..."Mr. Obama, in a speech Tuesday in Philadelphia, will repeat his earlier denunciations of the ministerÕs words, aides said. But they said he would also use the opportunity to open a broader discussion of race, which his campaign has said throughout the contest that it wants to transcend. He will bluntly address racial divisions, one aide said, talking about the way they play out in church, in the campaign, and beyond.

Mr. Obama continued to write the speech on Monday evening, which he believes could be one of the most important of his presidential candidacy, aides said. His wife, Michelle, had not been scheduled to travel with him this week, but hastily made plans to be in Philadelphia.

Mr. Obama said Monday that in his speech, to be given at the National Constitution Center, he would Òtalk a little bit about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church community, for example, which I think views this very differently.Ó

After removing Mr. Wright from a religious advisory committee on his campaign on Friday, Mr. Obama concluded over the weekend that he had not sufficiently explained his association with the pastor. He told several aides he was worried that if voters did not hear directly from him Ñ in the setting of a major speech Ñ doubts and questions about him might grow.

Some associates advised him against giving the speech. ÒRace is now officially on the table. ItÕs not going away after this,Ó a senior aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, recalled one adviser saying.

The episode has left Mr. Obama tending to a firestorm fed by matters no less combustible than faith, patriotism and race. It could help Senator Hillary Rodham ClintonÕs campaign advance its argument that Mr. Obama is Òunvetted,Ó and that he is less electable than Mrs. Clinton come fall. In interviews, Republican strategists mapped out how Mr. ObamaÕs association with Mr. Wright could be used against him in a general election.

By addressing head-on such sensitive topics, his speech, aides and other Democrats said, could be a pivotal moment for Mr. Obama, who, for all of his electoral victories and copious news coverage, is still known only in the broadest terms by many Americans.

ÒThis isnÕt red and blue America,Ó said Donna Brazile, a Democratic consultant, referring to the address that catapulted Mr. Obama to prominence at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. ÒThis is black and white America.Ó

ÒAnd when you really have a serious conversation about race, people clear the room,Ó said Ms. Brazile, who as the manager of Al GoreÕs bid for the White House in 2000 was the first black woman to run a major presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama is particularly vulnerable because voters are still getting to know him, said Democratic and Republican strategists Ñ and a few voters as well. The Wright affair Òmakes me question other things. What else do we not know?Ó asked Karen Norton, 58, a computer saleswoman in North Carolina and a Republican who said that, until now, she had been stirred by Mr. ObamaÕs message of national reconciliation.

Mr. WrightÕs statements, said strategists, threaten his greatest strength, his reputation as a unifying, uplifting figure, capable of moving the country past old labels and divisions.

ÒThe problem is the complete contradiction between the message of the Obama campaign and the message of the minister whoÕs been his close friend and confidant for 20 years,Ó said Whit Ayres, a Republican consultant unaffiliated with any campaign.

Mr. Obama has also pitched himself as a candidate who can attract religious voters back to the Democratic Party, one who speaks the language of the Bible fluently and testifies about what he says is the impact of Christianity on his own life.

ÒWhat better way to try to undercut the way he integrates faith and political vision than to say we should all be secretly afraid of his church?Ó said Jim Wallis, a left-leaning evangelical who has had longstanding relationships with both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, and who says that Mr. Wright has been unfairly caricatured in recent portrayals.
..." (NYT)