"The decision to make it big as opposed to make it small, my gut was telling me that this was a teachable moment and that if I tried to do the usual political damage control instead of talking to the American people like … they were adults and could understand the complexities of race, I would be not only doing damage to the campaign but missing an important opportunity for leadership."
— Obama on gut feelings on how to react when incendiary videos of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s black-nationalist sermons surfaced.