Sen. Claire McCaskill said it’s unfair to hold presidential candidates accountable for “dumb things” their supporters say.

McCaskill, a vocal supporter of presidential candidate Barack Obama, was responding to the reaction in the media to what some deemed as anti-American statements by Obama’s former pastor and adviser Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“People need to give all the candidates a break, because people who support them say dumb things sometimes,” McCaskill said. “I think some of the things this pastor said were pretty dumb.”

McCaskill talked to reporters today after an event at a south St. Louis senior center promoting awareness among senior citizens about the $600 stimulus checks coming soon to taxpayers. She said both Obama and his opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, had supporters say things that both candidates later repudiated.

McCaskill said the anger seen in Wright’s sermon spoke directly to an anger that exists in the black community over racism and feeling they are not full citizens. She said an Obama presidency would help heal those old wounds and rid some black churches of some of the more divisive rhetoric.

The Obama campaign has been on defense since comments made by Wright after Sept. 11, 2001, as well as some more recent sermons, surfaced on the Internet. Wright stepped down last week from an honorary position on the Obama campaign’s African-American Religious Leadership Committee.