Week in Review: Rev. Wright's Speech, Tax Holiday

SCOTT SIMON, host:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.

And this week, Senator Barack Obama reacts to more controversial statements from his former pastor. Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain both want a holiday from the gas tax, and President Bush clashes with Congress over the economy. NPR's senior news analyst Dan Schorr joins us. Hello, Dan.

DAN SCHORR: Hi, Scott.

SIMON: And of course let's start with politics. The Reverend Wright made an appearance at the National Press Club, perhaps just not what the Obama campaign wanted him to do. Where does that stand now as we approach this weekend?

SCHORR: Well, the first thing one wants to know is what effect it's had, especially on the African-American community. And as we get up towards Indiana and North Carolina, polls so far indicate that it hasn't hurt Obama very much, if it all in that respect. What it has done is to establish that there are very important generational differences with regard to where African-Americans stand in the American society today.

And so it was very important, I think, for Obama that whatever it was that Wright was saying, he was speaking for a long time ago, and that effort to move into another generation of relations, we can't keep going back. As far as I can see, a group of ministers met in Chicago, they endorsed Obama. I have not seen that some of the worst damage that was expected to happen has happened.

SIMON: Of course important primaries, North Carolina and in Indiana on Tuesday. For whatever the polls mean, Senator Obama has what looks to be a substantial lead in the polls in North Carolina.

SCHORR: Right.

SIMON: But things seem to be...

SCHORR: And that remains true, by the way, even after the Wright incident. Athough 40 percent of the voters in North Carolina are African-American, his figures there have not changed.

SIMON: Now the race does seem to be tighter in Indiana, where we must point out something like, perhaps as much as 30 percent of the Indiana vote is actually in the Chicago metropolitan area.

SCHORR: Right.

SIMON: So that should be a good territory for Senator Obama. But in fact the polls seem to be tightening there. There were a couple of major endorsements this week. In North Carolina Governor Easley endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton. But superdelegate Joe Andrew switched from Clinton to Obama. He's a former committee chairman of the Democratic National Party.

SCHORR: Former committee chairman and he had previously endorsed Senator Clinton. And this is one of the first cases I've seen where there was an absolute switch from one position to another. And I think the point that he's made in switching his endorsement, and that was, we can no longer afford to have this division. We've got to end this contest now. I don't think the lady will do it, but as this goes on I think more and more people will be under pressure to say it's almost all over. We really can't afford it and that's what I think is going to be the theme, a great deal of pressure in the next couple of weeks.

SIMON: What about Senator Clinton's argument, though, that she keeps winning primaries.

SCHORR: Yeah.

SIMON: She keeps winning votes.

SCHORR: She wins votes, but it doesn't add up arithmetically to getting anywhere near the number of delegates she needs. I mean this is not just where votes count; in the first place you have to have delegates willing to vote for you. No, that's right, I mean, no, she stands firm. I've noticed, for example, that the word "fight" has entered into her speaking more often than before. Fight, I'm a fighter, or I'm fighting, so on and so forth. And she's hanging in there.

SIMON: Senator Clinton and Senator McCain both proposed a holiday from the gas tax.

SCHORR: Yeah.

SIMON: Senator Obama says he's opposed. What do you make of the division...?

SCHORR: Well, I think it's almost weird. If you were to give them a holiday, what would happen is it would be that your revenues will go down, but not one cent will come out of the pocket of the oil companies. This just...

SIMON: No, I believe Senator Clinton says that that's in fact what she wants to do. She wants to make the, wants to make the oil companies pay what amounts to a penalty in profits...

SCHORR: But if it's a holiday, if it's a gas tax holiday, all you can say is you got the tax back.

SIMON: Well, I don't want to put myself in the position of speaking for Senator Clinton, but I think she counters that argument by saying I want to take more from the oil companies.

SCHORR: Well, in any event that is a real election gimmick. And it's not supposed to go past the next election.

SIMON: But does Senator Obama lose some support by not signing on to, even if it's an election gimmick, a pretty popular idea.

SCHORR: There's no evidence of that. We tend to think in very ancient categories. We're finding out now that a lot of young people are registering to vote who hadn't registered before. There are divides on this issue, divides on that issue. The assumption that Americans would do anything just to get cheaper gas, I'm not sure is true.

SIMON: And what do you make of Senator John McCain appearing at a town hall meeting this week in Iowa and begins by saying, by the way, I think you should know I'm against farm subsidies.

SCHORR: He wants to burnish his maverick credentials. Yes, it's known that he's been against farm subsidies so his saying it wasn't, wasn't saying very new. The way he does it is with a big smile and a glint in his eye and he says, that's me, fellas, you know. I tend to do things in a way you wouldn't expect.

SIMON: And President Bush said that Congress let down the American people this week when it failed to pass his proposals for an economic stimulus package.

SCHORR: I know everybody can blame everybody. By the end it's all the same thing. You get the figures, you find out another 20,000 people have lost their jobs, which is very bad, but it may be better than it was in the last quarter. We hover on the edge of recession. The president says it's a bad recession - it's really almost irrelevant when the administration and people in Congress and the candidates denounce each other and say it's all your fault. There's a big recession on, and I don't think anybody has the answers to it right away, nor is anybody immediately responsible for it.

SIMON: Thanks very much, Dan Schorr.

SCHORR: Sure, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.