Red-faced Clinton stokes Obama pastor row
Posted: 26 March 2008 0625 hrs

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WASHINGTON : Democrat Hillary Clinton on Tuesday revived the row over the fiery racial rhetoric of Barack Obama's former pastor, saying she, unlike her White House rival, would have left his church.

Clinton's decision to re-ignite the controversy came as she battled to shrug off her own embarrassment, after admitting that her claims that she dodged sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996 as first lady were untrue.

"I made a mistake, that happens. It proves I'm human, which, for some people, is a revelation," Clinton said, in a news conference in Pennsylvania in which she pointedly discussed Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

"I think, given all we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor," the New York senator said.

"We don't have a choice when it comes to our relatives. We have a choice when it comes to our pastors and the church we attend."

Videos emerged this month of Wright assailing US and Israeli "terrorism," calling on African-Americans to sing "God damn America" over racial prejudice, and alleging the US government spread AIDS among the community.

The furore prompted Obama to give a landmark speech on racial reconciliation last week which appeared to quiet the storm.

But Republican commentators denounced him for refusing to disown Wright, and the drama, which some analysts say could hurt Obama with working-class white voters, looks set to be a general election issue if he wins the nomination.

The latest rows to rock the Democratic race came as Clinton campaigned hard in Pennsylvania, venue for the next nominating clash on April 22, and a day after the Obama camp said she would do or say anything to win.

Her attempts to chase down front-runner Obama were complicated by the Bosnia furore, which her rival's aides have framed as an example of her dishonestly overstating her foreign policy experience.

"This has been a very long campaign," a laughing Clinton said in an interview with Pittsburgh radio station KDKA. "I did misspeak the other day."

Obama aides quickly pointed to at least four other occasions stretching back to December when she had recalled coming under fire when she landed at Tuzla airbase on March 25, 1996.

Television footage from the trip showed Clinton being greeted by smiling officials on the tarmac as she got off a US military plane.

Obama stayed out of view for another day, before bounding back onto the campaign trail on Wednesday, after a short Easter break with his family in the US Virgin Islands.

Senator John McCain, who has already clinched the Republican presidential nomination, attempted to bolster his economic credentials and debunk Democratic claims he knows little about finance, with a speech on the mortgage crisis.

"Any assistance must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren't," McCain said, signalling reticence over large-scale government assistance to alleviate the crisis.

"I will not play election year politics with the housing crisis," the Arizona senator told Hispanic business leaders in California.

But he also appeared to attempt to separate himself from President George W. Bush, who has been accused by Democrats of obstinately refusing to intervene to rescue the stuttering economy.

"In this crisis, as in all I may face in the future, I will not allow dogma to override common sense," he said.

McCain was set to get another boost as he strives to solidify shaky links with the right of his party, by later Tuesday securing the endorsement of Nancy Reagan, first lady to the late conservative hero Ronald Reagan.

While McCain concentrated on the economy, the other key issue of the campaign, Iraq, also muscled back into the race, as anticipation mounted over an appearance in Congress next month by US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker and US commander General David Petraeus.

"It is abundantly clear that President Bush is determined to continue this failed policy in Iraq until he leaves office," Clinton said.

"That President Bush seems to want to keep as many troops in Iraq after the surge as before, and says that doing otherwise would endanger our progress, is a clear admission that the surge has failed to accomplish its goals."

Reports said Tuesday that troop levels in Iraq would revert to similar levels to those preceding Bush's "surge" last year. - AFP/de