A little parsing of Barack Obama's race speech

Lord knows Barack Obama's Philadelphia speech on race is going to get dissected like a high school biology experiment, but one element jumped out as he delivered it a little while ago. Earlier, Obama said he had never himself heard the Rev. Jeremiah Wright make the kinds of comments that sparked the furor over the last several days.

But in this morning's speech, Obama said this about Wright:

"For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely -– just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."

It's not quite a repudiation of his earlier comments published on Huffington Post. In that piece Obama wrote:

"The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign."

The difference is that Obama said then, essentially, that he had not witnessed the sermons captured in videos now posted on YouTube. But his comments today raise the question, to paraphrase history: What did he hear, and when? And what did he hear during Wright's sermons that "could be controversial?" If he disagreed with them, why didn't those comments move Obama to repudiate Wright then? Especially since the campaign knew Wright could pose a problem.

Obama supporters will argue that such questions are focusing on the trees instead of the forest. Given Obama's attempt to direct the campaign forward, that may be a fair take on it all. But to get into the forest, you have to pass those first few trees.

-- Scott Martelle

UPDATE: Judging by reader comments, many of you missed our earlier post about the broader aspects of the speech, available here.

Photo: Scott Brandon / Associated Press

Comments

[Christian Prophet]

Barack Obama wants to both eat his cake and have it. He wants voters to rise above race and religion, while appearing religious himself. Again, he is in deep trouble if a spotlight is placed on the non-racial aspects of his own THEOLOGY. See:
http://miraclesdaily.blogspot.com

[aNN]

Let it go. Our economy is in the toliet..

[fballfn]

On Obama's Speech - From an average Joe

Race isnt the issue to me.

My 8 year old heard the N word the first time when he listened to a rap song . I never taught him hate.

It isn't about race it is about hatred for our country.

It would have the same disgusting meaning to me no matter what color the messenger was.

I dont hang out with white radicals because i have nothing in common with them and i do not share their views.

If i have something in common with someone or i agree with them, then i may associate myself with them.

The speech did not change my view from yesterday.

[Jim Detmar]

Scott,

I am certain that what you have mentioned is undoubtedly true, but in the same breath I must ask... why is it the only thing you mention about Obama's speech? Why cherry pick unless you have a vested personal/professional opinion that demands you to illuminate one single straw from the haystack? I am profoundly dismayed. You are part of the problem when you could be fair, unbiased and part of the solution.

[TRE]

I see throughout the blogosphere that the Clinton and Republican supporters watched the speech with the mute button on. And it is clear that they have made the choice to further the racial divide in America. YOU NEED TO READ THE FOX TRANSCRIPT! Obama never said that he didn't hear ANY controversial statements made by Rev. Wright, only the few that have been obsessed on by the media, particularly the divisive right-wing media. I used to get upset, now I just smile and feel sorry for such ignorance and arrogance. I pray for the Americans in this country who care more about race than they do their children's future in this country. Most of the anti-Obama comments posted here come from those who have lazy, uneducated thoughts! In a way, I'm glad Rev. Wright's offensive remarks have been broadcasted throughout America. It has exposed the ignorance and arrogance of those who think they are the deciders of this country.

[Tom J]

I've watched some of the complete church services on the TUCC site. The ones I saw were pretty good, and I can see why they have so many members. He's a good preacher - 99% of the time.

If you kept up with local Chicago news and people, you'd realize there are others who have attended TUCC fairly often, but were just as suprised by the YouTube clips.

'Controversial' is not 'incendiary'. What Obama was familiar with earlier is the former, the recent YouTube clips are the latter. Being controversial (aka challenging, playing devil's advocate) is typical of Wright, but not the 'best of' clips dug up by ABC.

You could probably do something similar with any stand-up comedian over 36 years as well. If you play on the edge for effect, occasionally you're going to get carried away and go too far. Lots of people had some pretty off-the-wall reactions after 9/11, and even the CIA people talked about 'blowback', so I'll cut him some slack on that. HIV? No excuse. AmeriKKK? No excuse. But even at that, his intent was not to create divisiveness (although that's what he did), but to get his parishioners to go out and do something positive instead of sitting back and whining and waiting for someone else to take care of them.

"When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember the professionals use water." Obama is a professional; (aka responsible adult). I expect the problem the campaign saw with Wright was not so much his comments (the controversial ones they were aware of), but his timing and manner of delivering them. He was after pyrotechnics. That can work fine with people who know him, but not with the general public who knew little about him. So when the campaign said they wanted to protect Wright and hsi church - they were telling the truth. They had no idea this other stuff had been said.

[Judy from Maine]

I guess I read the transcript of Obama's speech a bit differently than what is presented in this blog. What I read today was an admission that it would be impossible for a member of Pastor Wright's congregation for 20 years to not hear him make some drama-laden, conspiracy theory-thick statements. Not whether or not he was present for those specific statements that have been sound-bited across our airwaves and internet this past weekend.

I think he did a good job of facing the music being played around him, and did not try to wait for someone else to steal the headlines in our attention deficit ladened national conciousness

[C Watson]

A number of news outlets have reported that he said he'd never heard any of these types of remarks but if you check the facts, you'd find out they were quite wrong.

For example, Obama has in the past referred to Wright as an uncle who says objectionable (paraphrased) things. Even last week, he acknowledged hearing some of them.

Some of what Obama saw in the video montage he said that had not seen before - which is different but the press has got that confused with Obama’s prior remarks wher he ackonwledged past transgressions. Obama has been on the campaign trail and living in Washington while his preacher gave sermons at a reduced schedule as he closed in on retirement. Although Obama commutes home, I’ll bet he’s only seen a handful of Wright’s sermons in the last year or years at best. He definitely missed a lot of them. But no one in the media has noted that.

What is remarkable about Rev Wright is that many in America haven’t been able to make this connection: on one hand, we have a pastor making terrible statements that few agree with. On the other, we have Obama who has written a couple of books and made thousands of speeches, etc outlining in detail his positions … that do not in any way reflect Rev Wrights position. In fact in many of Obama’s positions bluntly contradict Rev Wright. Yet many in America place so much importance in Rev Wrights snippet of words when they haven’t really listened to what the candidate has actually said repeatedly and done for years to note the difference. That strikes me as an utterly incredible imbalance of the facts.

One other thing that no one has observed: what I heard in that speech and have heard many times before from Obama was a man who was capable of hearing many things from people – including the outrageous and sifting through them to extract the right things and understand the basis of the outrageous words. Whether the president is hearing Republicans vs Democrats, Jew vs Muslim, white vs black, Obama seems to be very capable and unafraid of looking deeper beyond the anger and rhetoric to try to understand the whole of a man – good & bad and/or his issue and not outright ignore him because he doesn’t feel exactly the same way. Can you imagine a president without those qualities? We’ve had some. I think Barack is especially blessed in this vital quality.

[George]

This comment isn't directly what he talked about, but it does seek to explore the question of association. One of my earliest lessons of the reality of our executive branch of the federal government was that, it's not so much what individual we elect as president as it is the people whom the president selects for advisors. I realize no candidate is going to tell us right now who they would choose for State, or Defense, or senior advisor or chief of staff. (Think back over the last several presidencies and see how the people in those decisions were key to shaping the president's performance.) Is there anywhere I can look to see credible speculation on who any of the candidates would choose for key cabinet and advisory positions? Often, people they have on their campaign staffs move into some of those positions; who are their campaign advisors and what are the positions they take / what do they advocate?

[deborah Wilkes]

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE. HE SAID A FEW DAYS AGO HE WASN'T IN THE CHURCH WHEN THE PASTOR SAID THOSE VICIOUS THINGS. THAT'S NOT TO SAY HE NEVER HEARD HIM SAY ANYTHING THAT COULD BE CALLED CONTROVERSIAL. THE MAN IS TOO SMART TO GET CAUGHT UP IN A LIE. WHAT'S MORE, HE'S NOT A LIAR. HE TELLS THE TRUTH, EVEN IF IT MIGHT NOT BE WHAT EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR. AN HONEST POLITICIAN? HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT TRUE.

[deborah Wilkes]

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE. HE SAID A FEW DAYS AGO HE WASN'T IN THE CHURCH WHEN THE PASTOR SAID THOSE VICIOUS THINGS. THAT'S NOT TO SAY HE NEVER HEARD HIM SAY ANYTHING THAT COULD BE CALLED CONTROVERSIAL. THE MAN IS TOO SMART TO GET CAUGHT UP IN A LIE. WHAT'S MORE, HE'S NOT A LIAR. HE TELLS THE TRUTH, EVEN IF IT MIGHT NOT BE WHAT EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR. AN HONEST POLITICIAN? HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT TRUE.

[raj]

Wow , The UNITER BARACK took his Kids to listen to the hate filled sermon and then he wants to unite the country.

Imagine the Kids who are being taught hate from day 1.

Barack : Charity begins at home. Please talk to you kids.

[Dean Ramser]

I applaud CNN and Lou Dobbs for airing the political and social friction that Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s sermons haven created. It has been a long time since Reconstruction failed, and even a longer span since Africans were brought to America by force. It was only a short time ago that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, and recent statistics reveal that Americans are attempting to cross the hate that divided this country for so long. I applaud Lou Dobbs for sharing his amnesia over the intense discrimination that has forged the paradigm that make it difficult, though not impossible, for “people of color” to transcend the barriers to what the US Constitution states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
-Dean Ramser, teacher

[JWE]

I confess, I hate rich people. Trickle down theory (you know, when the cup is full and it runs over abit, I can lick some of it off the floor), mass marketing, etc. I look at Obama as finally someone who will unite this hate filled and biased country. My own family thinks I'm going to hell because I'm not baptized! Give him a chance to make a difference in this world. Around the globe they want some responsible leadership that they can look up to. Obama brings that to the table.

[sEAN]

Obama was raised by a white mother and white grandparents - he can’t be racist, any more than any other white person could.
Read dreams from my father - written more than 13 years ago - he is not making these statments now just because it is politically expedient.
Obama has had to come to terms with his own complicated racial identity and TRULY and perosnally has overcome divisiveness.

He understands ( and has experienced) black anger and resentment. He understands (and has experienced) white suspicion and anger.

He has risen above it all and understands that we can either spend another 50 years fighting and growing more apart, or come together for a common purpose,

Come on you guys, dont buy the right wing spin. YOu WAKE UP! Wake up America! And vote for the only presidential candidate in the HISTORY of this great country, who can transcend racial divide, and guide our foreign policy in a way that is more compassionate and befitting the ideals of our country.

[Jerome]

I think that Obama is probably a little taken back by the the fact that most people do not realize or understand that many black people truly believe this is a racist society. Wright's comments are very tame compared to what I hear on the street everyday. Why not turn on a "black" radio station and hear what is going on? Was Obama expected to distance himself from every black person who feels they have been the victim of racism? Wright was a leader in the community Obama lived in. He was doing the kind of outreach that Obama was interested in doing, helping people who were poor, undereducated, homeless, sick...Just because they associated with each other and worked towards common goals does not mean they share the same brain. If Hillary and Rush Limbaugh succeed in tearing Obama down because of this, in a short couple of years we are all going to realize what a ruse it was. Again, we are throwing away an intelligent, capable candidate in favor of someone who will do and say anything to win. This is utter nonsense perpetuated by the ignorance of white people who have no clue as to what is going on in black America. It is precisely because of people like Wright that we need an Obama to heal the racial wounds that continue to fester.

[Mike in Sac]

No, this article is WRONG! He did not say he had never heard his pastor say anything like the statements on YOUTUBE. Are you intentionally misrepresenting the facts or are you just too lazy to check out what he said? Either one or the other is going on.

He said that he did not hear Wright state the YOUTUBE quotes. That he was not there those days.

This was what he said and to say anything else is to either intentionally misrepresent the fact to sabotage this candidate or it is an amazing display of bad reporting.

PULL THE ARTICLE AND RE-WRITE

[Tim]

This is about judgement, he failed. He said everyone hear similar speeches at their religious establisments he/she doesn't agree with. Yes, I did and I personally didn't attend that establishment again. Period. Oprah heard it, she withdrew her membership from the same church Obama was attending.
Moreover, he is running on the notion of change. Why didn't he all this time attempt to change his church towards a more tolerant establishment? He should have started with changing his/her own small community first when he had the chance, but he didn't. Beyond that it is all rhetoric.

[Observer]

Why has Obama rejected his white heritage -- his white mother was not a racist; she married a black man. From the narrative in New York Times she was a wonderful lady -- highly educated -- anthropologist with 800 page dissertation to her credit; lot of work in empowering women to stand up on their own.

[ANTHONY JOHNSON]

Most of the people who will not give Obama a break about something his pastor said is not going to vote for Obama anyway. Most of the white people have not lived the life of a black man in America so they have no idea what Pastor Wright is talking about. Obama did try to explain how the Pastor was still mad about something that happen to him in the 50's and 60's but some people will not listen because they are not going to vote for a Black Man anyway.

[TaraW]

Amazing - Where does Obama Stand?

-Obama's grandmother made racial comments
- he supports some one that questions the the 911 attacks
-said at one point race is not an issue
-and now brings race back into question

What does Obama Stand for? Change? What change is he for? He is taking the country back. What happened to moving forward.

I think we need to look at his stance and record more closely. I wish we had more time to investigate him.
Tara
http://CenterLine.TV

[dan tynan]

Barak's speech was 37 minutes long. The transcript is 4880 words long. It was brilliant -- one of the best political speeches I've heard in my 47+ years.

You selected 73 words to focus on, and then misinterpreted them. What's wrong with you?

I wasn't a huge Obama fan before today. But I think I'm becoming one. Listen to the speech. Read the transcript. Think about it. And then blog something worth reading.

dt

[Obama is Savior]

Obama & Wright are exposed as racists. Thiers’s is the gospel of hate, & the preaching of intolerance. Barak & Michelle understand his sermons as surely as the those Germans supported the holocaust & citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who did nothing when Japan’s army raped Nanking resulting the death of 250,000 Chinese in 3 days. Michelle asks "What do I have to be proud of in America, other than Barak's becoming President". Well we should be ashamed of this hate spewed speech. Americans believe in the power of change. But this change is evil & racist. We should be working together to heal the nation and move forward. These words do neither.

[PulSamsara]

Barack Obama is the real deal.

It's so easy to go negative on someone speaking the truth to America... that we are all saddled with weaknesses but bound by greater strengths - that we are an imperfect union of far from perfect souls but that we can take all these truths together, for what they are worth, and begin to let go of the divisions that hold us back collectively and march on toward something better for our posterity - for our children - Mine and yours.

Barack Obama for President of the UNITED States of America.

[Roger]

MSNBC is now slobbering over him but CNN is worse! Every single person they have on as a guest is a avid Obama supporter. All we hear is most wonderful speech ever that will cure all ills and resolve all issues forever more.

What I heard was a good speech that was frank but filled with the right words for his voting base that he is losing ground in. Not much in there for people who are not already his supporters. In fact his closing part about vote for me or go down the wrong path was horrible.

The speech didn't address the real issues with Barack Obama on these stories that are coming to light and finally getting long over due coverage. The issue is not his growing list of associates that could cause one to pause and raise an eyebrow but rather it is his avoidance to address hard questions at all. Senator Obamas usual first response is always a charming ambiguous answers. We do not like the fact that we have to count on the media to ask the same set of question 2 or 3 times before we get a answer that is clear and straight forward and not some charming ambiguous response.

He has had a rumored reputation of avoid hard questions and issues and he is proving that to be true. He really was gone during the hard vote or voted present on them. That is of more concern to me then the growing list of associates that raise your eyebrow, although that does concern me also but more for electable reasons then anything else.

In no way was this speech as good as the I have a dream speech, even though the people on MSNBC & CNN think so. Here is why, it was a political repair speech. The first part was good and had substance but then he quickly went to pandering for his support base. By the middle of the speech he was so busy hitting us with the right words to reaffirm his voting base to make it anything more then a self serving political press release. The ending was incredible selfish and horrible. For him to have the gall to basically say Vote for me or you will be choosing to go down the wrong path was a total self pandering statement. The convention speech was a victory for all people with no agenda needed or added.