obama's speech. will it help

[WalterMitty]

im not so sure.

i am sure that the news media will eat it up and likely be moved to tears.  (i hope olbermann has a stash of kleenex nearby)'

im not sure if it will do much good with middle america (read: non-political ordinary americans)

platitudes and the usual 'im going to bring people together' phrases doesnt change the fact that the man attended a church headed by a racist for 20 years.

[Josh/Devilman88]

If it is like all of his other speeches, then yes.

[agcatter]

Saw where the messiah ended a speech in another Pennsylvania stop this morning with something he had not done berore in the campaign- "God Bless America"

Good lord.  LOL  What a phony.

[Andy25]

Saw where the messiah ended a speech in another Pennsylvania stop this morning with something he had not done before in the campaign- "God Bless America"

Good lord.  LOL  What a phony.

Well Bush, McCain and Hillary are being so much more convincing when they say that!?

Come on! It's just a line, all of them have to say it because it sounds veeeery patriotic LOL.

All of this should have never been started, Americans are discussing fake issues all along. It's so sad to see. Having said that, i think Obama is screwed. If he is the nominee, McCain wins easily. If Hillary manages to squeak by. Well, McCain will win with about 290-300 EV.

Ahhh, the Democrats again manage to blow it - 8 months ahead of the election - wooow!

[Aizen]

Saw where the messiah ended a speech in another Pennsylvania stop this morning with something he had not done berore in the campaign- "God Bless America"

Good lord.  LOL  What a phony.

He's done that before and it doesn't make him a phony, at least not any more than the other candidates when they say it. It's an empty phrase in general now. On topic, it will help if it's really good. Then again, I thought Romney's speech was pretty good and it didn't help him at all.

[agcatter]

I guess his internal polling told him God Damn America wasn't going over that well.

Hey, whatever it takes.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Saw where the messiah ended a speech in another Pennsylvania stop this morning with something he had not done berore in the campaign- "God Bless America"

Good lord.  LOL  What a phony.

I thought you were an Obama supporter....was I wrong?

[elcorazon]

im not so sure.

i am sure that the news media will eat it up and likely be moved to tears.  (i hope olbermann has a stash of kleenex nearby)'

im not sure if it will do much good with middle america (read: non-political ordinary americans)

platitudes and the usual 'im going to bring people together' phrases doesnt change the fact that the man attended a church headed by a racist for 20 years.

i don't think wright is racist

but the speech likely won't help.  obama's done.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

No, not really.   People will simply grow tired up his speeches, which can actually get a little annoying, especially when he tries to mimic Martin Luther King's sing-song vocal theatrics.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Saw where the messiah ended a speech in another Pennsylvania stop this morning with something he had not done berore in the campaign- "God Bless America"

Good lord.  LOL  What a phony.

I thought you were an Obama supporter....was I wrong?

Just because you're an Obama supporter doesn't mean you can't be critical of him, especially in a forum such as this where we discuss strategy.

[MODU]

If it has already been given, I haven't heard it, so based on that....

Depending on how the speech is framed, it could be helpful to his campaign.  For starters, he will need to explain the relationship between himself and Wright, and then how he was able to go 20 years without either hearing one of Wright's rants and/or heard discussion about his rants from conversations with members of the congregation.  Lastly, he would need to explain why he disagrees with Wright's comments.  That should cover the first half of the presentation.  

The second half would need to be structured on race relations within the US (more than just black and white) and how comments like Wright's and others hurt the foundations laid by MLK Jr and the numerous unnamed individuals in history to bring us where we are today.  Follow that up with a call for the end of racism by all parties, since we all bleed the same color blood.  And lastly, to refer to us all as "Americans," not "_____-Americans."  

Cover all of that, and he should recover what he has lost, and possibly gain a small bounce.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

I guess his internal polling told him God Damn America wasn't going over that well.

^^^^^^^^^^

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

From Obama's speech:

“As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me … 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,”


Stick a fork in this guy, he is finished.   I can't believe it, but Obama is morphing into Al Sharpton before our very eyes.   He is rapidly turning into the "black" candidate heavy on identity politics.    Un-fcucking-believable.

[MODU]

I just read his speech, and I give it a B.  He touched on most of the points I listed above, but he worked too hard to blame the issues on Republicans.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Sorry Mr. Obama, but liberals are equally as guilty as 'the Reagan Coalition' and 'conservative commentators.'  Who bloated welfare?  Who is tied with the Union lobbyists?  Who exploits the racial divide during campaigns?  Those are all in the Democrats lap.

All-in-all, he hit an in-field double when he had the bases loaded.  Lost potential, and I don't think this speech would have the impact that he and most American's had hoped.

[Person Man]

Yes. but what does this mean?

[Sam Spade]

I have read the speech - I am unable to watch it on TV:

Three Early Observations
- First of all, the speech is too long.  In addition, it is generally unfocused.  The opening line is too closely connected to Lincoln where it may appear to be parody (can't tell).
- Second, the speech is geared, as far as I can tell, towards his coalition of white liberals and blacks.  The white liberals want to hear, "You're a uniter, not a divider".  The blacks want to hear, "You're not going to throw a fellow negro over the side, are you Uncle Tom?"  Henceforth, you hear the tension between saying negative things about Wright, yet refusing to disown him, and trying to explain him away using positive language.
- Third, he's changed his statement on hearing the controversial remarks.  From no, we go to:  "Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes."  Of course, then he goes to trying to explain away Wright's behavior.  See the tension.

Remember, this speech is not really geared towards the masses, but rather towards his coalition.  That is the key point.

As for the impact, I highly doubt it will return things to where they were one week ago.  It may stop the bleeding, it may not.  Time will tell.

[MODU]

Yes. but what does this mean?

It means he cheapened a speech that could have been very powerful into nothing more than a cheapened campaign stunt to blame the opposing party for the problems in the world.  I expected better (or maybe my expectations were just too high).

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

but the speech likely won't help.  obama's done.

For the sake of our country, I wish you were right.

But Obama isn't done.  Obama's campaign still has a 90% chance of winning the Dem nomination, in the strongest Democratic year in a generation.  His campaign will go on, a little weakened, but stopping a dangerous cult isn't that easy.  When the People's Temple and its charismatic leader who promised "hope" was challenged, they just moved and became stronger.  Let us hope that November 2008 doesn't turn out like November 1978 for these poor souls.

[Sam Spade]

From Obama's speech:

“As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me … 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,”

I missed that line.  Absolutely disgusting, especially in the way he described his grandmother and then refused to explain what good things she did for him, unlike the effusive positive remarks about Wright.

Glad I made the right choice on February 5.

[Joe Republic]

When the People's Temple and its charismatic leader who promised "hope" was challenged, they just moved and became stronger.  Let us hope that November 2008 doesn't turn out like November 1978 for these poor souls.

Why after four years or so have you completely given up on wanting to be taken seriously?

[elcorazon]

From Obama's speech:

“As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me … 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,”

I missed that line.  Absolutely disgusting, especially in the way he described his grandmother and then refused to explain what good things she did for him, unlike the effusive positive remarks about Wright.

Glad I made the right choice on February 5.

huh?  why is that disgusting?  Wright's rhetoric is actually not anything to be disgusted by, and obama's not disowning the guy is totally reasonable.

[Storebought]

The transcript of Obama's speech can be found on the (horrors!) Fox News website.

It seems like one long apologia defending Wright's anti-Americanism, i.e., "Sure he's a race bigot who harbors in his heart a liquified hatred of the United States, but that is all well since he does good social work:

But the truth is, that isnt 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 Gods 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.

And a little bit later, he justifies all of Wright's (and his wife's) nonsense by pulling out a Jesse Jackson type litany of all the evil whites have leveled against the helpless downtrodden black peasantry these fifty years:

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 weve 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 isnt dead and buried. In fact, it isnt 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 havent 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 todays 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 todays 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 ones 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.

Obama then inserts a little bit of the Left's favorite tactic, moral equivalence, leavened with a bit of John Edward's "Two Americas" class-baiting:

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans dont feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no ones handed them anything, theyve built it from scratch. Theyve 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 theyre 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 arent 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.

Then to top it all off, Obama tries to dismiss this entire incident as an internet meme, and not as an issue which speaks to the heart of his character and political ideology:

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 Wrights 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 shes 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.

I'm sorry, this speech is a complete disaster.

[Ben.]

Saw where the messiah ended a speech in another Pennsylvania stop this morning with something he had not done berore in the campaign- "God Bless America"

Good lord.  LOL  What a phony.

Coz Obama hates America doesnt he?... grow up!

For the first time in a generation we stand the chance of having two nominee for president worthy of the post and we trade stupid unsubstansiated barbs... perhaps the Dems can throw back the bile the likes of Farwell and Dobson spout as some kind of well informed retort?

[Sam Spade]

From Obama's speech:

“As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me … 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,”

I missed that line.  Absolutely disgusting, especially in the way he described his grandmother and then refused to explain what good things she did for him, unlike the effusive positive remarks about Wright.

Glad I made the right choice on February 5.

huh?  why is that disgusting?  Wright's rhetoric is actually not anything to be disgusted by, and obama's not disowning the guy is totally reasonable.

Are you trying to be opebo?

[Person Man]

Seriously, this the best GOP dirty trick that has ever been done. I wonder what they will do next and I wonder how much longer this will last.