The snippets, though, seem tailor-made for attack ads against Obama, who at first responded to media coverage of Wright’s inflammatory remarks by asserting, “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation.”

But in the audio book, Obama recreates the very first sermon he heard Wright deliver — “The Audacity of Hope,” a phrase Obama has since used frequently, including as the title of his second book — which includes several remarks similar to those that sparked the controversy.

Obama describes the sermon as “a meditation on a fallen world. … Rev. Wright spoke of Sharpsville and Hiroshima, the callousness of policy makers in the White House and in the State House.”

Other potentially troublesome clips feature Obama swearing and quoting others using racial slurs.

Obama campaign spokesman Nick Shapiro denied that the senator’s audio book passages could hurt his candidacy.

“It will be no surprise if the right wing once again resorts to the politics of distraction, because they know that the majority of Americans trust Barack Obama to end the war in Iraq, provide affordable access to universal health care and find real solutions to lowering gas prices, the issues that matter most to them,” he said.

Obama himself seemed to grasp the potential political implications of his words when he voiced the book. In the preface to the audio version, which is based on the 2004 re-release of the book, he seems resigned to his words being used against him.

“I cannot honestly say that the voice in this book is not mine — that I would tell the story much differently today than I did 10 years ago,” he says, “even if certain passages have proven to be inconvenient politically, the grist for political commentary and opposition research.”

“My copy of his book is dog-eared and covered with yellow marker,” said Floyd Brown, a longtime conservative activist whom Obama recently cited by name as a prototypical political mudslinger. Brown added that the audio should be even more effective in bashing Obama.

“I expect to use his words a lot in the ads that I do,” Brown said. “And I would highly encourage other independent efforts — or the [McCain] campaign itself — to do the same thing.”

“Most people will only start focusing on this race after Labor Day. Most Americans don’t give a rip yet,” said Brown, who is perhaps best known as a creator of the independent expenditure Willie Horton ad that helped elect George H.W. Bush in 1988. “Most haven’t looked at the issues. They don’t know Barack Obama. It’s all about delivering messages to those people during that moment in time when they’re listening.”

Brown was coy about what specific audio quotes from the book would be used but allowed, “What we’re doing now is test-marketing messages.”

Some Republicans, though, remain skeptical. One consultant with experience in the Bush-Cheney 2004 reelection campaign warned that it “would be dramatically stupid” to use the audio in attack ads. “This country has elected two straight presidents who have tacitly or overtly admitted drug use. I don’t think it’s going to work.”

Additional reporting by Alexander Burns.