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Under pressure, Obama plans speech on race

Rocky news reports

Published March 17, 2008 at 7:32 p.m.
Updated March 17, 2008 at 7:36 p.m.

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MONACA, Pa. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama plans a major speech Tuesday morning in Philadelphia about race, and addressing his relationship with Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright, according to The New York Times.

Wright, former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, has created a firestorm of criticism over comments he has made from the pulpit. Obama is a member of the church.

“I am going to be talking about not just Reverend Wright, but just the larger issue of race in this campaign, which has ramped up over the last couple of weeks,” Obama said. According to aides, he was up until 3 a.m. Monday working on his remarks.

Wright, who presided over Obama’s wedding and baptized both of his children, has come under extreme scrutiny for a series of racially charged messages.

He once told a cheering congregation that Hillary Rodham Clinton didn’t understand what it was like to be black, saying “Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a n-----.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, a close advisor who has talked to Obama about the speech, said the address is one the candidate “has reflected on personally and with a great deal of intensity,” The Baltimore Sun reported.

Tommy Vietor, Obama campaign spokesman, said: “Given the events of the past few weeks, and some of the statements that have been made, Sen. Obama felt it was an important moment to address the issue of race, politics and how we bring our country together.”

On Friday, Obama denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has railed against the United States and accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.

Obama called the statements appearing on television and the Internet “completely unacceptable and inexcusable” in a Fox News interview and said they didn’t reflect the kinds of sermons he had heard from Wright while attending services at the southside Chicago church.

In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks.

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Wright said. “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

He also gave a sermon in December comparing Obama to Jesus, promoting his candidacy and criticizing his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments

  • March 17, 2008

    8:13 p.m.

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    gwats writes:

    I'm a Obama supporter. Rev. Wright is NOT running for President. Sen. Obama has repudiated and condemned Wright's remarks. Jesus shunned the Politics of the day in his time, saying "My Kingdom is no part of this World". ( the one scripture you DON'T hear on Sundays.) Perhaps the clergy of the 21st Century should heed the words of the 'Great Teacher' and keep their noses out of secular Politics starting with those busybodies in Colorado Springs.

  • March 17, 2008

    8:31 p.m.

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    samsmargolis writes:

    Golly, gee. Obama was up until 3am working on his comments. It's tough finding just the right words to plagiarize. Hell, Obama even plagiarized the right Reverend Wright's sermon on the Audacity of Hope for the title of his book. Nope, he's not close to Wright at all. The church that Obama attended for the last two decades just recently gave Louis Farrakhan a lifetime achievement award. Obama consulted and "prayed" with Wright before announcing his candidacy. Obama said he found religion through Wright. Obama put himself through a commitment of faith ceremony at this racist church. For a Jan. 21, 2007 story in the Chicago Tribune, Obama said that Wright keeps his priorities straight and his moral compass calibrated. “What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice,” Obama told the paper. “He’s much more of a sounding board for me to make sure that I am speaking truthfully about what I believe is possible and that I’m not losing myself in some of the hype and hoopla and stress that’s involved in national politics.” But, as gwats (and probably Littwin) will note, Obama knows this close relationship with Wright is a bad thing. How do we know? Obama didn't want Wright near his kickoff for the campaign because Obama said he "gets a little rough" in some of his sermons. So now Obama is trying to get everyone to believe he didn't realize the vial, divisive, appalling things the reverend was saying. Yeah, right. He knew it well enough to keep the reverend away from his campaign once it kicked off. Obama is a census black (he can choose which race with which to associate according to census guidelines - he chooses black because, as Geraldine Ferraro so accurately noted, it's the only thing in the campaign that keeps him afloat) and now in this speech, he's going to tell us all how he's got the whole race issue figured out. Can this guy be more of a fraud?

  • March 17, 2008

    8:45 p.m.

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    The_Punnisher writes:

    Typical two-faced politician.

    If I say anything else, the PC race card will be played....

  • March 17, 2008

    9:01 p.m.

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    buzzman writes:

    obama did not know his pastor's rhetoric like clinton did not inhale--stinking politicians lie about anything to get elected. Obama however is the worse-

  • March 18, 2008

    10:56 a.m.

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    Theoldguy writes:

    Try to remember that Obama is from Illinois. Land of the hand out. Having watched American society change after the implementation of Johnson's Great Society I seriously have to wonder what Obama plans for the future or will he have someone else controlling his strings? Too many "if's" and maybe's" for me. But very strong on political rhetoric. More questions than answers with this man.