Bob Conway was a fence-squatting Democrat until he heard Sen. Barack Obama's race speech last month as pressure built for the candidate to respond to comments made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"[It] was nothing I expected and everything this country needs," said Mr. Conway, 42, of Monroeville. "I feel JFK and MLK Jr. would have given similar speeches -- inclusionary, brutally frank, and all about justice, compassion and the solutions that do not come easy."

Now, he's supporting Mr. Obama.

"Everything the country needs is some honest, frank discussion about race relations in this country, things that people are ignoring, but hope will go away," said Mr. Conway, who holds a master's in international relations and is the business manager for a Pittsburgh law firm.

The dust-up surrounding Mr. Obama's more recent comments, about the understandable bitterness of folks in small Pennsylvania towns who've lost their jobs and how "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," is much ado about nothing, he said.

"Sen. Obama was absolutely correct about the issues that divide, and we all know Pennsylvanians who are one-issue voters," Mr. Conway said.

He considers Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's quick and pointed reaction to the bitter remarks "faux outrage" and her campaign's attempt to exploit the comments an example of old-style fear politics. He also believes the comments of Mr. Wright were taken out of context and grossly misrepresented in the media.

"The most inflammatory aspect of Rev. Wright's speech was a direct quote from a white Fox News analyst, who also saw our foreign policy chickens coming home to roost," Mr. Conway said, referring to a YouTube video. To view it, go to youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ. The video shows a much larger and in-context segment of Mr. Wright's "chickens coming home to roost" 9/11 sermon.

Mr. Wright was quoting former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Edward Peck, and the minister's real message, taken in context, called for introspection and asked people what the proper response to violence should be, he said.

"Sen. Obama is putting the best foot forward in this country, white and black people can tell that," Mr. Conway said. "They only way you can decry it is to ignore it and return back to these [out-of-context] sound bites."

Like Mr. Conway, most voters are familiar with the controversy surrounding Mr. Wright's comments and have heard about Mr. Obama's speech on race, a recent CBS News/New York Times poll reported.

About 36 percent of people said Mr. Wright's comments made them have a less favorable view of Mr. Obama, while 62 percent said Mr. Wright's comments made no difference in their view of Mr. Obama.

About 26 percent of people polled said Mr. Obama's race speech made them have a more favorable view of him, 13 percent said it made them have a less favorable view of him and 59 percent said it made no difference.

The poll of 1,368 adults nationwide, conducted via telephone March 28 through April 2, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

Although Kamana Mathur liked the speech, she dropped her support for Mr. Obama out of concern he denounced Mr. Wright's comments only after they became an issue in the media.

"He's been going to the church for 20 years and I'm sure he was aware that [Mr. Wright] was making inflammatory comments such as this," said Ms. Mathur, 50, of Collier. "He may have good intentions, but if he can't stand up and speak up when he sees something wrong, I think that he's not strong enough to be president."

She believes Mrs. Clinton is a stronger candidate and possesses the ability to be tougher, when necessary.

"I think this particular episode kind of shows that he didn't want to take a stand and [wanted to] go with the flow and be Mr. Nice Guy," she says.

However, she still is very impressed with his campaign and the support he has garnered.

"He does appeal to the young," she says. "He's the youngest, most dynamic candidate and he has the cool factor."

Although no longer an Obama supporter, Ms. Mathur also believes the current controversy surrounding Mr. Obama's comments about bitter small-town Pennsylvania people has been blown out of proportion.

"I think it was true," says Ms. Mathur, an immigration attorney, former foreign service officer and executive director of the Pittsburgh Center for International Understanding. "He may not have phrased it in the best way, but it happens everywhere."

When people aren't doing well economically, they blame outsiders, she says, not because they're bad people, but because they're hurting and don't know who else to blame.

So, she doesn't fault Mr. Obama for those remarks. However, she thinks right now, he may be too nice a guy for the rough and tumble of the presidency, but would make an excellent vice president.

"Then, as the toughness develops with time, he'd make a fantastic president," she says.

Ms. Mathur worries the Wright controversy will haunt him and damage his campaign in the general election.

"If I, as a supporter, [had] some doubts, what would happen to the others who weren't supporting him in the first place?" she says. "I just think if he wins [the nomination], we may not see a Democrat in the White House."