We warned you there would be drama with Obama. Before he could walk on hot water today; Barack Obama had to cool down those waters. Clearly, he thinks it’s so over the top that a “major speech” (transcript) was needed to reassure the country and bring it together. The speech was scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. ET, but did not begin until 11:00 a.m. ET.
He announced his candidacy in Springfield, at the old courthouse where Abraham Lincoln served. I asked then would Obama have to free slaves? It is ironic that today he channeled and invoked the words of Abraham Lincoln to clear this huge hurdle in his campaign. I recorded audio (32 min) and it is available here.
High points (paraphrase and quotes) from today’s speech: Slavery divided this country. The answer to the slavery question was already embedded in our constitution, the ideal of equal citizenship under the law—perfected over time. Words on a parchment were not enough to deliver men from bondage. Americans protested and struggled through civil war and civil disobedience to bring about change: "I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together..."
He offered much biographical data throughout the speech: I am the son of a black African from Kenya, and a white mother from Kansas. I have gone to one of the best schools in America.
I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave-owners—an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents.
In no other country on earth is my story even possible. It has been seared into my genetic makeup…Out of many we are truly one. We won commanding victories in nearly all-white states. This is not to say that race has not been an issue. Some commentators have deemed me “too black” or “not black enough.” The pollsters have scoured the polls for the racial divide. It has been purposed that my candidacy is one of affirmative action. Then there is my Pastor Rev. Wright: I have already condemned the statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such pain. Did I know he spoke controversial statements, yes, did I sit in the pews when he spoke such statements, yes.
Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems--two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Why not separate myself from Rev. Wright completely? If all I had known of him was the snippets running endlessly on TV, then I too would have run.
He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, led a church for over thirty years...that serves the community...by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care, scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
The American people are hungry for my message of unity. My church embodies the PhDs. and the welfare mom, it is full of bawdy humor and dancing and shouting, it contains the kindness and cruelty, shocking ignorance, the full gamut of the black experience in America. I’ve never seen him treat anyone with disrespect, including white people. I can no more disown him than my own family, than my own grandmother. I’ve heard my [white] grandmother use racial epithets and cringe when black men passed her on the street. But this is all a part of me. We can dismiss Rev. Wright as a crank, as a demagogue. If we simplify, stereotype and amplify the negative we would be doing the same as Rev. Wright. This country has never really worked through this. If we walk away, retreat, we will never be able to come together to solve health care or find good jobs for every American (applause).
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Heloise,
Obama is finally playing the race card in a positive way.
I still have no use for him and regard him as just a pretty face surrounded with ugly goons - like Zbigniew Brzezinski and his ilk - but for those of you in America of color and mixed race, this is indeed a moment to savor. At last, your lives can be full of meaning, and you can perhaps feel that your vote may actually count for something. I almost envy you.
But in the end, there will be no redemption for you - not because you personally are evil or don't deserve it, but because the ship you are on - the S.S. United States of America - is sinking, and nothing Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton or John McCain, for that matter, nothing any of them can do, will save you.
2 - JustOneMan
Heloise,
The only reason Obama "READ" this speach is because he had too, not because he had an epiphany about race relations. He got caught being associated and supported by a religious huckster and racist.
If we look past your "idol worship" and the typical liberal racial stereotype of "him being articulate for a black man". Yesterdays "reading" was nothing more than a guy in trouble reading from a teleprompter what he was told to by his consultants.
He reminded me of a guy being pulled over by a cop trying to too hard to convince the officer that he had no idea how the drugs, money and gun got into the car. Obama sounded like he was saying, "Honest officer I had no idea that the Reverend Wright was in the back seat yelling out the window "kill whitey" and "death to America"
honest! I dont beleive in that sort of stuff."
In addition, did you really find his monotone delivery motivating?
JOM "Because someone has to tell the truth"
3 - Anon
JOM youre wasting your time trying to convince brainwashed cultists like this author.
By the way, is race the most important thing going on right now? Does Obama really think that some family in ohio who lost their home or some guy who got laid off without benefits or an injured soldier returning from Iraq really give a shit about why Obama's lunatic pastor is pissed off? Believe me people dont care about the reasons for black resentment in this country when they are on the verge of becoming homeless and jobless and cant afford to fill up their gas tanks.
What a self absorbed, colossal waste of time. 'Lets cure our race problems' - by voting for me. I even sell out my own grandmother for votes.
4 - Brad Schader
It was a great speech, but it was just a speech and it did not address any issue that matters in 2008. It gave him a bump that he needed and gave him the news cycle over Hillary. It puts pressure on Hillary to do something, but that is all. It was just a speech. It did not say his plan for the economy. It did not say his plan for Iraq. If this were 1968, the race speech would carry a lot of weight, but this is 2008 and we have more pressing issues.
5 - REMF
"JOM youre wasting your time trying to convince brainwashed cultists like this author."
- Anon
I agree Anon. Those brainwashed cultists are far worse than the phony chickenhawks.
6 - Peter
Obama's speech is one of the coldest political exploitation I have ever heard: attacking his own grandmother by comparing her private fear of black men to his pastor (Wright)'s public anti-american, racism' remarks. This guy would say anything to get ahead.
7 - 4truth
"For all the wonderful rhetoric and tantalizing promise of Obama and his speech, there’s not much that is actually new here. Obama's speech was largely a restatement of Jeremiah Wright’s indictment of America, delivered in University of Chicago parlance instead of South Side Chicago diatribe".
8 - Anon
REMF is like a child with down syndrome who keeps repeating himself without realizing it. Yes we get it - the neo cons are responsible for everything that is wrong with the country.
Get over it - they won. They ruled the country for 8 years, started 2 wars, changed the face of the world and the middle east - while you whine about how Al Gore should have won in 2000. Its pathetic.
And as for Obama - he had no problem letting Ferraro take the heat for her comments which were not even remotely close to being racist compared to his pastor's. But he had no desire for a 'more perfect union' then.
Only when he was faced with the heat, like a cunning politician he changed the subject. He had to talk about rejecting his pastor's anti Americanism not the pastor's problems as a black man in the 60s. What a sham.
Like someone pointed out, People conveniently forget to mention the good things done by ..say..Don Imus or even Geraldine Ferraro. But we are supposed to look at the 'good' his pastor has done?
Obama's followers remind me of the story about the pied-piper (obama in this case) who leads the mice (his followers who blindly accept everything he says as the truth) to their demise.
But it is fun to see the liberals fawning and wetting themselves because of one pre-scripted, politically opportunisitic speech.
:)
9 - ChicagoLOOP
Obama's pastor and mentor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright is a man who less than a week after 9/11 gave a sermon that sadistically rejoiced how America's chickens had come home to roost. Five days earlier, Americans (of all colors, incidentally) had leapt from the World Trade Center to escape the flames. And this is the Wright context!
10 - Mike
You know a person by the company he/she keeps. Obama has kept this anti-American, anti semitic racist for 20 years as his pastor and "inspirational mentor" (Obama's own word)
11 - Christopher Rose
To "Anon":- As the Comments Editor here, I see that at least 4 different names are making comments from your computer IP address.
The most common explanation for this is that you are posting under multiple IDs, which is not acceptable here.
Unless you have a very convincing alternative explanation, I must insist that you pick just one and stick to it, preferably the one that you used with a link to (your?) website, although the choice is yours.
Thanks
12 - Anon
Unless you have a very convincing alternative explanation
I have two roommates with divergent points of view that post here occasionally - didn't know the 'rule' was one IP - one name.
Is that good enough for a reason?
13 - Christopher Rose
I'm not persuaded. Five different names have been used between possibly three people? Furthermore, having read all the comments you've made, I can't detect any divergence of views.
As one of you is a BC writer, I think it's probably best that we stop this practice now to avoid any more confusion.
14 - bliffle
#10 â€" March 19, 2008 @ 12:44PM â€" Mike
You know a person by the company he/she keeps."
No. That's McCarthyism. It's also dumb. Do you really want to be known by the company you keep? All of it?
I person is known by their deeds.
15 - Heloise
Obama raps his grandmother but the Clintons will walk over their mothers to get to the White House.
Many of my relatives are married outside their race and just because of that the person can and does still make racial remarks. I've seen it and heard it. He looks bad mentioning it, but I KNOW IT'S TRUE...White folks love to remind black folks "you black ain't you?" Well, duh!! But guess what the love of my life, two of them, were white men. The rest were black.
Heloise
16 - JustOneMan
"two of them, were white men. The rest were black"
Gee doesnt that make you special.
JOM
17 - Heloise
JOM, Obama wrote the speech himself okay. So his writing trumps Jack Kennedy.
Heloise
18 - JustOneMan
Did you see him write it? Or are you taking his word?
19 - JustOneMan
Hel...if Obama really did write his own speech ahem...choke...tee hee...he reminds me of the Great Dumbocratic President Jimmy Carter (God rest his soul)...Carter spent more time thinking, writing and talking about doing things but never achieved anything since he left office or since he past away (more on that later).
JOM
20 - REMF
"Only when he was faced with the heat, like a cunning politician he changed the subject. He had to talk about rejecting his pastor's anti Americanism not the pastor's problems as a black man in the 60s. What a sham."
- Anon
Almost as big a "sham" as using four different names...
21 - bliffle
Meanwhile, McCain was stumbling around convincing those who still had doubts of his senility.
22 - JustOneMan
So our choices come down to a senile old man or a young lying racist? Gee well be longing for the good old Bush years by 2010!
JOM
23 - Brad Schader
The only bright side about McCain is that, at his age, he really can only serve one term. Hillary is a Socialist IMHO and Obama is just not ready. He will be one day and will make a great president, but 2009 is not his time. He should stay in the Senate for a term or two and learn everything he can about international relations and such. He is a smart man. I would rather him start serving in 2012 and have 8 years of a qualified president than have him serve in 2009 and have four years of OJT. That said, in a race between Obama and McCain, and without any real third party candidates, I will vote for Obama.
24 - JustOneMan
REMF,
Today, Obama called Wright's statements "divisive," "racially charged" and "views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation." But Obama sought to explain his spiritual history with Wright, a man he described as an achiever of good deeds.
Lets imagine these same words "read" by someone else..
Today, David Duke called the Emperial Grand Wizard's statements "divisive," "racially charged" and "views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation." But Duke sought to explain his spiritual history with the Wizard, a man he described as an achiever of good deeds. Why he even took the kids fishing and to baseball games between cross burnings.
Wow....and you prentend that he isnt there because of his race....hmmmmm a claissic case of denial!
JOM
25 - Clavos
Brad,
"Hillary is a Socialist IMHO and Obama is just not ready. He will be one day and will make a great president..."
What irony!
Read their position papers. "There's not a dime's worth of difference between 'em."