# Obama March 18th, 2008 Speech **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 18, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774 "2008-03-18T14:21:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/321 "2008-03-19T21:49:45Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] Well, perhaps. The problem is that only a couple of hundred people are reading this, and Brian Ross at ABC News might have a bigger readership. [/QUOTE] Yeah, well, millions more read [Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/18/AR2008031802649_pf.html): > [@](#): > > Once again, the conventional wisdom proved stunningly unwise. Barack Obama was supposed to be on his heels, forced into a backpedaling, defensive crouch after racially charged remarks by his former pastor, delivered from the pulpit years ago, suddenly became the hottest story of the presidential campaign. But instead of running away, Obama issued a challenge to those who would exploit the issue of race: Bring it on. > > Yesterday morning, in what may be remembered as a landmark speech regardless of who becomes the next president, Obama established new parameters for a dialogue on race in America that might actually lead somewhere – that might break out of the sour stasis of grievance and countergrievance, of insensitivity and hypersensitivity, of mutual mistrust. . . The general [Editorial Page at the Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/18/AR2008031802704_pf.html): > [@](#): > > SEN. BARACK Obama’s mission in Philadelphia yesterday was to put the controversy over inflammatory statements made by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his spiritual mentor and pastor for 20 years, behind him. But Mr. Obama (D-Ill.) went deeper than that. He used his address as a teachable moment, one in which he addressed the pain, anger and frustration of generations of blacks and whites head-on – and offered a vision of how those experiences could be surmounted, if not forgotten. It was a compelling answer both to the challenge presented by his pastor’s comments and to the growing role of race in the presidential campaign. . . The [Opinion Page at the Los Angeles Times](http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-speech19mar19,0,6236314.story): > [@](#): > > . . . This is the sort of blunt language that is seldom heard in stump speeches by politicians of any race. And Obama was equally direct in pointing out that fulminations like Wright’s have an analogue in the angry utterances of white Americans who believe – and are encouraged by politicians to believe – that their interests are threatened by progress for African Americans. He noted that these resentments as well “aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.” > > That landscape has claimed many victims, and as he and Hillary Rodham Clinton continue their contest for the Democratic nomination, Obama conceded that some of the crasser remarks by their supporters “reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect.” That is undeniably true and refreshingly honest. No single speech will recalibrate America’s consideration of race and politics, but we are closer today, thanks to this remarkable address, to facing our history and perfecting our nation. [Tim Rutton at the Los Angeles Times](http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rutten19mar19,0,5754610.column): > [@](#): > > . . . “That was the most sophisticated speech on race and politics I’ve ever heard,” said CNN’s Bill Schneider, the only network pundit who actually has taught American political history at elite universities. > > It was all the more remarkable because, while Kennedy presided over what may have been the greatest speech-writing team in electoral history, Obama – like Lincoln – wrote his address himself, completing the final draft Monday night. . . [Janny Scott at the New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/us/politics/19assess.html?_r=3&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1205931822-c03CbNqrKVYD1VNlvpHzgw&oref=slogin): > [@](#): > > . . . Yet the speech was also hopeful, patriotic, quintessentially American — delivered against a blue backdrop and a phalanx of stars and stripes. Mr. Obama invoked the fundamental values of equality of opportunity, fairness, social justice. He confronted race head-on, then reached beyond it to talk sympathetically about the experiences of the white working class and the plight of workers stripped of jobs and pensions. > > “As far as I know, he’s the first politician since the Civil War to recognize how deeply embedded slavery and race have been in our Constitution,” said Paul Finkelman, a professor at Albany Law School who has written extensively about slavery, race and the Constitution. “That’s a profoundly important thing to say. But what’s important about the way he said it is he doesn’t use this as a springboard for anger or for frustration. He doesn’t say, ‘O.K., slavery was bad, therefore people are owed something.’ This is not a reparations speech. This is a speech about saying it’s time for the nation to do better, to form a more perfect union.”. . . The [Commentaries at the Chicago Sun Times](http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/850146,CST-EDT-edit19.article): > [@](#): > > . . . In the last two weeks, issues arose on the campaign trail that threatened to recast Obama as “the black candidate” rather than as a candidate who happens to be black (and white, for that matter). Most alarming were the indisputably objectionable remarks of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Race moved to centerstage and was seized on by some to confuse and divide us. So Obama, in that exceptional way he has of brushing aside polemics, stepped up to a podium in Philadelphia and challenged us to see all the shades of gray, to embrace our greater and shared humanity. > > It was a moving moment in American history to hear a man who could be president dissect the rancorous matter of race with such candor, and it called to mind other piercing addresses by the likes of FDR, Kennedy and King. > > Obama’s speech won’t sway everybody – within two hours Rush Limbaugh was sneering that Rodney King said it just as well with “Why can’t we all just get along.” But among those Americans who sincerely yearn for relief from the divisive and diversionary politics of the last couple of decades, this was a speech to move the head and heart. . . or [William Greider at The Nation](http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=300422): > [@](#): > > Win or lose, whatever happens next, Barack Obama is now established as one of those rare, courageous teachers who leads the country onto new ground. He has given us a way to talk about race and our other differences with the clarity and honesty that politics does not normally tolerate. Whether this hurts or helps his presidential prospects is not yet clear, but he has done this for us and it will change the country, whatever the costs to him. > > . . . > > If you understand the risks Obama undertook, you can see the beauty and pain in what he did. He could not back away from the risks without betraying himself and all those people who are part of him. On the other hand, he was putting at risk his own great promise as a politician. In psychological terms, what’s extraordinary is his refusal to split off himself and his own experience from those others. So he embraced them, knowing the risks. Then he tells us–audaciously–that we are capable of doing the same. Yet most of us do the opposite in everyday life, defining ourselves in contrast to the others we are not, idealizing our own selves by demonizing the others. Obama knows all this. He still insists we can do it. He has seen it happen in life. > > . . . If people have the opportunity to hear him in full and think about it, they will recognize the strength it took for him to open his arms this way, casting aside all defenses and evasions. With the hope and everything else he stands for, this guy is one very strong character. . . ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/322 "2008-03-19T21:50:31Z")
[QUOTE=Magiver] Again, you and everybody who argue that Obama thinks differently than Wright have missed the point. He was a 20 year supporter of Wright. He still supports him. It’s like saying he supported Reverend Phelps for 20 years but rejects his rants. It doesn’t matter if Obama holds Wright at arm’s length if he supports him. And Obama didn’t cut Wright loose until his nose was rubbed in it. We know that Obama knew Wright was controversial. So now we’re suppose to ignore Obama’s support of Wright because he made a nice speech? [/QUOTE] And where is your evidence that Wright was saying this stuff for 20 years? That this stuff dominated his ministry? That this wasn’t just one small part of a much larger ministry? ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/323 "2008-03-19T21:57:17Z")
[QUOTE=Magiver] Again, you and everybody who argue that Obama thinks differently than Wright have missed the point. He was a 20 year supporter of Wright. He still supports him. It’s like saying he supported Reverend Phelps for 20 years but rejects his rants. It doesn’t matter if Obama holds Wright at arm’s length if he supports him. [/quote] This is utter CRAP. Stop comparing Jeremiah Wright to people who have spent their _entire lives and careers_ spewing nothing but hatred. That’s not who he is, and not even close to what the full 30 years of his life and ministry represents. I support him, too, and he’s not even my minister! And I’m white! And Jewish! Our Constitution may not have always been as kind and embracing to Jeremiah Wright as it should have been, but one thing it’s always afforded him is **FREEDOM OF SPEECH**. And we can still love and support people who say _occasional_ controversial things. _Even if we don’t always agree with those things._ Why in the hell is this so hard to grasp for some of you? > [@Magiver](#): > > And Obama didn’t cut Wright loose until his nose was rubbed in it. We know that Obama knew Wright was controversial. So now we’re suppose to ignore Obama’s support of Wright because he made a nice speech? NONSENSE. You’ve been disabused of this notion multiple times, so quit repeating it as if it were true. And I don’t expect anyone to ignore Obama’s support of Wright, I expect reasonable, intelligent people to _accept_ his support of Wright, speech or no speech. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/324 "2008-03-19T22:00:34Z")
[QUOTE=Magiver] It’s like saying he supported Reverend Phelps for 20 years but rejects his rants. [/QUOTE] From David Duke to Fred Phelps. Wright’s moving up in the world. EDIT: Honestly, how difficult is it to grasp that you can like and respect someone who may have views you disagree with? Even on this lefty-bile-spewing board, we have people on both sides of the aisle who have radically different views on subjects, but can talk about them civilly and then go out for a beer together afterward. “You’re either with me or against me” is black and white reality-ignoring rhetoric. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/325 "2008-03-19T22:01:16Z")
[QUOTE=Magiver] Again, you and everybody who argue that Obama thinks differently than Wright have missed the point. He was a 20 year supporter of Wright. He still supports him. It’s like saying he supported Reverend Phelps for 20 years but rejects his rants. It doesn’t matter if Obama holds Wright at arm’s length if he supports him. And Obama didn’t cut Wright loose until his nose was rubbed in it. We know that Obama knew Wright was controversial. So now we’re suppose to ignore Obama’s support of Wright because he made a nice speech? [/QUOTE] You can’t get over a couple sound bites taken from a few DVD’s. You and all the other people who decide not to get the facts and base what they say on a few second sound bites from a few DVD’s are completely missing the point. Frigg’in Lou Dobbs yesterday had a dumb ass look on his face because he just didn’t get it - it took 4 people with 4 differing view for Lou Dobbs to finally say, " So Obama’s speech really is going to be historic???" I’ll ask you one question: Did you see Rev. Wright’s DVD? Try [Fact Checking Barack Obama’s Church](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioaChVw_pUw) and maybe - I know it’s a tall order - but maybe you’ll garner some information that isn’t just a sound bite. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/326 "2008-03-19T23:02:36Z")
Hee! I don’t know if Ann Coulter live-blogged Obama’s speech, but here’s [one take](http://www.samefacts.com/archives/literature_/2008/03/if_ann_coulter_had_liveblogged_the_gettysburg_address.php) on how she’d have treated the Gettysburg Address. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/327 "2008-03-19T23:02:41Z")
[QUOTE=Phlosphr] If smoking weren’t so un-PC I bet we’d see a lot of it in our presidents. I can see George Bush smoking Carlton Lights 100’s and Obama with a huge Cohiba in his hand 😉 [/QUOTE] By several accounts Laura is a fairly heavy smoker. She admits to occasionally bumming one but claims that otherwise she’s quit, though almost anybody who’s ever quit smoking and then relapsed can tell you that it was from bumming “just one” that they started back. She’s never photographed with one however. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/328 "2008-03-19T23:32:44Z")
[QUOTE=EddyTeddyFreddy] Hee! I don’t know if Ann Coulter live-blogged Obama’s speech, but here’s [one take](http://www.samefacts.com/archives/literature_/2008/03/if_ann_coulter_had_liveblogged_the_gettysburg_address.php) on how she’d have treated the Gettysburg Address. 😃 [/QUOTE] Obama has evoked the memory of the leadership and speeches by JFK, by MLK and now President Lincoln. Is there anything that can stop this train 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/329 "2008-03-20T00:40:02Z")
I liked and voted for the guy in our primary, but after hearing that speech I truly love the guy. He’s an adult among media children. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/330 "2008-03-20T01:07:01Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] I really don’t think you’re looking hard enough then. [/QUOTE] Well, admittedly, it was just on my way in to work earlier today. On the way home I got a good example of some right wing stuff pretty easily, so I’ll concede that the AM talk show take will use this as the open ticket to go racial (not racist necessarily) That’s okay, it’s what they do. Perversely enough those attempts may help Obama some. Get it out of the way now and give the Democrats a common enemy. It’ll only help rally the troops around Obama. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/331 "2008-03-20T01:33:58Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] Well, perhaps. The problem is that only a couple of hundred people are reading this, and Brian Ross at ABC News might have a bigger readership. [/QUOTE] Well, pardon me, but I’m not after 15 minutes of fame. I’m in a thread here on the Dope, and you’re the person who brought in a bullshit argument that had long been dispensed with. I don’t _care_ where it came from; you’ve made it your own. You apparently wish to evade responsibility for your words. I am not surprised. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/332 "2008-03-20T01:43:19Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] So basically you’re admitting that Wright hasn’t said anything racist. That being the case, your equivalency doesn’t hold up. Wright has not expressed anything comparatively hateful or offensive to David Duke’s racism. [/QUOTE] No, I’m not “basically” admitting that. I plainly said I’m not going to play that game. Try paying attention to the words written. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/333 "2008-03-20T01:47:32Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] But Obama never speaks with those kinds of cadences. I think you’re imagining things. ETA, but even if he did speak with those kinds of cadences (which he does not), why is that automatically a bad thing? Saying it reminds you of Jackson and Sharpton is not an answer because that only addresses a (completely imaginary on your part) similarity of style, not substance. [/QUOTE] You have a fair point here. I do tend to just turn the channel or turn off the TV when anyone gets into that manipulative cadence. I’ve seen Obama start to go down that road a few times and I just say tune out. I find it disappointing and annoying that someone who I could listen to all day for his intelligence and oratory skills reverts back to that nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/334 "2008-03-20T01:49:47Z")
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] You mean like how MLK enunciated “dream” when he said “I have a dream”? Or the “free at last” part at the end? Is that the kind of thing that troubles you so? [/QUOTE] No, that’s not what I mean. That is a great speech. Great!!! It is not that a speech cannot have a cadence, but when the cadence is intended to provide the power the words should provide. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/335 "2008-03-20T01:53:10Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] No, only running out of a desire to argue against someone who’d try to sling shit at Jesus if he ran as a Democrat. [/QUOTE] I’ve slung shit at no one, if you can read. I’ve said flattering things about Obama and I stand by them. I’ve even stated that if terrorism was not the issue it is that he would have had my vote. I simply disagree with you that his association for 20 years with a man of that ilk matters. But please do muster up any desire on my account. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/336 "2008-03-20T02:02:48Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] Your reponse floored me. 1% is a problem for you? It suggests that there is no racism left in America in your world assuming you care. That all the issues African Americans have with respect to society are without foundation, if you care. It suggests at a minimum that even faith (heavily preached by Wright) is a problem for you which leads to a contradiction in your support for McCain. Can you explain that ? [/QUOTE] This is actually humorous, albeit unintentionally. And I’m probably at fault for the miscommunication. By “A percent wold be problematic” I did not mean that any—even one percent—would be problematic. I meant that it would be difficult to arrive at a percent. I think the rest of that post conveys my position. And for the record, my support for McCain is tepid at best. I’m a fan of the man’s backbone and demeanor, not his politics so much. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/337 "2008-03-20T02:04:16Z")
[QUOTE=magellan01] I’ve slung shit at no one, if you can read. I’ve said flattering things about Obama and I stand by them. I’ve even stated that if terrorism was not the issue it is that he would have had my vote. I simply disagree with you that his association for 20 years with a man of that ilk matters. But please do muster up any desire on my account. [/QUOTE] Don’t know of you saw this but check out [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioaChVw_pUw) video of one of Rev. Wright’s brethren at his church. Shed a little light on what life is like on any given sunday at Trinity. Perhaps you’ll garner nothing from this link, or perhaps you’ll see war mongering hate is not something Obama was exposed to for 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/338 "2008-03-20T02:07:29Z")
[QUOTE=Shayna] Our Constitution may not have always been as kind and embracing to Jeremiah Wright as it should have been, but one thing it’s always afforded him is **FREEDOM OF SPEECH**. [/QUOTE] Oh, come on. Freedom of speech does not mean that one cannot and should not be judged on what he spews. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/339 "2008-03-20T02:13:52Z")
[QUOTE=Phlosphr] Don’t know of you saw this but check out [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioaChVw_pUw) video of one of Rev. Wright’s brethren at his church. Shed a little light on what life is like on any given sunday at Trinity. Perhaps you’ll garner nothing from this link, or perhaps you’ll see war mongering hate is not something Obama was exposed to for 20 years. [/QUOTE] Watched it. I’m not impressed. She had no mention of Wright, who is the issue. And I have no doubt that there are sweet white Jewish women who hold the same views Wright does. I don’t know what you think that video proves. But I’d say “nothing”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774/340 "2008-03-20T02:14:02Z")
[QUOTE=Phlosphr] Don’t know of you saw this but check out [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioaChVw_pUw) video of one of Rev. Wright’s brethren at his church. [/QUOTE] She doesn’t look like a brother to me. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-march-18th-2008-speech/441774.md?page=18)