Obama 'just like any other president'

Barack Obama's firebrand minister said the US leader was "like any other president", in an appraisal of his former parishioner's short time in the White House.

Before he gave a speech at a civil rights landmark in Selma, Alabama, the Rev Jeremiah Wright smiled at the mention of the name of the nation's first black president.

"He's like any other president," Mr Wright said. "He's a politician and he's got to do what politicians do."

His remarks were similar to those he made after his controversial preaching became a campaign issue last year, forcing Mr Obama to distance himself from his long-time pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Mr Obama resigned from Trinity United and, ultimately cut ties with Mr Wright because of the uproar caused by videoed snippets of some of his sermons, in which he shouted: "God damn America" and accused the US government of creating Aids.

Mr Wright addressed more than 700 people yesterday at a mass meeting that kicked off the 44th anniversary celebration of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

The event was held at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, the site of the first mass meeting that led to the watershed voting rights movement in Selma.

Mr Obama may no longer associate with Mr Wright, but the programme for the event featured a picture of the two, smiling together, on the front.

The decision to invite Mr Wright drew criticism from opponents including Mr Obama's Alabama campaign chairman, US Rep Artur Davis.

"I am offended by the vehemence of Wright's commentaries on race in America. President Obama was similarly offended," Mr Davis said in an open letter to event organisers at the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute.

Mr Davis represents the state's 7th Congressional District, which extends from Birmingham to rural west Alabama.

A leader of the weekend-long commemoration, museum consultant Sam Walker, said Mr Wright was invited to Selma not for his role in the election, but for his decades of civil rights work.

"He's just been out there in the movement for 40 years. Forty years is more than was captured in one 10-second snippet," said Mr Walker.