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.

[pissant]

That reminds me of the old popcorn bucket trick...

[nuconvert]

I’m not sure where this is.

[savedbygrace]

I predict the MSM will declare that it was the grandest speech of his life, and that he has now put all of those nasty questions to rest.

Oh, and world peace.

[pissant]

Chris Matthews better wear diapers tonight to contain his leg tingles.

[roses of sharon]

Will he wear a flag pin?

Look at all those flags behind him, lol, trying a bit to hard to pretend he is loyal to the US.

[sirchtruth]

Oprah, no matter how politically misguided, tries her best to help people, and gives people hope. I think she is genuine. She actually puts her money where her mouth is.

I do not neccessarily agree with her or the way she might help people, but you can not deny she tries to make people's lives better. I think this is what she sees in Obama.

[sageb1]

Oprah started her own church. She is her own god. She probably contributed to this upcoming speech.

[Crawdad]

The Dems are not going to want to provide such an attractive venue for the rioting that might be inevitable.

That's one of the reasons they won't do it. Wouldn't want "the children" seeing such bad behavior.

[fatima]

Fox just said the National Constitution center in Philadelphia.It is not a rally.

[pissant]

Obama is even more a communist than the Clintons.

[jdm]

There must be a mistake. There’s American flags in the background.

[SE Mom]

“...healing divisions of the past...moving forward...yes, we can...”

[Hoodlum91]

Here’s the underlying problem he has: this speech is to supposedly address the Rev. Wright issue. Unfortunately he has missed the point. Rev. Wright would be a bigoted, socialist traitor regardless of the color of his skin or Obama’s. While this is an issue of race because of Wright’s blatant bigotry, it is also an issue of religion (anti-semitism), and American patriotism. Regardless of skin color, how does he seperate himself from a man who has such vitriol and hatred for the country he wants to “lead”?

[gridlock]

Keep the cubicle-bound updated!

[jaybee]

What I would like to hear?

There is no government conspiracy to infect the black community with AIDS.

There is no government conspiracy to imprison black men.

There is no conspiracy to encourage drug addiction in the black community.

And, OJ was guilty.

[rollo tomasi]

Martin Luther King, Jr., great man, trying to continue what he was doing

“Keep hope alive”™

Might throw down a Jesus bomb, who knows

“Keep hope alive”™

“I love and work with whitey to get things headed towards the right course”

“Keep hope alive”™

Meaningless crap after meaningless crap

“Keep hope alive”™

Accolades

“Keep hope alive”™

In any case the reaction might be: “Forget the Sermon on the Mount, best speech in the history of mankind, period.” — Any moral superior, I am better than you, intentions are all that matter, white guilt victim/DNC pimp/MSM pimp/ etc. —

“Keep hope alive”™ is a registered trademark used with permission from Jesse Jackson Learn How to Throw the Race Card, Inc.

[sweetiepiezer]

Will Hillary demand equal time?

[Fudd Fan]

That is true, pissant.

[jdm]

Phili.

[MissMagnolia]

I look at the black people I encounter now and feel like the racial divide has widened and is too wide to cross in my generation.

I think you're hitting on the essence of why this mess with Obama is so disturbing/frightening. We do look at the folks we live with in our neighborhoods, work with, socialize with .... and now we ARE seeing color again .... and wondering if these folks have an 'Obama' veneer that hides the anti-American, white racist views espoused by J. Wright. Are these people we thought we 'knew' going to the kind of church that Obama goes to on Sundays and feeling this way, but hiding it from 'us'? I would differ by saying that based on what I'm seeing with J.Wright, the racial divide didn't widen, it has been wide all along, but like a deep wound, the outside skin healed over to hide a major festering abscess. Obama's candidacy and attention to J.Wright's philosophy has opened the abscess for all to see and be repelled.

I also think that Obama has used this church and its extreme views to prove to himself and others that he is 'black enough'. If he totally repudiates this ..... then what? Not 'black enough', not 'white enough' ..... just another less-than-mediocre politician with the unmitigated arrogance to think he's qualified to be president and now both blacks & whites are disburbed and upset with him. The Clintons don't have to say a word ..... Obama is like a fly caught on flypaper .... they don't have to pull off his wings to seal his doom.