this week.
"They don't want to hear about this division, they want to know what are we going to do to move beyond these issues. And what made me feel proud of Barack in this situation is that he is trying to move us as a nation beyond these conversations that divide," she told NBC's Today show.
A Teleresearch poll in Indiana showed a widening lead for Hillary Clinton in the state, which Mr Obama has described as a "tie-breaker". The poll, which was conducted between last Saturday and Tuesday of this week, gives Mrs Clinton a 10-point lead in Indiana. Most alarming for Mr Obama, however, is the poll's finding that Mrs Clinton's lead grew during the days when Rev Wright dominated the news.
A national NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that almost one in three Democrats have a major problem with Mr Obama's past association with Rev Wright.
Mr Obama has seen his lead over Mrs Clinton in North Carolina cut in half, from 15 points to just seven, according to another poll published yesterday. Mrs Clinton hopes to win Indiana next Tuesday and keep Mr Obama's margin of victory in North Carolina within single digits.
Mr Obama yesterday acknowledged that the Rev Wright controversy and his own remarks about voters clinging to guns and religion in economically troubled small towns, have hurt his campaign.
"I think it's pretty clear what has happened. We've had - what - two months now, or a month and a half, in which you've had the Reverend Wright controversy, you've had the issue of my comments in San Francisco that have been magnified pretty heavily - that's been a pretty full dose," he said.
Mrs Clinton's campaign yesterday wrote to hundreds of super -delegates, senior party figures who will help to choose the Democratic nominee, trumpeting new polls as evidence that she would be a stronger candidate than Mr Obama.
Tracking polls show Mrs Clinton ahead of John McCain in head to head match-ups, while Mr Obama is tied with the Arizona senator. New polls published yesterday show Mrs Clinton performing better against Mr McCain in the swing states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.
"They have seen her tested under fire, and they have seen her strength, and they have taken the measure of her character under difficult political circumstances," Mrs Clinton's communications chief, Harold Wolfson, said.
Despite the polls and controversies, superdelegates have continued to drift towards Mr Obama and Joe Andrew, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said yesterday that he was transferring his support from Mrs Clinton to Mr Obama. Mr Andrew, who was appointed to the DNC post by former president Bill Clinton, said that continuing the primary battle was tearing the party apart.
"I'm calling on my all of my friends who are superdelegates to help heal the rift and unite behind Barack Obama now," he said.
In a letter to his fellow superdelegates, Mr Andrew said the Democrats' "family affair" risked damaging the party's chances against Mr McCain in November.
"The battle should not be amongst ourselves. Rather, we should focus our efforts on those who are truly on the opposite side: those who want to continue the failed policies of the last eight years, rather than bring real change to Washington. Let us come together right now behind an inspiring leader who not only has the audacity to challenge the old divisive politics, but the audacity to make us all hope for a better America," he said.