Hunt urged Obama to break with Wright

A new documentary about Barack Obama's presidential campaign in North Carolina, discloses that former Gov. Jim Hunt urged Obama to distance himself from his controversial pastor.

In April 2008, at the height of the controversy over Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Hunt called Obama's North Carolina campaign and told him he needed to publicly profess his Christianity, love of country and denounce his pastor if he was to have any chance of winning the state's May 6 primary, reports Rob Christensen.

“I made it very clear...you can either win this campaign, or you can lose it,” Hunt told the film's producer, journalist Cash Michaels.

At the time, the four-time governor was neutral in the primary between Obama and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Within a day of Hunt's call, Obama held a news conference in Winston-Salem to condemn Wright and to leave Wright's church.

Michaels produced the documentary, "Obama in NC: The Path to History," which will premier at 3 p.m. Saturday at the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, 554 E. Hargett Street. Michaels is the editor/chief reporter for The Carolinian newspaper in Raleigh and a frequent television commentator.