Reuters-U.S. Senator Barack Obama (l) poses with former U.S. President Bill Clinton at a memorial evnt in Alabama, on Sunday.
Posted on 03/06/2007 6:01:00 AM PST by pissant
Sunday’s march in Selma, Ala., may have been a sacred commemoration of the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march of 1965, but beneath it all lurked raw politics, with Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., competing fiercely for black voters.
While local churches were packed with parishioners, just a few hundred yards apart on Martin Luther King Jr. Street, the rival Democratic presidential candidates made their pitches, both praising civil rights leaders for paving their way.
“Don’t tell me I’m not coming home when I come to Selma, Ala. I’m here because somebody marched for our freedom. I’m here because y’all sacrificed for me,” Obama told a crowd.
Meanwhile, at 709 Martin Luther King St., Clinton told parishioners at First Baptist Church that “the Voting Rights Act gave more Americans from every corner of our nation the chance to live out their dreams. And it is the gift that keeps on giving. Today it is giving Sen. Obama the chance to run for president of the United States. And by its logic and spirit, it is giving the same chance to [New Mexico] Gov. Bill Richardson, an Hispanic. And, yes, it is giving me that chance, too.”
Black voters are crucial for both front-runners as their campaigns calculate the math that will lead to their nominations. The fierce competition between the two was not only evident in their presence this weekend, but in the the steps they took to connect with the crowds.
Raised in Illinois and representing New York, Clinton effected a sporadic but curious Southern drawl in her speech. “I” became “Ahhh,” “far” morphed into “fahhhr,” and “mayor” suddenly sounded like “mare.”
And how about Obama? Well, he credited the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights marchers of 1965 with the fact that his parents — a black African father and white Kansas mother — were empowered to fall in love and got married.
“They looked at each other and they decided, ‘We know that in the world, as it has been, it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child, but something is stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across the bridge.’ And so they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Ala.!”
Obama was born in 1961; the Selma march was four years later. Obama said later that he meant to credit the entire civil rights movement with his parents’ union, not just the Bloody Sunday marchers…
Funny how Mr. Obama’s mistakes about history call ot mind our first black President’s memories of seeing black churches burning in his youth.
Meanwhile, the cries of outrage at these two politicians illegally race-baiting pandering campaigning in these black churches are deafening, aren’t they?
What a circus.
Obama was born in 1961; the Selma march was four years later. Obama said later that he meant to credit the entire civil rights movement with his parents’ union, not just the Bloody Sunday marchers…
Just another typical lying liberal POS. Yeah, Obama, Slick Willy remembers watching the churches burn too..
SW also sat in the back of a bus with his black friend, remember?
If Obama keeps campaigning he'll never get elected...
No wonder he was the first black president.
Ears Obama is as an empty suit as ever has run for President. He makes Dennis Kucinich appear full of gravitas.
...and Hillary got her name because of......???
I don't recall all those young white girls and mothers marching in 1965.
Why is Obama running from his white heritage?
(Too bad her parents didn't name her Tenzing!)
The gathering at Selma was one of professional negros.
A pro is one who makes his libing being a negro. The church was filled to capacity with them.
Jake Tapper wrote this?
Hmmm.
Could it have anything to do with some of his white ancestors owning slaves? What did his father's people to in the slave trade in Africa?
Hillary and Obama have more in common than meets the eye.
Hillary was named "after" Sir Edmund Hillary, who made his famous climb of Mt. Everest four years after Hillary's birth.
That's why he and [reverently] thee, uh, Reverennnd, Sharpston need to form that third party for the disadvantaged.
A lib will only go to a history text... if you slam their face into it. ROTham proved that with the Edmund Hillary bullsh*t.
I see you are talking in ebonics like Hillary too (libing)? :-)
Much has been made about about Hitlery putting on a phoney southern drawl in Selma.
Has no one noticed that the Obamination, the Senator for ILLINOIS, who has never lived in the south (unless you count Indonesia) did the same.
When will people ever wake up to what deceptive liars the Rats are.
LOL!! I forgot about that one
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