LIVE THREAD - Under Pressure, Obama Prepares for Race and Unity Speech

Fox News ^ | 18 March 2008

[SE Mom]

Barack Obama is preparing to deliver a major address Tuesday on race, politics and unifying the country after being hounded by questions about his relationship to a pastor whose sermons have been laced with anti-American invective.

In a speech whose religious significance could compare to one given in December by former GOP presidential hopeful and Mormon Mitt Romney, Obama may be forced to explain the philosophy of the 8,000-strong Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where the Democratic presidential candidate has been a congregant for 20 years.

In announcing the morning address, to be delivered in Philadelphia, Obama would not say specifically what he will discuss, but suggested he wants to cool down the atmosphere after incendiary remarks by his pastor, retired Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., blanketed the airwaves over the past week.

[CatoRenasci]

What kind of man tries to convince people that just like you cannot choose your grandmother--you cannot CHOSE your pastor??

Indeed.

I'm reminded of the motto sold in kitsch knicky-knacky crap shops: Fate makes your relatives, but Choice makes your Friends.

[Yaelle]

Thinking about it, I am wondering if Obama has chosen the right country to run for President of. Maybe he should choose a country he actually LIKES and believes in. I don’t see any love or awe for these United States of America from him.

[Jaguar Girl]

LOL too funny!

[stockstrader]

Barack Hussein is all talk—no solutions.

Exactly!!!

In fact, quite the opposite,,,,,

this "ELOQUENT, BUT OUTRAGEOUS" speech--has served to try to explain and justify the hateful, venomous and racist comments which DO occur in some black churches.

Instead of demanding that hateful and divisive comments STOP IMMEDIATELY,,,,STOP RIGHT NOW

he tried to explain and justify why they happen!!! He holds a unique position to STOP those hateful comments--but he chose NOT to!!!

How sad. How pathetically sad to blow a chance like that! HOW OUTRAGEOUS!!

[kellynla]

Exactly...I was raised in an Irish, Italian & Jewish neighborhood and I can say unequivocally, there wasn't a racist bone in ANYONES’ body!
Heck,on Saturday night, I remember my mother sending me across the street to turn the lights on at the Jewish family's home...And although we didn't have Blacks in the neighborhood;
we weren't out burning crosses in our spare time!
In fact my mother who was a social worker helped blacks get jobs & medical care! And my father helped support black families financially!

Obama is full of it! Racism is LEARNED NOT INHERITED! And he could, as I would, DISOWN a BIGOT like Wright in a NY second!

[LegalEagle61]

Well it makes sense, he condemns his grandmother (white) who is his blood, but defends his pastor who he is not related to (black)except in ideology. That shows his racist attitude big time.

[Yaelle]

Bravo, Cato. Sie waren sicher sehr fleissend! I too was complimented a lot for my having learned the language so well. I guess I am a natural mimic or something. I still speak Hochdeutch with an obvious Swiss accent.

[ari-freedom]

Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It’s just our bringin’ up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we’re punks!

[shhrubbery!]

Obama may say he wants to ‘transcend’ all this depraved hateful drivel now, but it’s a bit late for that.

Juan Williams's post-speech comment seemed to reflect that same "too late" sentiment.

Williams said that Wright's hateful speech was so indelibly impressed on the minds of voters that Obama's speech wouldn't wash it away (or something to that effect).

(On a sidenote re Juan Williams: I've always respected him as the rare liberal who seems completely honest about what he believes. I really like it that he still wears an American flag lapel pin. You know he has to get lots of grief for that.)

[LegalEagle61]

You are right, it is too little too late and nothing will erase it because everyone knows that it is all after the fact and that anything said now, short of him publically denouncing the church, quitting the church and severing all ties to Wright, is all damage control and not sincerity. It is meant to dupe Americans into sticking with him in this campaign and nothing more. Only the blind and stupid (I guess i could have just said liberals and dims-lol) will be duped by this speech.

[CitizenM]

No one but rev. Wright could have done more to hurt Obama's campaign by so pointedly bringing out the racial issue. So, it wasn't a white person with racial prejudice against the blacks, it wasn't Clinton, it wasn't a Republican - it was Obama's beloved rev. Wright who has turned the tide against him, and created the racial tensions all feared. Wright couldn't have done a better job than if he had said "I didn't come to praise Caesar Obama, I came to bury him.

Yet, he not once admonished this man and, instead, alluded to not being able to turn against him anymore than he could turn out any family member. Well, Obama, Wright is not your family, so that "excuse" does not stand well.

We all know that no one can dictate "feelings," (not even the government) and obviously rev. Wright has deep feelings of hatred. But we can admonish people who express those feelings in a manner of hatred, anger, and specifically meant to arouse conflict. Instead, you gave America a lecture about how to change and what white Americans must do. With your address to America you turned rev. Wright's words into your chance to blame the "victim" (America) instead of blaming the perpetrator of the hatred. (rev. Wright).

[ari-freedom]

normal americans want obama to kick the friggin crap out of wright. They’re not going to fall for fancy rhetoric and eloquence.

[PsyOp]

This speech was pure Clinton. So it is now official... Clinton WAS the first black president.

Thank you to senator Obama for finally laying that issue to rest.

[GVnana]

Because he’s a socialist.

[roses of sharon]

Yaelle, most black people DO believe that stuff, they prove it every election.

By voting 99% for the UnAmerican Democrat Party.

[rock_lobsta]

You like me!

You really really like me!

See you all on the AI thread (the true 10-claw thread) tonight!

[rock_lobsta]

P.S. Lots and lots of U.S. flags behind him, though.

And not a one to be seen on his lapel.

Not to mention a "God Bless America" at the end.

[CatoRenasci]

Vor fünfunddreißig Jahren könnte ich deutsch....

[Miss Didi]

Be there or be square, darling!

[bill1952]

There were still people in Germany a couple decades ago who missed how Hitler had the trains all running on time.

Heh. That was Italy.
And that was how Mussolini had the trains running on time.