Hillary Clinton has widened her lead over Barack Obama in Pennsylvania, according to a poll taken at the height of the recent controversy surrounding sermons made by Obama's spiritual adviser.

The Franklin & Marshall College survey shows Clinton leading Obama by 16 percentage points, 51 percent to 35 percent. The March 11-16 poll of 464 registered Democrats showed that Obama's favorability ratings had dropped 10 percentage points from a month earlier. (The poll has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.)

But there still is plenty of room for change before the state's April 22 primary; 13 percent of Democrats polled said they were undecided.

Other recent polls have also indicated that the storm over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s anti-American sermons has been chipping away at the Obama campaign. It's one reason why the Obama team and Democratic strategists who expect him to win the party's nomination are working hard now to leave the issue of race behind them.

The week-long focus on Wright's fiery sermons, which Obama decried Tuesday as racially divisive, has made discussion of race issues an inevitable talking point on the campaign trail. Though Clinton has avoided making a political point of the sermons, Democratic strategists are worried that they could become a rallying point for Republicans if Obama becomes the Democratic candidate for president.

"I think he has done enough to survive it and get the Democratic nomination ... but this is an albatross that will be around his neck throughout the whole general election," said FOX News political analyst Dick Morris, a former Bill Clinton strategist who has been a vocal opponent of the former first lady.

"We'll see how it shows up in polling. ... [Democrats] are now very worried about what this does to his chances in November," said Patricia Murphy, editor of CitizenJanePolitics.com. "That's the anxiety that this has raised, and even that speech didn't put those fears to rest."

National Public Radio national correspondent Juan Williams, a FOX News analyst, said a potential complication following Obama's speech is the attention that it continues to draw to the issue of race. It poses a problem in a campaign where the candidates are trying to focus on the economy, national security and health care.

"He doesn't want to be the black candidate in the race, because he wants to be the candidate who transcends race ... suddenly he's back in the box as just a black candidate," Williams said.

The race issue appears to have had an effect on voters.

A CBS poll showed that 25 percent of those surveyed had heard "a lot" about Wright's comments, while 33 percent had heard some. Of those aware of the story, 15 percent of Democrats, 36 percent of Independents and 47 percent of Republicans said it made them see Obama less favorably.

A Rasmussen survey taken from March 14-16 of 1,200 likely voters showed 56 percent of those interviewed were less likely to vote for Obama because of the Wright's sermons.

And for the second day in a row, Clinton took the lead in the Gallup daily tracking poll. The poll from March 15-17 showed Clinton with 47 percent support among Democrats and Obama with 44 percent. The two candidates have been neck-and neck throughout the month of March.

Obama's speech Tuesday was widely praised as a heartfelt, candid assessment of racial divisions that put bitterness between whites and blacks in historical context.

"With this speech Barack Obama showed he's ready to be president of the United States," said Democratic strategist Dan Gerstein. "The question now is, is America ready for Barack Obama?"

But it was also widely noted that Obama will probably not be done with the race issue if he becomes the Democratic candidate.

GOP strategist Angela McGlowan said the pastor flap will help the Republican Party in November, noting that it didn't take McCain as long to denounce anti-Catholic comments from the Rev. John Hagee, who has endorsed McCain but was never his personal spiritual adviser.

The big question for the near-term is whether the race issue will turn off primary voters. The controversy surrounding Wright came right after former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, a Clinton supporter, left her role on the Clinton finance committee for suggesting Obama would not be where he is if he were white.

The Obama campaign also took down a posting on its Web site Wednesday in which the New Black Panther Party endorsed the Illinois senator. The campaign said it rejects the endorsement.

Attempting to push forward, the Illinois senator spoke extensively about ending the Iraq war in Fayetteville, N.C., on Wednesday. He continued his assault on Clinton's vote to authorize the war, and lumped the New York senator with McCain and President Bush for what he said were their attempts to distort his proposals for troop withdrawal and diplomacy in the Middle East.

Obama is not expected to attend Easter services at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago this Sunday, as he is going on vacation with his family. Wright is no longer the pastor at the church, one of the reasons Obama cited in his decision to stay a part of the congregation.

American University professor Jane Hall told FOXNews.com that the race issue is an unfortunate diversion for Obama, who drew supporters hoping this would not be a campaign about race.

But she said the renewed dialogue is not one that's easy to shake.

"Race is a huge subject. I don't think we've dealt with it enough," she said. "I think people were shocked by these videos (of Wright), I think a lot of people were shocked ... And then when you talk to African Americans, they say ‘Well, you know you haven't experienced what I've experienced.' So we're sort of stuck."