Publication Date: April 28, 2008
Source: CNN
Author: Glenn Beck

Professor Richard Thompson Ford is part of a panel on CNN's Glenn Beck show discussing Barack Obama's controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright:

Glenn Beck: Professor Thompson, "... how do you read this?"

Richard Thompson Ford, Author of, "The Race Card": Well, I wonder whether the Reverend Wright has decided to work for the Clinton campaign. This has got to be very bad news for Barack Obama.

I think -- it`s not true that the things that Jeremiah Wright has said are representative of the views of most African-Americans or most black churches. Liberation theology is a minority part of the black church community. It`s a significant minority but a minority -- in most black churches, you certainly do not hear things like that.

...

Touching on some of the pastor's statements about 9/11 and Aids and terrorism in the Middle East Professor Thompson responds to those statements:

Ford: Well, I agree that the mix of religion and politics is volatile and that the things that Reverend Wright has said are quite divisive and destructive. I think it`s -- you know, particularly some of these conspiracy theories which have obviously no basis, in fact.

I do think that we could -- there are real racial injustices in -- that plague our inner cities, and we need to talk about those. And we need to talk about constructive solutions. And the things that Reverend Wright are saying are leading us in the wrong direction.

...

Glenn Beck returns to a previous statement Professor Ford had made earlier that maybe the Clinton campaign was behind this controversy. This is what Professor Ford says:

Ford: I don`t know about that. Well, I think that this is bad news for Obama. I really think that if -- the best thing that could happen for the Obama campaign would be for Reverend Wright to take a long vacation. Every time he opens his mouth, it`s bad.

And, you know, I don`t think it`s fair to attribute all of Wright`s views to Obama. But it does -- you know, it is going to make people concerned. And it keeps it...

...

Glenn Beck later asks Professor Ford if he would be in that church with him for 20 years. Professor Ford answers:

Ford: Well, no, I don`t think so. I do think that -- my sense is that Barack Obama went to Reverend Wright when he was trying to get a connection to a community in the South Side of Chicago and...