Obama's Race Speech

[Zeuslax]

S

o by stereotyping the south as racist...you are concerned with the south stereotyping Obama? Hahaha

I saw more racism in my home state (Ct) than the state I've lived in since just before college (Ga).

Just because the KKK and/or yokels seems to stand out more in the south...doesn't mean there's not some rich snob at his place in the Hamptons dropping N-bombs and cursing the black man. While someone in the south that may classify as a "redneck" has a best friend that is black.

I would look forward to a black president...because then all of the racist idiots would make themselves known.

Well said.....I have to admit that I've experienced more racism in the North than in the south. I lived 5 years in MI and I was blown away by the amount of racism that I experienced and heard there. Sorry Laxfan, I know you're fighting the good fight.

[StrykerFSU]

Regardless of what Sen. Obama said in his speech, his long time association with this minister is hurting him. Two points I would like to make: 1) I, like Juan Williams, don't buy the attempted parallel between the minister and his white grandmother. It is one thing for a white women to express her fears to family members in private but something else completely for a someone to preach hate from the pulpit. 2) This minister is not some crazy, old uncle. He is a person of power who has the opportunity to preach to a congregation of people looking to him for guidance.

Sen. Obama should have left that church long ago. Too plead ignorance at this point is highly disingenuous and makes him just like any other politician. Wasn't he supposed to be different? Weren't we supposed to look past his inexperience because he was bringing "change"? I'm sorry but I think that the congregation might be buzzing after a sermon that claimed that white people created AIDS and Sen. Obama must have heard about it even if he wasn't there. If your pastor says things you don't agree with you go to a different church. Let me yield the floor to Mo Dowd for a minute:

Obama's naïve and willful refusal to come to terms earlier with the Rev. Wright’s anti-American, anti-white and pro-Farrakhan sentiments — echoing his naïve and willful refusal to come to terms earlier with the ramifications of his friendship with sleazy fund-raiser Tony Rezko — will not be forgotten because of one unforgettable speech.

He now admits that he had heard the Rev. Wright make “controversial” remarks in church, and that he had a “lapse of judgment” when he let the much-investigated Rezko curry favor by buying the plot of land next to his and selling a slice back so Obama could have a bigger yard. Newly alert to the perils of not seeming patriotic enough, he ended a speech in Pennsylvania the other morning with “God bless America!”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/opinion/19dowd.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

On a side note, after all of the grief that has been heaped on W for his Evangelical ways, I'd love for someone to educate me as to the difference between his church and Obama's. I heard some interesting stuff on NPR from the leadership of Trinity United Church of Christ and it all sounds just like the born again rhetoric that has been used by the left to bash Bush for the last 8 years.

This mess is already eroding Sen. Obama's support. He is now behind Sen. McCain in the most recent Rasmussen poll and he has fallen behind among white independent voters (saw it on MSNBC this morning while waiting at the dentist). This has to be enormously troubling for Democrats taken with the current disenfranchisement of their voters in Michigan and Florida. If you go even further and look at his Senate voting record (shouldn't take long) you see that he is consistently to the left of the base of the Democratic Party. This will not help him with independents or even moderate Democrats. It will be interesting to see the play that McCain's upcoming domestic policy campaign will get and how that affects the numbers.

Unfortunately for Obama supporters, this is only going to get worse. The media's love affair with the Senator is over and they are going to really start doing some digging and hard hitting analysis of his rhetoric. High flying oratory is great but you have to back it up.

While I'm not confident about November, I think that Howard Dean, Sen. Clinton, and Sen. Obama among others have done a mighty fine job of turning a Democratic slam dunk into a real horse race.

[Gvlax]

S

o by stereotyping the south as racist...you are concerned with the south stereotyping Obama? Hahaha

I saw more racism in my home state (Ct) than the state I've lived in since just before college (Ga).

Just because the KKK and/or yokels seems to stand out more in the south...doesn't mean there's not some rich snob at his place in the Hamptons dropping N-bombs and cursing the black man. While someone in the south that may classify as a "redneck" has a best friend that is black.

I would look forward to a black president...because then all of the racist idiots would make themselves known.

Well said.....I have to admit that I've experienced more racism in the North than in the south. I lived 5 years in MI and I was blown away by the amount of racism that I experienced and heard there. Sorry Laxfan, I know you're fighting the good fight.

Ferris State is the only place to have a Jim Crow Museum in the Country.

[Zeuslax]

Ferris State is the only place to have a Jim Crow Museum in the Country.

I actually thought about that while writing my response. Not putting down the state, Big Rapids, Ferris or MI in general. Just stating how surprised I was at the amount of overt racism I experienced there.

[Pinball]

That is surprising to hear as everything you see and hear in the media still depicts the south as an area with deep seeded hatred and racism.

(but i guess they depict minnesota as people living in igloos, playing hockey, and clawing through snow tunnels till late july)

[Gvlax]

Racism exists everywhere whether its overt or covert. Its naive to think that it does not.

[OAKS]

I haven't verified it, but the rumor is that the last president or candidate to deliver a speech without any aid of a speechwriter was Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech October 13, 1969.

If you're going to attack Obama for having a connection with a fiery pastor, you certainly have to look at W and McCain's links to religious leaders who say that the the US helped bring 9/11 upon itself because of things like the ACLU and homosexuality.

Or rather we could argue about the candidates actual policies and plans, rather than those of people they have a tenuous connection with.

[Jac Coyne]

Racism exists everywhere whether its overt or covert. Its naive to think that it does not.

Not true. According to our resident scholar on the "nuances of race relations," racism is not everywhere. It solely exists among those card-carrying members of "the group in power."

black people and white people, but white comedians can only make fun white people. The group in power has constraints on its criticism because of its power. Same goes for the difference between the KKK and the Black Panthers. Hate is hate, and it's bad, but if you don't understand the nuance of race relations, you shouldn't comment on them.

Drawing a parallel between the ethnic boundaries of comedians and that of hate groups goes down as one of my all-time favorite liberal obfuscations. Or do I not have permission to comment on that?

The guy out of all of the selections in the poll that wrote a lot of speeches isn't even listed - Bill Clinton. George Bush number one did some speech writing as well. Pure oratory......Regan was pretty solid on this front. I think in modern history Kennedy takes the cake though.

Haha. Kennedy didn't even write the book that bore his name, nevermind any of his speeches.

[StrykerFSU]

Not to split hairs but being a member of someone's congregation for 20-odd years is bit more robust than a "tenuous connection".

But by bringing up Jerry Falwell, you are helping me with my point. W has been crushed by many for his association with the likes of Falwell and Pat Robertson for years (I don't see how this hasn't been examined ad nauseum) and McCain only recently appeared at Liberty University to give an address after a long and very public difference in opinions with Falwell (again, no secret).

Obama, on the other hand, was a member of the Trinity Church for years and never made a peep about the hate filled sermons until pressure from the mainstream media was brought to bear. Why does Obama get a pass on this? Because it is an African-American Church? Because Republicans are racist? This is our candidate for change? I'm so confused, I thought only the GOP were Bible thumpers.

Just so I'm clear...I'm supposed to get excited about a candidate who is an Evangelical Christian who worships with a man who says, "God Damn America" because the government gives black people drugs? Did I get it?

I think who a candidate associates with and, more importantly, worships with is just as relevant as their plans for Iraq and the economy. It speaks to their character and judgment. Sen. Obama showed incredibly poor judgment in this entire affair. Poor judgment for continuing to attend the church, poor judgment for not publicly denouncing Rev. Wright, and poor judgment for trying to explain the sermons away.

[Beta]

Just so I'm clear...I'm supposed to get excited about a candidate who is an Evangelical Christian who worships with a man who says, "God Damn America" because the government gives black people drugs? Did I get it?

[Sonny]

1. There is a difference between racism, bigotry, and prejudice. Webster's dictionary is in order here.

2. Just because you point out the hypcrosisy of the statements & actions of a liberal black person doesn't mean you are automatically a racist, nor does it mean you are unable to comment on the situation.

[Hugh Nunn]

1. There is a difference between racism, bigotry, and prejudice. Webster's dictionary is in order here.

2. Just because you point out the hypcrosisy of the statements & actions of a liberal black person doesn't mean you are automatically a racist, nor does it mean you are unable to comment on the situation.

Is that the same thing as being called unpatriotic because one questions or denounces the Bush administration for the fiasco that is their management of the Iraq War? Or maybe that's just for people married to CIA operatives.

[Sonny]

Is that the same thing as being called unpatriotic because one questions or denounces the Bush administration for the fiasco that is their management of the Iraq War? Or maybe that's just for people married to CIA operatives.

No. That is a different discussion on a different topic.

[Hugh Nunn]

Is that the same thing as being called unpatriotic because one questions or denounces the Bush administration for the fiasco that is their management of the Iraq War? Or maybe that's just for people married to CIA operatives.

No. That is a different discussion on a different topic.

I disagree. It is exactly that kind of fear-based rhetoric that is an attempt to distract the public from the actual issue. Calling someone a bigot to avoid defending a hate-filled sermon is literally the same as calling someone unpatriotic to avoid being held accountable for executive negligence and mismanagement. Admit nothing, deny everything, and make counter accusations.


And maybe I'm just getting my news from different outlets (pretty much anywhere but FOX news) but I dont see Obama calling anyone a racist for being rightfully angry at what his pastor said.

Religious extremism is dangerous. Period. I dont care if you are a Muslim or a member of the Church of Christ. I think Obama's pastor and McCain's pastor need to get together and go bowling.

[Sonny]

I think you are grasping at straws here Hugh. What does this have to do with McCain's pastor? Has McCain been going to a church for the last 20 years where this anti-American/socialist nonsense has gone on and on and on?

Stryker's post above was dead on. Obama portrays himself as being above the fray, yet his good friend/mentor/pastor for the last 20 years is spewing this garbage and we are suppose to believe he is just now heard about it? 3 days ago Obama was quoted as saying he never heard those sermons and was never present. And in Yesterday's "Speech of the Millennium" he says basically the exact opposite.

I'm confused. Which is it Obama?

At a bare minimum - It appears that he was a part of that church in Chicago when it was convenient politically.

Obama has a lot going for him and he is very good politically (better then HRC in my opinion). He is an excellent speaker and he obviously didn't graduate from Harvard Law School magna cum laude without being one smart cookie.

But if you think these actions (or non-actions) don't speak to his character as potential POTUS... I don't know what else to say.