By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Producer

Posted May 5, 2008 – Just days before Indiana and North Carolina voters head to the ballot box a new poll gives Sen. Barack Obama(D-Ill.) high marks for how he handled the low blows from his former pastor.  And a political power house likens the reverends damaging comments as “worse than eating your young.”  

In a CBS News/New York Times poll, those surveyed said Obama has done a good job when it comes to responding to the controversial comments by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. 

In the poll released on Sunday, 60 percent of voters and 68 percent of Dems who voted in the primary said they approved of the way Obama has dealt with the constant onslaught of comments by the retired minister in recent weeks.

This poll was taken on the heels of last Monday’s press conference where Wright called Minister Louis Farrakhan one of the great voices of the 20th century; implied the U.S. government  may have developed the AIDS virus to infect the Black community; and that the U.S. has brought about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The comment also got the attention of House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC).  Clyburn hasn’t publicly backed a candidate but he told National Public Radio, Obama should have a “fair opportunity” to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

He blasted Wright’s outburst telling NPR’s Farai Chideya, “I don’t know why Rev. Wright decided to inject himself into this national debate … On the verge of an African- American getting the nomination of his party for this first time in history, for anybody to engage in conduct to destroy that is worse than eating your young.”

Obama can feel some additional comfort from the poll conducted among a random sample of 671 adults, including 288 Democratic primary voters, because 56 percent said the news media has spent too much time covering whole thing.  And 75 percent of the voters surveyed said Wright’s statements hadn’t changed their opinion about the Illinois senator.

The survey from May 1-3 has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points for the whole sample group and five percentage points for the Democrats in the poll.

I’m leaving this morning for North Carolina to chat with voters inside the state and watch Tuesday’s primary results.  I’ll keep you posted.