This highlights the scope of the Wright problem for Obama among Clinton's white, working-class and often church-going supporters in swing states - voters who could be up for grabs in an Obama-McCain showdown.
CAN MCCAIN REAP THE WRIGHT STUFF?
But can McCain reap what Wright has sown?
Many of the conservative evangelicals whom McCain needs to woo are staunchly patriotic and are enraged by Wright's inflammatory statements. That could help divert attention from McCain's perceived drawbacks.
"I don't think the McCain campaign will dwell on it but the rest of the Republican machinery will try and keep the Rev Wright controversy at a low boil," said Cal Jillson, a political analyst at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
McCain also has positions and qualities that many conservative Christians find appealing, such as his consistent opposition to abortion and his status as a military hero and former prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Those qualities won him an endorsement from controversial Texas megapastor John Hagee. McCain rejected the preacher's backing last week after a sermon from the 1990s came to light in which Hagee said Hitler and the Holocaust were foretold in the Bible and thus sanctioned by God.
But Obama's ease at talking about his personal faith - a trait he shares with Bush - stands in stark contrast to McCain's obvious discomfort with the subject.
McCain attends a church affiliated with America's largest evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, but he was raised in the more reserved embrace of the Episcopal faith. Obama is an adult convert to the United Church of Christ and the convert's passion gels easily with his speaking style.
"The political problem Obama faces (because of Wright) can be solved by personalising the issue of faith," Jillson said.
Obama's campaign also has a faith outreach programme aimed at religious voters, which helps dispel false rumours that he is a Muslim.
Clyde Wilcox of Georgetown University in Washington said he saw the Wright issue fading but it has still hurt "because there are people who are looking for a reason to doubt him (Obama) ... But Obama can survive this, he talks so very well about religion and has forcibly distanced himself (from Wright)".
