AP now claims Wright said patriots who think Obama is Muslim are sycophants, not psychopaths

The Right Reverend Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, called people who believe Obama is Muslim "sycophants," not "psychopaths," during a fiery sermon Sunday in Arkansas, the AP reported, retracting its earlier story, which used the p-word. But the context does not appear to support the former usage, unless Wright used a word he misunderstood.

Wright's only reference to Obama came when he compared those who support the war in Iraq to those who think Obama is Muslim. The president, whose full name is Barack Hussein Obama, is Christian, he claims, even though he was raised as a Muslim and his main foreign policy thrust has been kow-towing and bowing and apologizing and pandering to Muslims, and celebrating the munificent contributions of Muslims in space.

"Go after the military mindset ... and the enemy will come after you with everything," Wright told the packed church.

"He will surround you with psychopaths (or sycophants) who will criticize you and ostracize you and put you beyond the pale of hope and say 'you ain't really a Baptist' and say 'the president ain't really a Christian, he's a Muslim. There ain't no American Christian with a name like Barack Hussein,'" he added. Amen to that, answered the Little Rock congregation in unison.

A poll released this month found that nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they thought Obama was Muslim, up from the 11 percent in March 2009. The proportion who said he was Christian was 34 percent, down from 48 percent in March of last year. A plurality of respondents weren't sure whether he we was Christian or Muslim, even though the mainstream media keeps trying to convince them. A clear majority doubts his claim to be a Christian, but it appears that no one believes he's Jewish.

The poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, surveyed 3,003 people.

Obama cut ties with Wright in 2008, after Wright's incendiary remarks were publicized during the presidential election. At a National Press Club appearance in April 2008, Wright claimed the U.S. government could plant AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrahkan and suggested Obama was putting his pastor at arm's length for political purposes while privately agreeing with him.

Obama denounced Wright as "divisive and destructive" and left Wright's church in Chicago.