Barack Obama's Former Pastor Swings From the Pulpit

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Singing the Same Tune

Barack Obama's controversial former spiritual adviser was back in the pulpit over the weekend and so was his harsh view of America. In a eulogy for a deceased friend, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright again characterized America as a racist nation saying the Founding Fathers "planted slavery and white supremacy in the DNA of this republic."

In remembering his friend, Wright attacked the news media and FOX News in particular. He said his late friend appreciated men of all faiths but that, "FOX News can't understand that. O'Reilly will never get that. Sean Hannity's stupid fantasy will keep him forever stuck on stupid when it comes to comprehending how you can love a brother who does not believe what you believe."

Polls Apart

A new poll suggests that Barack Obama's description of small town voters in Pennsylvania may be hurting his chances in the Keystone State. The latest numbers from the American Research Group shows rival Hillary Clinton now leads Obama by a margin of 20 points: 57 to 37 percent.

Meanwhile, 10 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania also say they would never vote for Hillary Clinton, whereas 24 percent say they would never vote for Obama.

During a closed fundraiser in San Francisco, Obama said Pennsylvania voters "cling to guns or religion" because they are "bitter" over job losses.

Reverse Course

One of the most influential scientists behind the theory that global warming causes hurricane activity to intensify is reversing his position. Hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel of MIT says in the March issue of Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that hurricane frequency and intensity may not substantially rise over the next two centuries.

His new method of simulating weather patterns as computer models shows that there will be in fact an overall drop in the number of hurricanes. During the intense 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, Emanuel was one of the first to blame global warming and even said that active storm seasons will become the norm.

But now Emanuel is changing his mind saying, "The results surprised me. The take home message is that we've got a lot of work to do."

Speak No Evil

One of the co-founders of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, says that the environmental organization is wrong for calling nuclear energy "evil." He says, "We made the mistake of lumping nuclear energy in with nuclear weapons, as if all things nuclear were evil."

Moore, who left the organization in 1986 after 15 years of service, also lashed out at the movement he helped create saying, "That's why I left Greenpeace: I could see that my fellow directors were taking the organization into what I call 'pop environmentalism' which uses sensationalism, misinformation, fear tactics to deal with people on an emotional level rather than an intellectual level."

— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.