Obama's big speech on race

Barack Obama will give a major speech Tuesday morning on "the larger issue of race in this campaign," with a nod to the recent controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which appears to have (unsurprisingly) hurt him in the polls. Says Politico:

In the past, Obama has made racial issues, and his own precedent-shattering status, a minor note in his message. But Obama said Monday he recognizes that there is no way he is going to become the Democratic nominee without a forthright statement about the role of race in American life.

“I think it would have been naive for me to think I could run and end up with quasi-front-runner status in a presidential election as potentially the first African-American president, that issues [of] race wouldn’t come up, any more than Sen. Clinton could expect that gender issues might not come up,” Obama told interviewer Gwen Ifill on PBS’s “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.”

“I think we’ve got to talk about it,” he added. “I think we’ve got to process it. But we’ve got to remind ourselves that what we have in common is far more important than what’s different and that if we’re going to solve any of these problems, we’ve got to come together and bridge our differences in ways that we just have not bridged them before.”

I guess this is sort of like the racial equivalent of Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" speech. So... what will he say?

Comments

[4-7]

not getting my hopes up on this one. He shone with beyond-racial-politics cerca Iowa-Super Tuesday. The image has been sullied to say the least. He chose the wrong church community to cut his political teeth. What's good for inner-city Chicago is not good for the gander. Viewed in isolation, nothing is so bad, but when you add the collective weight of Farrakhan, Weather Underground leader guy, Wright, Mrs. Obama's faux-paux and her race-conscious senior thesis, you get such an unnervingly odd contrast to everything Obama has appeared to be in the staged spotlight. Even if he is the victim of multiple unfair association-inferences, people should not sell short the seriousness (which is not racial at all) of the problems mounting for his campaign.

His biggest mistake tomorrow - trying to sell the Wright scandal, etc. as a racist or racial attack. Everything to this point has been very legitimate. Trying to lecture on racial unfairness would be the height of counterproductive. I hope he doesn't fall into the trap. He got caught in a bad corner, though. Black churches are angry that Wright was villified, and so Obama can't risk offending them by turning tail, but Wright represents a severely out-of-step and Anti-American view of the world, and no one can become president too easily after naming their book, baptizing their babe, and saying I do, under the supervision of such a man.

[David K.]

Farrakhan? You still harping on that non-connection? Man you conservatives are in a full lather on this one, you know Obama can and would beat your guy, so you're grasping at every possible straw to try and discredit him. Typical but luckily America has wised up to the same tactics Bush and Rove used to sink McCain in 2000.

[gahrie]

Well, he's already tried the Casablanca defence:

I'm shocked, shocked to find that hate, racism and divisiveness is going on in here!

That hasn't worked so well for him.

I predict his next attempt will be a variation of:

It's a Black thing, you wouldn't understand

We've already seen some of his supporters trot this one out.

Frankly, he's caught between a rock and a hardplace. If he lives up to his campaign rhetoric, and condems the idea of Black Liberation theology, he offends the leftwing Black community, and risks being called an Uncle Tom.

If he defends Black Liberation theology, he makes a mockery of everything he claims to have stood for up to now, and offends middle class America.

Stick a fork in him.

[gahrie]

David K:

I suggest you do some research on Black Liberation theology, James Cone and Dwight Hopkins. You're not going to find a whole of difference between it and the Nation of Islam, which is why Wright was willing to both associate with and honor Farrakhan.

The central tenet of Rev. Wright and his church is Black Liberation theology, according to both Wright and publications from his church. There is simply no way Obama could be ignorant of this fact.

Now Wright has the right to believe in Black Liberation theology, as does Obama. But Obama does not have the right to claim to be an agent of change, and to transcend race, if he does believe in Black Liberation theology, and his has an obligation to disclose this to the American people.

[Andrew]

This speech better be one helluva Sistah Souljah moment.

[4-7]

Like I said. Whole greater than the sum of its parts. You can search this blog and find me marveling at how Obama handled Hillary harping on Farakhan's endorsement, which I thought was classy. Whole greater.

[4-7]

I think the only way Obama does well with the Wright thing from here on out is to paint his association with the church as one of political expediency to help him serve the local community which felt marginalized, abandoned, and confused by the unfulfilled promise of America. His oft expressed love for Wright the man through his book and choices cause some problems there, but I see it as the right course.

[yea]

the attack machine has been out in full-force since ohio/texas got close. obama still leads in delagates and in national polls. be careful hillary/repubs, you dont want to run out of ammunition 6+ months before election day.

[Joe Mama]

Shelby Steele has a great piece in the WSJ today called The Obama Bargain. Read the whole thing.

[4-7]

I think Obama will provide plenty of ammunition in the next 6 months. Rev. Wright was known about and offered for consideration by conservs 6 months ago, only recently noticed by the country writ large. The pied piper's song is broken if but for a moment. That may be enough.

[4-7]

I imagine Ferraro will be a large undertone or subtext of Obama's speech. Her idiocy last week allowed Obama supporters to argue that Wright was tit-for-tat, a break-even of a scandal. Without Ferraro last week the Wright scenario would have little connection to race, it still doesn't.

[Brendan Loy]

4-7, I love it when you have conversations with yourself on my blog. :P

I kid, I kid! :)

[Condor]

"Shelby Steele has a great piece in the WSJ today called The Obama Bargain. Read the whole thing."

No.

[4-7]

: O

I once TRIED to lambast myself for string posting, but you cited yourself as first offender. I considered that carte blanche.

[4-7]

p.s. I know you are switching over to McCain, I can feel it; now strike me down with all of your hatred (for all things liberal) and your journey toward the dark side will be complete.

[gahrie]

I see Brendan moving to Nader myself.....

[Brendan Loy]

I remain firmly committed to being undecided. :)

And you have carte blanche, 4-7. I wasn't criticizing you. I was just making fun of you. :) In a friendly way, though.

[Brendan Loy]

P.S. Um, but not Nader. No. I would vote for a libertarian before I'd vote for Nader. (I realize you were joking, but just so we're clear. Heh.)

[Joe Mama]

"Shelby Steele has a great piece in the WSJ today called The Obama Bargain. Read the whole thing."

No.

Figures, but I bet not reading it won't prevent some from criticizing it anyway.

[Brendan Loy]

I read it, and I criticize it.

[Joe Mama]

Saw that. You're ahead of Condor at least. I've only skimmed your argument against Steele on the other thread, but you appear to take issue with what he didn't say (how a black candidate can be something other than a "challenger" or a "bargainer"), not what he in fact said about being a "challenger" or a "bargainer", or whether those characterizations are accurate. I'll try and find some time later to explain in detail why I think Steele is quite right, and not at all "ridiculous."

[Condor]

I can't wait for November, so I can sit in the voting booth and ask myself: Hmmm...which candidate will give me the opportunity to document my deliverance from the shames of my forbearers?
I read in the Wall Street Journal that's the number one reason whites are voting for Obama.

[Alasdair]

gahrie - when Brendan votes for the Hildebeast, that *will* be him voting for the nadir ...

(innocent grin )

[poetryman69]

Getting yourself pastored for 20 years by a radical hater shows bad judgment. Lying about it when asked by the media shows dishonesty. Now we know the real reason why you refused to wear a flag lapel pin and why your wife has never before been proud of America. If we take you at your word, you spent 20 years in the company of a man, and never once figured out that he was a virulent racist. A president of the United states cannot afford to be that obtuse. Request for presidency denied.

--klqtzz

[Condor]

"Request for presidency denied."

I'm intrigued to learn that the presidency of the United States is determined by one man named "poetryman69."

[Brendan Loy]

He's the decider.

[Condor]

Tehehe.

[poetryman69]

Getting yourself pastored for 20 years by a radical hater shows bad judgment. Lying about it when asked by the media shows dishonesty. Now we know the real reason why you refused to wear a flag lapel pin and why your wife has never before been proud of America. If we take you at your word, you spent 20 years in the company of a man, and never once figured out that he was a virulent racist. A president of the United states cannot afford to be that obtuse. Request for presidency denied.

--klqtzzz

[David K.]

poetryman, do you have proof Obama lied about it? Do you have proof that these were what Wrights regular sermon's were like?

A President of the U.S. can't afford to be obtuse huh? Can I ask if you ever voted for or supported either our current President or President Reagan?