Barack Obama's efforts to bury the controversy over his former pastor suffered a fresh blow April 28 as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright repeated in a nationally broadcast speech that the United States had brought the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on itself.

Jeremiah Wright AP PHOTO

As Obama and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton head into May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, the Illinois senator has sought to shift the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination away from race ― and from Wright in particular ― as he tries to rebound from a substantial loss to the former first lady in Pennsylvania recenlty.

Wright's repeated and high-profile appearances in recent days, and the most recent, at the National Press Club, were likely to give Obama critics still more fuel for attacks.