by Mark Silva with the text of the speech
Sen. Barack Obama, today invoking the centuries-old quest for "a more perfect union,'' traced the debate over race in America to "the original sin of slavery.''
The nation still faces a "long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America,'' Obama said in his high-stakes speech about race and unity in Philadelphia. "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 – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories.
"We hold common hopes,'' the senator said. "We may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.''
Obama again disavowed the most divisive words of the retiring pastor of his church in Chicago, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that have made this speech necessary, yet attempted to explain that there is much more to the man whom he has known for two decades than the words which have made the pastor controversial.
Obama's words about race and unity in America today will serve as the benchmark for his ability to regain control of a campaign which he never wanted to make a question of race.
See the speech in full, as prepared for delivery underway now:
This is the prepared text of Obama's speech today:
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
"Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across the ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. 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 – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – 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, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, 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.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. 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, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins. ''
Comments
Obama Nailed It.
Get over the racism America. We need to heal, not hate.
Posted by: Jimmy Crackcorn | March 18, 2008 11:06 AM
Excellent job OBAMA, I agree with Jimmy we all need to get over the racism, it has only hindered the richest nation in the world for centuries. This is the man who will start a wave of changes for America and it's politics. Like he said we've just begun with the elderly black man and young white woman, if this marks his beginning one year before the '08 Presidential election, imagine what strides he or (we-American People) could make in 8 years. Lets all join him and make the world a better place for everyone!
Posted by: Mandy | March 18, 2008 11:39 AM
I thought Obama's candidacy was not about race?
Anyway, perhaps it was going to come to this with Obama in the race for the White House being the first real black candidate with a realistic shot at winning the presidency. But it seems it is the Left that has been the one focusing on race.
Bush and the Republicans have not focused on the blackness of Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Michael Steele, or the other African Americans who have served in the Bush administration; or the Latin heritage of Alberto Gonzale, Mel Martinez and the other Hispanics who have served in Bush's administration.
All of those folks were appointed not because of their race, but because of their qualifications.
Today, we have whites and blacks playing sports together, watching sports together, sitting on the bus or train together, working together, going to school together. That is not to say, there are no racial divides, as clearly there are and admittedly deeper than I imagined after seeing the videos from Rev. Wright's church.
Certainly, and thankfully, not all blacks, and perhaps a clear majority of blacks, do not adhere to the hateful rantings of Rev. Wright. Also, I am sure there is more to Rev. Wright than what we have seen the past week. There is evidence that the Rev. and his church's congregsation has done some good work in the community as well.
But then I just cannot fathom his comments that whites created the AIDS virus to act as genocide against blacks, or that we did not bat an eye when dropping a nuclear bomb on Japan, or that we got what we deserved on 9/11, or that we should sing "God Damn America," rather than "God Bless America." Those rantings also are the antithesis of Christian teaching. They are not church sermons. They are rantings of a sick, hateful man.
But it's also from a man, and a congregation, that exists in the city, a city run by Democrats, a congregation consistently let down by Democratic policies. A city full of racist white liberals who believe the black man cannot succeed without the "mercies" of a white liberal "do-gooder." Perhaps that, more than anything, is the root of the problem.
Posted by: John D | March 18, 2008 11:40 AM
I thought the speech was basically a class warfare speech masquerading as racial healing. He wants whites and blacks to come together and focus on the real enemy.
Posted by: Susan-Missouri | March 18, 2008 11:52 AM
John D-
How many African American Republicans hold Federeal or statewide elected office in this nation?
Answer : Zero. None. Not one.
Republicans can start lecturing the Democrats on the issues surrounding African American candidates when they have some African American candidates themselves.
Posted by: Luke | March 18, 2008 11:52 AM
Johnny D:
Bush and the Republicans have not focused on race??? They always trot out Condi, Colin Powell, etc. whenever they want to show how "Color-blind" this administration has been. And basically, they threw Colin Powell under the bus when things started going badly in Iraq.
So tell me Johnny - what about the rantings of McCain supporter John Hagee, who blames Hurricane Katrina on the sins that take place in New Orleans? Or Rod Parsley, who says this country was founded to wipe out Muslims?? Or the late Jerry Falwell, who blamed 9/11 on homosexuals, which that great McCain supporter Pat Robertson nodded in agreement when he made that remark on 9/12????? Or how about before the GOP "Values" debate last year, when the choir sand "Why Should God Bless America"???
Face it Johnny - demagogues exist on both sides. Not just the Democrats.
Posted by: BobHusseininATL | March 18, 2008 11:52 AM
This was amazing and a pivital moment in American politics. YES WE CAN! Obama08!
Posted by: Deb Deb | March 18, 2008 11:59 AM
I feel really badly for you who are making these negative comments, people who clearly didn't read or see Obama's entire speech. Years from now, looking back at one of the most important, affecting speech of our modern political times, you'll forever have to remember that you were against what was said. There were likely people who thought Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech was wrong and un-American and now you have joined their ranks. Congratulations.
Posted by: sd | March 18, 2008 12:00 PM
Blah blah blah. More speech and talk from a candidate taht is all talk. Sorry but someoen who choses to attend a hate mongering church and raise their children in a hate mongering church is not fit to be president. Obviuosly he is entitled to go live his life in peace but he needs to step down. The press need to really call him out on this and ask how someoen who says he is a uniter and healer can combine that with raising his children in a church that espouses hate. He is done. 20 years of attending a hate mngering church run by an anti-white pastor are not erased by giving a 15 min speech so your minions in the rpess like Olberman can continue to fawn over you. All this was spin and dmage control. Goodbye Obama we hardly knew ya.
Posted by: Vinny | March 18, 2008 12:01 PM
Nothing in this society promotes and sells like controversy. This speech is a gift. It shows how the man can deal with crisis. Hillary or McCain would be hard pressed to find a comparable situation to be in.
Posted by: GW | March 18, 2008 12:03 PM
Why is it he can only "nail it" when it is scripted and written down in speech form? And yet when he is asked any tough questions, he looks like a deer caught in headlights. "We the People"? Can he ever give a speech without using references of other famous quotes?
Posted by: Em | March 18, 2008 12:04 PM
This qoute from Obama right here proves that he lied to the American people on both MSNBC and Fox news. The press needs to call him on this and not just give him a pass because well dog gone it, they just like him.
"have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
I have never heard one of my priests EVER say anything remotley close to what Wright said. SO he knew all along but chose to keep attending that church anyway. He is a fraud. I liked him at first but now he needs to step aside for the good of the Democratic Party.
Posted by: Phil | March 18, 2008 12:05 PM
That is an amazing speech. However, I'm still waiting to hear solutions to how he is going to fix all of the problems mentioned. Amazing speeches aren't enough for me. Things aren't that simple.
Posted by: Matty B | March 18, 2008 12:08 PM
John D, can you fathom the idea that the federal government would infect hundreds of Black males with syphilis for experiments? Believe it and read up on the Tuskegee Experiment. If you can understand the implications of such an experiment then you can understand how such a thing could be on the minds of Blacks with respect to the AIDS crisis. It is simplistic thinking, but it does raise some frightening possibilities.
Posted by: GW | March 18, 2008 12:09 PM
Unfortunately it was a hollow speech.
He hopes America to accept and move forward yet his own church of 20+years and his personal advisor can't? Did he ever give this speech to the Trinity Church? To Reverend Wright? If he can't convince his close friend/confidant/advisor Reverend Wright to change how does he expect to convince anyone else to move past this situation? Don't forget his pastor is not his family. This isn't his mother or father, who can be hard to control. There are many churches. He CHOSE his pastor.
It is obvious that BO is not being honest about having been to church when these disgusting sermons took place, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ZJYfyCRXc&feature=related (pointing towards "a man here"".
BO knew about this last month, however he didn't come out and address this until it became a problem, politics as usual.
Posted by: Rick | March 18, 2008 12:09 PM
Obama wants it both ways. He asks America to rise above race and religion, while hoping to appear religious himself. But he is in deep trouble if a spotlight is shined on his own THEOLOGY. See:
http://miraclesdaily.blogspot.com
Posted by: Christian Prophet | March 18, 2008 12:13 PM
This is not a speech by a political candidate,
It is by a Statesman.
Posted by: Jeff M | March 18, 2008 12:14 PM
Em, it was a speech. Inform yourself about the difference in giving a prepared speech and speaking off the cuff. There are very few people who speak off the cuff without preparation as well as they do from a prepared speech. We the people is not a famous quote. It is the very phrase which gives legitimacy to the country and government. What else don't you get?
Posted by: GW | March 18, 2008 12:15 PM
Unfortunately, the speech did not make the impact as expected. Obama cannot "disown" Wright because "he is like family to me". And goes on with 20 years of justification. Certainly he must have, at a minimum, nodded his he at every inflamatory, anti-american, anti-white comment Wright has made from the pulpit. I am fed up with this historic 'I am a perpetual victim' of actions that occurred centuries ago and for thousands of years hence. White america was not soley complicit with the slave trade. History reflects regal Blacks from Africa, and countries throughout the middle east sold not only blacks, but whites into slavery and bondage. Even current history reflects white females are sold into the slavery-sex trade in this very day and age. Children in asia are sold into the labor trade. In essence, Blacks are not the only victims, but Wright, Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakan, et al, would like the world to believe they are victims in their entirety. Perhaps from their racially stained pulpits and their warped views, they are.
Todays political black structure do not want to recognise the strides that have been made, their agenda dictates they must remain victims. As far as Obama, if elected, he will perpetuate the black victim agenda at the expense of this nation
Posted by: DahktaD | March 18, 2008 12:16 PM
Obama's speech went far further than simply addressing the Jeremiah Wright question. It was a sweeping and inspiring statement on unity that re-asserts the spirit of the Obama campaign as we saw it in Iowa and South Carolina. Today Obama seemed more presidential than ever. Republicans and Clintonistas will be hard-pressed to come up with any further excuse to push the Wright story, but I have no doubt they will try.
Posted by: Mark C. Eades | March 18, 2008 12:16 PM
In my deepest of hearts, I believe Rev. Wrights comments were taken out of context because of the level of frustration he displayed and the generalization he chose to use. You mentioned I just cannot fathom his comments that whites created the AIDS virus to act as genocide against blacks, well everyones interpretation will be different. However I got out of the message that AIDS is man made and the team that successfully created AIDS was white. His intended purpose was not that ALL whites came together and said lets creat AIDS to kill off BLACKS. No I didn't get that out of his message at all, but I do understand with the generalization, how some whites may have gathered that opinion. Rev. Wright speaks facts from his past and what he's seen in his life, on this day he also spoke about The Tuskegee Airman experiment where Syphillus was created and injected into African American men for testing but no whites. These are facts that he's speaking on regardless as to the tone of his voice. We all have to look deeper into the message and listen to what he's trying to educate us on. Ignorance is the worst enemy one can have, so his position in a community where he has the utmost respect, is to teach the truth and that is his ultimate goal. Like Gergen stated, it's not a lack of patriotism it's respectfully a different form of patriotism as seen through the eyes of the not so priveledged. As CNN analyst David Gergen stated, going back to the days of Fredrick Douglas, MLK Jr and other prominent AA leaders they respectfully have a different view of America
OH by the way did FOX or ABC news go purchase tapes from McCains church or Clinton's church like Sean Hannity of FOX news did. And then fast forward through all of them and pick out the two most derogatory statements. Now all of sudden they are being played on every station, you tube and radio . I didn't think so.
Posted by: Mandy | March 18, 2008 12:19 PM
I'll just sit back, watch and laugh as the dems fight their own civil war against one another.
Your going to see 'The Best Of' Rev. Wright's anti-America sermons coming out soon, by way of The Clinton Campaign.
Pass the popcorn jethro, it's a long way to Denver!
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | March 18, 2008 12:19 PM
Obama creates racial divides so he can be the all powerful healer of them. This speech was insulting. He is like the Rev. Jesse Jackson but way more smooth talking. He should have taken a stand against his pastor's words and said that everyone can succeed in this great country as long as they put effort forth. Take lessons from Cosby.
Posted by: KS | March 18, 2008 12:21 PM
Just a race-hustler. Smoother than Al Sharpton, perhaps. But just as much a fraud, who won't distance himself--and hasn't for 20 years--from his hate-Whites, hate-Israel mentor, Rev. Wright.
He just buries his race-hustling in a blizzard of feel-good sentences.
Posted by: Arthur Henning | March 18, 2008 12:21 PM
In my deepest of hearts, I believe Rev. Wrights comments were taken out of context because of the level of frustration he displayed and the generalization he chose to use. You mentioned I just cannot fathom his comments that whites created the AIDS virus to act as genocide against blacks, well everyones interpretation will be different. However I got out of the message that AIDS is man made and the team that successfully created AIDS was white. His intended purpose was not that ALL whites came together and said lets creat AIDS to kill off BLACKS. No I didn't get that out of his message at all, but I do understand with the generalization, how some whites may have gathered that opinion. Rev. Wright speaks facts from his past and what he's seen in his life, on this day he also spoke about The Tuskegee Airman experiment where Syphillus was created and injected into African American men for testing but no whites. These are facts that he's speaking on regardless as to the tone of his voice. We all have to look deeper into the message and listen to what he's trying to educate us on. Ignorance is the worst enemy one can have, so his position in a community where he has the utmost respect, is to teach the truth and that is his ultimate goal. Like Gergen stated, it's not a lack of patriotism it's respectfully a different form of patriotism as seen through the eyes of the not so privileged. As CNN analyst David Gergen stated, going back to the days of Fredrick Douglas, MLK Jr and other prominent AA leaders they respectfully have a different view of America
OH by the way did FOX or ABC news go purchase tapes from McCains church or Clinton's church like Sean Hannity of FOX news did. And then fast forward through all of them and pick out the two most derogatory statements. Now all of sudden they are being played on every station, you tube and radio . I didn't think so.
Posted by: Mandy | March 18, 2008 12:24 PM
I would question the sincerety of such a speech considering that it was only used after a controversy has erupted over the issue. If he is so great why didn't he make assertions before the controversy so as to belay those that would use them against him? He is only being a politician and saying what the blind followers want to hear. The Obama Zombies will find nothing wrong with this whole situation and will tell everyone else how stupid, racist, Republican, etc. that they are.
EM - he can only use quotes from other sources because he has no original thought. Just take a good look at all his plans. They are other peoples, modified slightly perhaps. He takes from the likes of Hillary (healthcare), Al Gore (environmental), and even Bush (tax cuts, albeit a shift to the middle class). He's a JAFPo!
Posted by: Paul | March 18, 2008 12:25 PM
I Voted For Hilary Clinton
But camparing Jeremiah Wright to John McCain Minister ,,You
Can not compare,,, John McCain,, the minister he know just gave him Money,,he does not Go to his church,,, He did not Baptise john McCain kids,,, he is not on John McCain Campaign,, Just gave John McCain money,,, to compare him with Jeremiah Wright is something the Media, and the Obama Camapaign,, doing,,Barack Obama Has a Racist man who worked on his Campaign,, Jeremiah Wright, ,, who helped Barack with the title of his book,,, who baptise his kids, Barack Obama Miinister, gave Louis Farrahkan life time achievement award, ,,, Barack Obama who went to this Racist mans church,,, for 20 years,
Whats even sad is Barack Obama, followers don’t even Care, He can run over a person right now ,,, and people will still follow him,,, but one thing is for certain Barack no matter what, just lost this election,,, even if he wins the primary,,, from Hilary,,, Barack can not win a big state, Hilary followers will not back Barack Obama,,, just like if Hilary wins the primary,,, Barack Obama followers will not back Hilary ,,,,,
Obama is definitely Muslim, but he is a closet Racist, who employed a racist,, of all Racist, ,,,,, he is done
Watch Obama weblink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prhnc2fxAzg&feature=related%20...%20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4YxPBAkfp4&feature=related
Posted by: Paul V | March 18, 2008 12:27 PM
John McCain was never a member of John Hagee's church, nor Jerry Falwell's, nor Pat Robertson's--he was never in those men's churches for 20 years, and then claimed never to have heard their off-the-wall comments. If anything, McCain held that element at arms length. Obama clearly was willing to overlook Wright's hate-filled diatribes until they finally became big news.
And the Tuskeegee Experiment, as terrible as it was, consisted of not treating men for syphilis that they had contracted, of not informing them that they had syphilis, to observe the progress of the disease. The government did not infect the men; they did that themselves.
Posted by: Stan | March 18, 2008 12:35 PM
Em, How can you say "why does he only {nail it when it is scripted}. Have you been watching anything thus far, Hillary is the one with the multiple personality disorder. You ask her about VP on week 1 - Oh we will unify and it's Obama, when that back fired on week 2 - she said he's not qualified, when Obama rose above those petty remarks she starting crying on national TV and for what. She has re-furbished photos, racist comments etc.. to gain a lead on OBAMA and none of it has worked. She's the one and may I quote who looks like a deer caught in headlights, then a deer who was hit by an 18 wheeler, then the deer who lost his best friend. She seems to be holding the grammy for multiple deer faces not OBAMA.
Posted by: Mandy | March 18, 2008 12:37 PM
then you can understand how such a thing could be on the minds of Blacks with respect to the AIDS crisis. It is simplistic thinking, but it does raise some frightening possibilities.
Posted by: GW | March 18, 2008 12:09 PM
GW: In case you didn't know, doctors discovered years ago that the virus came from monkeys in Africa, unless you mean to say the Gov. is injecting them into people of color, in which case your discriminating against homosexuals. What a stupid and illogical argument on your part.
Posted by: Don B. | March 18, 2008 12:38 PM
The Obama campaign has elevated "playing the race card" to an art. It has done nothing but through much of this campaign, particularly once it came down to a woman and a black/bi-racial person. It twisted remarks, it fanned the flames (behind the scenes, of course), it subtly pushed a racial agenda every step of the way. Then it said, "who, moi?" whenever it got caught.
And NOW Obama talks about race. NOW, when he's caught in a trap and is confronted by video.
What a hypocrite.
Posted by: Liz | March 18, 2008 12:39 PM
I encourage the members of Trinity to go to a church were they preach Law and Gospel. Where the pastors devote themselves to the Apostles teaching and the breaking of bread.
The church is “Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution.”
Posted by: Larry Lee | March 18, 2008 12:43 PM
Em, How can you say "why does he only {nail it when it is scripted}. Have you been watching anything thus far, Hillary is the one with the multiple personality disorder. You ask her about VP on week 1 - Oh we will unify and it's Obama, when that back fired on week 2 - she said he's not qualified, when Obama rose above those petty remarks she starting crying on national TV and for what. She has re-furbished photos, racist comments etc.. to gain a lead on OBAMA and none of it has worked. She's the one and may I quote who looks like a deer caught in headlights, then a deer who was hit by an 18 wheeler, then the deer who lost his best friend. She seems to be holding the grammy for multiple deer faces not OBAMA.
Posted by: Mandy | March 18, 2008 12:43 PM
White racist Liberalism is the disease and the only cure for this disease is a little dose of Dyslin. John D is the only man who can rid Illinois of these corrupt white racist Liberals and Lefty Loons. The only choice is freedom. Vote Dyslin and chase that Turbin Durbin bum out of Washington!
http://www.ecpzone.com/images/article/1194021072170_f1_2.jpg
Posted by: friendsofDyslinforSenate | March 18, 2008 12:48 PM
GW, Why don't YOU re-read my original entry? The point is, he only truly impresses people when he has a PREPARED SPEECH. "We the people" is part of the constitution written by the founding fathers. Obama is quoting the constitution, saying: Look at me, i'm quoting the constitution,see, I love America- Furthermore,there are several gifted charismatic people that are great at being in the public eye at all the times. I don't agree with you. WHAT ELSE DON'T YOU GET YOU OBAMAFREAK???
Posted by: Em | March 18, 2008 12:48 PM
Vinny and Em, your comments are either based on ignorance or just plain stupidity. Pick one because it's definitely where you belong.
Posted by: Treno | March 18, 2008 12:54 PM
Vinny and Em, your comments are either based on ignorance or just plain stupidity. Pick one because it's definitely where you belong.
Posted by: Treno | March 18, 2008 12:55 PM
GW: In case you didn't know, doctors discovered years ago that the virus came from monkeys in Africa...
Posted by: Don B. | March 18, 2008 12:38 PM
Oh I get it when doctors and scientists make discoveries that fit your political agenda you cite them but when the vast majority of scientisists and climatologists have peer reviewed studies that show Global Climate Change accompanied by a rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere as a result of man made industry you call them a pack of liars. Should I be shocked?
Posted by: john | March 18, 2008 12:58 PM
This speech was not about race so much as it was about Obama.
In the theology of Victimhood, one's personal and public problems get cloaked in societal blame.
Sorry, Senator, you wear the jacket on this one. It is not about race. It is about your deficiencies as candidate for the Presidency.
http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2008/03/john-m...
Posted by: Pat Hickey | March 18, 2008 1:01 PM
"John McCain was never a member of John Hagee's church, nor Jerry Falwell's, nor Pat Robertson's--he was never in those men's churches for 20 years, and then claimed never to have heard their off-the-wall comments. If anything, McCain held that element at arms length."
Posted by: Stan
"Arms length"?? Is being on the same stage as Hagee "arms length"?? Is actively pursuing and accepting Hagee's endorsement "arms length"?
Paulo:
The only reason you will see those videos is because the Republicans cannot campaign on their economic and foreign policy achievements of the past 8 years.
Posted by: BobHusseininATL | March 18, 2008 1:12 PM
Nicely crafted, eloquent words.
However words are words.
Why did Obama not leave this Church decades ago when he heard this preacher saying things like Gd Damm America and the like?
Oprah Winfrey left this church years ago. Maybe the rehtoric, like the claim that 'the government created the AIDS virus to kill blacks' was just too much for her to stomach?
Apparently Obama could stomach it for the past 20 years. -- until now that he now got caught.
Posted by: Spector | March 18, 2008 1:19 PM
Wow, it just goes to show you that you can have 10 people in a room that will listen to a speech, some will take it to heart and believe in change and go out and take the necessary steps to intiate change. Some will go in the total opposite direction and read between lines that just aren't there to look for the worst and believe the worst because they're either too lazy or too cynical (hateful). And yet others will just not give a damn. Why don't we all agree that something has got to change and we need to look at our selves in the mirror and ask, "Is it me."
God Bless U all!!
Posted by: Sis of Jimmy Crackcorn | March 18, 2008 1:24 PM
GW and the other Loony Lefters continue to show how incredibly ignorant they are. The U.S. gave syphillis to the Tuscogee airmen? AIDS was created by the government?
And, Mandy, one post would do, not the same one thee or four times!
And as far as sermons at my church or any church I have attended for 40 years, NONE of them ever had words even close to Rev. Wright. All of the sermons are based on Scripture, not politics of the day.
Posted by: John D | March 18, 2008 1:25 PM
Amen Larry Lee
So Paul V, should all African Americans be upset and condemn all White Americans for the years of slavery their ancestors put African Americans through. And so what Rev. Wright worked on his campaign, your precious Hillary had to let go of a campaign member for racial comments and so did McCain, he also denounced comments from his supporters. Barack is doing the same thing, so why can't we believe that his denouncement isn't real such as Hillary's or McCains. In my adult life, I have none nothing other than you preach what you teach, and if
Posted by: Mandy | March 18, 2008 1:27 PM
From the Messsiah...
" ...Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed..."
As the "Uniter" and as a "leader" what did you do to stand up to the pastors hate and racism?
That the sermons were racist and hateful is a given- Obama gets no credit for recognizing this... what did he to get this crap out of his church?
Posted by: heartburn | March 18, 2008 1:30 PM
Mandy, here is a quick history lesson for you regarding your statements:
1.) HIV is not man made, created by whites to kill blacks.
2.) The Tuskeegee experiment was a shameful episode in US medical history. However syphilis was not man-made nor was it injected into blacks to infect them. Rather, the patients got syphilis sexually like everyone else. The terrible part was that the control group of the study was given placebo 'treatments' and not antibiotics as were the other group [of black patients]. These black men in the control group were then left without real treatments and then studied to see how the disease would affect black patients differently than whites over the years the disease ran its course. And the real shocker, the majority of physicians and nurses involved were black.
Sorry for the lengthy comment but what you said really needed clarification.
The fact Rev. Wright claimed to his flock that HIV was 'invented' by whites to kill blacks is absolutely abhorrent! Did he, a man supposedly with advanced degrees, not think that this horrible libel would not fuel hatred of whites, the US govt., and/or not continue the widespread ignorance of HIV in the black community? Did he not think that it would not fuel hatred or disgust of black people infected with HIV by people in his church, and those people who they then spread such ignorant rumors to?
He screamed fire in a crowded theater. There is no way to justify or explain it other than ignorant fear mongering amongst people impressionable to his messages. Period.
Obama should have disavowed him years ago. Period.
Posted by: Spector | March 18, 2008 1:34 PM
Mandy, here is a quick history lesson for you regarding your statements:
1.) HIV is not man made, created by whites to kill blacks.
2.) The Tuskeegee experiment was a shameful episode in US medical history. However syphilis was not man-made nor was it injected into blacks to infect them. Rather, the patients got syphilis sexually like everyone else. The terrible part was that the control group of the study was given placebo 'treatments' and not antibiotics as were the other group [of black patients]. These black men in the control group were then left without real treatments and then studied to see how the disease would affect black patients differently than whites over the years the disease ran its course. And the real shocker, the majority of physicians and nurses involved were black.
Sorry for the lengthy comment but what you said really needed clarification.
The fact Rev. Wright claimed to his flock that HIV was 'invented' by whites to kill blacks is absolutely abhorrent! Did he, a man supposedly with advanced degrees, not think that this horrible libel would not fuel hatred of whites, the US govt., and/or not continue the widespread ignorance of HIV in the black community? Did he not think that it would not fuel hatred or disgust of black people infected with HIV by people in his church, and those people who they then spread such ignorant rumors to?
He screamed fire in a crowded theater. There is no way to justify or explain it other than ignorant fear mongering amongst people impressionable to his messages. Period.
Obama should have disavowed him years ago.
Posted by: Spector | March 18, 2008 1:34 PM
Pick one? What do I win? A Obama campaign sign, oops I mean a CHANGE sign? Good comment though. Wow, insulting someone with being either stupid or ignorant.Very creative. You should try forming an opinion about the subject and then commenting on it, not attacking the comment of another. Or maybe you're just not that intelligent.
Posted by: Em | March 18, 2008 1:35 PM
What this speech does is beautifully lay out the struggles of the African-American community and the continued reprecussions of slavery/Jim Crow/racism for whites to consider. Then acknowledge the struggles of whites against the forces that negatively affect their well-being. It is honest and forthright - and strikes a consiliatory tone.
Posted by: Anne-Marie Hislop | March 18, 2008 1:48 PM
Imagine that Mandy, a politician who fights back when she is attacked, laughs, cries. It's called being genuine even when the cameras are rolling. She doesn't search for words or pauses or walks away from cameras to evade question, like her opponent Obama. The guy just isn't nearly as smart or as qualified. You need to admit that much, even if you are in LOVE with man. And there is only one way that a deer in headlights looks, if you want to say Hill is emotional or has many faces, that's fine. But Obama looks stumped and like he is searching for answers UNLESS he is giving a speech. Remember the pop quiz by T.Russert during the debate about Russia? Hillary: Medevev or something like that
Obama: HMMMMMM.......
Posted by: Em | March 18, 2008 1:53 PM
You are right, Barack.
NOT THIS TIME!!!
You make me proud to be an American.
GO OBAMA IN 2008!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Bob | March 18, 2008 1:56 PM
Seems like Black doctors and nurse also partiscipated in admimistering Tuskegee Experiment. So maybe it is a case of evil doers not race.
Posted by: Larry | March 18, 2008 2:01 PM
An amazing and bold speech. Finally some honesty about race relations in America from a political candidate.
Posted by: Nina Lowes | March 18, 2008 2:04 PM
Obama on his failure to leave the Trinity Church says that it does a lot of good things. Tyrants and despots, cult leaders and dictators, can also be said to have done good things, even Saddam Hussein kept the Iraqis from killing each other as they do today, but that does not mean than we should elect as our President someone who admires the hate monger because he had some good attributes. The failure of Obama's failure to disassociate himself from an old friend because the is a bigot, racist and blames America for 9/11 disqualifies him for the Presidency.
Posted by: Gary Gromet | March 18, 2008 2:11 PM
Read some of these comments and ask yourself if America has a problem. Ask yourself what a person like Wright can gleen from these posts. HATE and division. That is the enemy. HILLARY and her camp started this whole mess and now we will see how white America responds. Based on these posts...dont look to good for Obama.
Posted by: Keith Lifetime Southsider | March 18, 2008 2:28 PM
Having actually read the speech as provided, it amazes me how deep the racial tone is! This man claims he is not racist and yet spews nothing but thinnly vieled racism!
Mr. Obama, perhaps you should actually read what your narrow minded writers provide before you speak. For instance, slavery is not an origianl sin of America! Slavery was brought to America by other cultures. In fact, slavery can be traced back to prehistoric times, when tribes enslaved other tribes. This includes those in Africa, the forebears of your Kenyan ancestors. In fact, slavery continues today in places like China, India, and even some African nations. You politely acknowledge the whites and their sufforing without real credit for what they too went through. Talk to the Irish, Italians, Poles and others who came to this country seeking opportunity and were discrimnated against by many, including some blacks. Look at the religious persecution to the Catholics, the Jews, the Muslims, and more over the many years. And what of the Japanese who had their possesions taken away in 1941/42 and were thrown into American concentration camps (called Internment Camps)!
Yet everything you say is directly linked to black sufforing. If one actually reads between the lines and feels the message, one can clearly see that there is no end in sight! He condemns what Rev. Wright said in one sermon, but praises him in many other ways! Obviously, this man of God (laugh, laugh!!) has had this hatred swelling inside him for years. I find it highly doubtful that some inklings of this haven't been surfacing over the years. That makes one then question your very judgement! A true believer in God and what Jesus promised, would not let such hatred define his existence, thus making it meaningless.
No, No, The Master Spinster is happily at work buffaloing the masses. Nero burns Rome only to build it in his image!
Posted by: Paul | March 18, 2008 2:39 PM
Thanks Barack. Now what am I going to do? You did it to me again....
Posted by: Hilary Clinton | March 18, 2008 2:53 PM
Gary you are right. The Republicans will devour him. They will destroy him if he's nominated.
Gd help our party!
Posted by: Spector | March 18, 2008 2:55 PM
An excellent speech and I wish he would make many more of these in order to show his stuff. I also wish we'd have deeds from his record versus just promises for the future. It's true that we need to unite to move forward, but selfishness and greed are rampant today. The trick isn't visualizing unity and forward momentum, the trick is getting there.
Posted by: Jessica D | March 18, 2008 3:12 PM
Way to go Barack. I'm proud to be one of your supporters today. Most of us don't have the guts to talk about race in the way which you have now managed to do so. Kudos for laying it all out on the line, regardless of the consequences.
Posted by: bleigh | March 18, 2008 3:12 PM
First, I thought Obama was a lawyer, then politician. But after all he is Human.
Though, the Liberty Bell may not toll, it had cracked many times.
Posted by: Gene | March 18, 2008 3:21 PM
By God, I want this man to be my president. Talk about hitting one out of the park--I am in awe.
Posted by: ejp | March 18, 2008 3:31 PM
Paul, maybe you are intentionally ignoring the obvious contextual meaning of "original sin" as used in Obama's speech. He did not (as you suggest) mean that America created the sin of slavery. He was alluding to the christian concept of original sin and proposing that as christians believe all people are born with original sin, so was America born with the sin of slavery. His speech did not address the suffering of white nationalities because the topic of the speech was the race issue as it has been raised in democratic campaign and the issue has been raised in terms of black and white. Hatred and history are two different things. It may be helpful to you to remember that Obama's mother and grandparents are white people whom he loves.
Posted by: Rebecca | March 18, 2008 3:37 PM
Senator Obama's address on race was a welcome departure. I sincerely hope we, as country can start the process of talking about "race," the good, the bad and the ugly, in hopes of an American reconciliation.
Peace...
Posted by: Reese J. Stone | March 18, 2008 3:39 PM
So let me get this right. Obama is claiming that he is not a racist? Or is he claiming that his and Pastor Wright's racism is justified because they are angry?
Posted by: Joe | March 18, 2008 3:44 PM
I'm going to make a racist comment. There are plenty of fish in the sea like Hillary. In fact, much more professional and possessing more integrity, without the baggage. There are not so many more fish in the Black Sea like Barack Obama. His time is now. He is what this country needs now, and he has the foresight and eloquence and straighforward truthfulness to make us listen.
Posted by: tony.s | March 18, 2008 4:07 PM
Good speech. I got the impression he wrote it himself. I would buy it except for what's going on what Rezko. Fool me once...
Posted by: still waiting for the other shoe to drop | March 18, 2008 4:10 PM
Obama used race as his platform and issued it accordingly. He used racism and hatred as a tool to get votes without wincing and believes in himself. But he is not the person for the job of being President. Socialism along with using fear tactics are not American. Deal with discrimination but do not use it as reason to be a President. Discrimination is real however; and does call for reform and America does have laws in place and needs to examine its own motives. There is discrimination by blacks also as well as whites and other race. It is real. We infidels as defined by 9-11 evildoers say we deserved, and there are libs who say they this also along with Rev Wright who is wrong and family friend to Obama. Evil is evil and anyone who promotes it is evil.
America is a multicultural and complex society which cherishes liberty, justice, and mercy for everyone, safeguarding same, to further being a great country of which we are proud. Our forefathers set up structures we continue to build upon (refine and retool); towards
integrity and preservation of wisdomed principles to which mankind is responsible and held accountable, for a better and excelling America.
The strength of freedom is powerful. It becomes particularly agressive when evil strikes to kill. America defends liberty and freedom. War becomes an ugly necessity as a result.
Words to actions are significant as such: lawful, duty, balance, fulfillment, reasonableness, humane, conscientious, discipline, and constructive progress. Freedom requires this and more. I want a President who endorses this; and not hatred, dependency, and fear. I want a President who will fairly represent Americans and take us forward progressively. And, I want a President who will safeguard Americans from harm. And, I want a President who will promote unity and economic opportunites by lawful means in place and if this requires making new laws or their creation, that they are in the best interest of America. No where do I see gender, race, or religion as an only asset or drawback in being a person or American; we are who we are by what we do and say. Enough of hatred and fear being used as tools as self-serving measure to power and scaring folk into program or things by said means.
And I do not want tyranny nor socialism as controlling factors. Making government bigger equals loss of freedom. Compassion and humanity call for helping one when one needs help; it does not mean making one dependent and at risk by just being for a program. We cannot enslave people; we must set them free to be responsible and contributing while law abiding citizens. Obama did some smooth talking today; but it just don't cut it. I am voting for the old man, McCain. I do not want a miserable socialistic society that keeps everyone down and at risk and miserable and economically crippled. Chararcter bespeaks much.
Posted by: Lou | March 18, 2008 4:32 PM