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An angry Obama told reporters yesterday he was "outraged" by what he called a "performance" by Jeremiah Wright at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday and added that he was "saddened by the spectacle."

Wright used the forum to reiterate some of his charges against the U.S. government, including his suggestion that the government invented the AIDS virus to destroy "people of color."

Obama calls the comments "divisive and destructive" and says "they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate."

The Illinois senator will hold a major rally tonight at Indiana University six days before crucial Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.

Obama is trying to tamp down the uproar over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright at a tough time in his campaign. The Illinois senator is coming off a loss in Pennsylvania to rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and trying to win over white working-class voters in Indiana and North Carolina in next Tuesday's primaries.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.

His strong words come just six weeks after Obama delivered a sweeping speech on race in which he sharply condemned Wright's remarks but did not leave the church or repudiate the minister himself, who he said was like a family member. After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons, the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago made three public appearances in four days to defend himself.

On Monday, Wright criticized the U.S. government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that the United States invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against minorities. "Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything," he said.

No matter how Obama handles Jeremiah Wright, some supporters won't be happy ... Top Michigan Democrats suggest new plan for splitting delegates ... Groups, parties air ads that help, criticize presidential candidates

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Obama's quandary over preacher reflects supporters' divide

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - Thirteen hours after his former pastor startled some with a defiant performance that was televised nationwide, Barack Obama urged 18,000 supporters to stay calm and shrug off such "distractions."

1972 - Wright becomes pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

1985 - Obama begins working as a community organizer in Chicago; meets Wright.

1988 - Obama embraces Christianity after hearing a Wright sermon on hope.

1992 - Obama joins Trinity United Church; Wright officiates at Obama's wedding.

Partisan groups and the political parties are pushing their way onto the airwaves, often with negative ads that are adding an even more quarrelsome tone to an already bruising presidential campaign.

In Louisiana, Mississippi and Indiana, ads on behalf of Republican congressional candidates label Democrat Obama too liberal. One ad by the North Carolina Republican Party cites Obama's ties to his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

On cable nationally, the Democratic National Committee portrays Republican John McCain as a continuation of President Bush's Iraq and economic policies.

In Indiana, which holds a key primary on May 6, a group mostly financed by the Clinton-backing American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is running an ad critical of Obama's economic plan.

"If he should be president, it would be ironic that he comes from a party that talks a lot about family values," said Bob Kafka, national organizer for ADAPT, a group advocating for passage of the bill. Without the legislation, many disabled and elderly people don't have the choice to apply coverage to anything other than institutional care, he said.

"Families are devastated because they don't have a choice to keep people at home," Kafka said.

McCain was not in his office during the protest. He was campaigning Tuesday in Florida on his health care plan.

The bill, stuck in committee since last year, would amend the Social Security Act to allow people who are eligible for Medicaid coverage of nursing home costs to spend it instead on home-based, or community care.

The Democratic National Committee stripped Michigan of its 128 delegates for holding its presidential primary too early in the year. The state also has 28 superdelegates.

Clinton has argued that she should get 73 delegates based on the results of the Jan. 15 primary, which she won - 18 more than Obama.

Obama, who removed his name from the ballot, wants the 128 pledged delegates split evenly, 64-64.

The compromise, suggested Tuesday in a letter to Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer, fell halfway between the two proposals.

"I have no desire to wage a battle with the governor over this matter," Cowgill, 56, said in a statement. "It would unduly harm Kentucky's postsecondary education reform efforts, and the positive momentum that has been achieved to this point."

The council, the state's coordinating agency for public universities and community and technical colleges, picked Cowgill as its president on April 14. The vote was 10-0, with two members abstaining and two absent.

But at Beshear's request, the council did not sign a contract while the hiring was in dispute. Beshear had sent the council a letter reminding them that the 1997 higher education reform act requires a national search and that the president be someone with an established reputation and experience in postsecondary education.

Cowgill, a Lexington lawyer who had been state budget director for former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, had no experience as an education administrator before becoming the council's interim president on Sept. 1.

"I've listened to the man. I have met with him and, like many of you, I am excited by his message of change for the future," Chandler told about 40 Obama supporters Tuesday in Louisville. "I made a decision in my own mind that in this place and this time and in this country, the time was right for Sen. Barack Obama."

The endorsement and it's timing could have slight effects on the two major fronts being fought simultaneously in the Democratic presidential primary: the electoral battleground of the May 6 Indiana primary and the inside-the-party race for superdelegates.

Chandler, of Versailles, will serve as one of Kentucky's nine superdelegates who can pick the candidate of their choice at the August Democratic National Convention regardless of who wins Kentucky's May 20 primary.

He joins fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville as the two Obama supporters in the group, with four others still uncommitted.

The Democratic presidential candidate and sheet metal worker Jason Wilfing, 33, pulled into the station in a large white Ford 250 pickup truck, Clinton riding shotgun. Never mind that it wasn't even Wilfing's truck - he had borrowed his boss's larger vehicle to accommodate Clinton's security agent and personal assistant, who rode in the back.

Trailing Wilfing and Clinton was a Secret Service motorcade consisting of six gas-guzzling Suburbans, two squad cars and a green SUV bearing photographers and TV cameras. Several other reporters and cameramen stood shivering in unseasonably cold temperatures, ready to capture the multi-vehicle arrival.

Clinton and Wilfing stepped out of the car and approached the pump. Wilfing chose regular unleaded gasoline, and began filling the tank. The two engaged in chit chat, with New York senator mentioning her proposal for a temporary gas tax holiday to ease the price pinch on consumers.

The tank filled, Clinton looked at the price recorded at the pump and shook her head.

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, will be among a small brigade of big political names circulating through Churchill Downs Saturday in support of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Chelsea Clinton already has been announced as carrying the flag for her mother, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Both are scheduled to make stops at the table of state Democratic Party leaders Jennifer Moore, the chairman, and Vice Chairman Nathan Smith, Smith said. Both are Democratic superdelegates who have been heavily courted by both campaigns.

"It's totally an accident that Chelsea's going to be at the Kentucky Derby and will be sitting with Jennifer and me," Smith said facetiously.

The auditor also criticized the cabinet for not keeping sufficient documents on payments from its highway safety program, and for letting an acquisition agent in its Division of Right of Way sell land to the cabinet in Edmonson County for a road project she was working on, creating an appearance of impropriety. The agent's case was referred to the cabinet's inspector general for further review, Luallen said.

The auditor's report was her second this year examining how federal funds are spent by state agencies.

For fiscal year 2007, the Transportation Cabinet was unable to show auditors how $24.1 million in federal highway funds was used or to provide a complete list of the local governments that received the money, Luallen said. That leaves taxpayers in the dark, she added.

"We just don't know," she said. "Because of inadequate documentation, we can't confirm that it was adequately spent."