Obama tries to move beyond controversy over pastor

By Caren Bohan

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried on Wednesday to move past a controversy over racially charged remarks by his former pastor and refocus his message on kitchen-table economic issues.

Obama's campaign and those of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain all bickered over whether it was a good idea to suspend for the summer the 18.4-cent federal tax on a gallon of gasoline.

Clinton and McCain support the move but Obama says it is the wrong way to approach long-term energy policy.

With Indiana and North Carolina to hold contests next Tuesday, Obama focused on gas prices and the weakening job market as he campaigned in Indiana.

His shift to economic issues came after Obama denounced his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, saying he was appalled by Wright's recent appearances in which he repeated charges that the U.S. government deserved some blame for the September 11 attacks and had a hand in spreading AIDS to blacks.

"The situation with Reverend Wright was difficult. I won't lie to you," Obama told a participant at an Indianapolis round-table.

"But frankly what he said over the last few days, and in some of the sermons that have been excerpted, were unacceptable and weren't things that we believed," he said.

"And what we want to do now though is to make sure that this doesn't continue to be a perpetual distraction."

The Wright controversy roiled Obama's campaign in recent weeks as he grappled with questions over his ability to attract white working-class voters who lean Democratic but are considered important "swing" voters in the general election in November.

The Illinois senator who could become America's first black president had attended Wright's Chicago church since 1992.

Clinton made a rare appearance on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" and was asked by conservative host Bill O'Reilly whether she felt sorry for Obama in a taped interview.

"Well, I think that he made his views clear finally, that he disagreed, and I think that's what he had to do," she said, calling Wright's comments "offensive and outrageous."

"And people have to, you know, decide what they believe. And I sure don't believe the United States government was behind AIDS," the New York senator said.

SUSPEND GAS TAX?

Obama defended his opposition to a temporary suspension of the gasoline tax.