U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., contended Monday that colleague Barack Obama — her choice for president — is being unfairly maligned for remarks made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago.

“To saddle Senator Obama with every comment that his pastor has made is unfair,” McCaskill said in an interview Monday, as she mingled with elderly visitors at a South Side senior center. “His pastor is not running for president.”

“I think there are many many Americans who have heard men of God say things they disagree with,” she added.

McCaskill also observed, though, that some of Wright’s statements are being taken out of context. 

Such comments “reflect the bitterness and divide that’s out there” among some African-Americans, she said. McCaskill said that Wright may well have been trying to capture the attention of his audience in the pews, before then contrasting that bitterness with the love of Jesus.

In any event, Obama, she said, “is working to get (the nation) past that bitterness…to lift us over that big chasm.”

The focus on Wright, she said, is part of an effort by Obama’s political opponents “to drag down the person who’s winning.”

“I think we’ll get through it,” she said, adding that she was “glad we’re dealing with it now.”

The controversy now gives Obama time to put the issue to rest before the fall general election, McCaskill said.

Obama is to give a major speech on the matter Tuesday in Pennsylvania.