Mar 20 2008
Why Obama’s Speech Failed
Bumped: Update Below – Dems tanking against McCain
I have watched a lot of people swoon over the Obama speech, and a lot of people challenging it. Seems it was mostly a wash. Personally few speeches move me unless the topic is right and the person believes in it. Both were missing in Obama’s speech for me. He was saying “ignore Wright, look at our country’s history”. Sorry, but it is people like Wright he keep our country’s race issues alive and red hot.
I live in one of the most diverse places in America – right outside DC. We have people from all over the world here, and we don’t segregate (except into houses of worship). There is no reason to rage about the past sins and start fights over race here. None of us were part of it – there is no guilt by association due to race. I am white – not KKK. Something Rev Wright and his ilk cannot grasp.
I guess those who talk about race are the ones still dealing with their demons. Whether whispered at the table (like poor Obama’s grandmother) or screamed out from the pulpit, those people who need to talk about race seem to asking for therapy. All I can say is go get it and I hope you can get to the place we are at – were racism in all forms is rejected.
Here is the line from Obama’s speech which is playing across the TV’s now – and which also is killing Obama’s credibility as the media neophytes who ‘need to talk’ push it as their reason to talk:
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
What a pile of CYA sanctimony. Obama has “ignored” the issue of Wright’s racism and anti-Americanism for 20+ years. The entire speech was a big stereotyping of others and about race so Obama could save his political butt. Everyone knows this speech was ripped out of him because no politician in their right mind brings up the wounds unless they want to unleash the anger left in those like David Duke and Jeremiah Wright. This is why those of us who have moved on and now live in a colorblind community see no need to open the wounds up again. We cannot change history, we were not part of that history, so what use is there in yelling at each other and trying to lay blame on people who were not there when these ugly things happened?
Obama ignored is racist pastor for years. He tolerated Wright in order to fit in his neighborhood, and probably loves the man for accepting him into “a” black community. But Wright is not black culture and never should be. And he is not America. And America is tired of being ripped by hyper-partisans who use isolated examples of bad behavior by some to claim none of us are capable of behaving and we all need to be punished or restricted.
This guilt by association is why people want guns made illegal – because of the abuses of a few. This is why a myriad of dumb laws are on the books restricting our rights. Jeremiah Wright is not a symbol of America which cries out for more oppressive laws from government. He is an angry, bitter man who cannot get out of the 60’s and 70’s and see the progress we fought so hard for during those times. He is the exception, not the role model or the model of what ails America.
Because Obama painted a picture of a dark and dismal America to cover up the fact he has no spine and he ignored racism right next to him for 20 years is why the speech failed. I don’t believe that is all America is about, and I don’t even think Obama feels that way. He was just doing damage control.
BTW, now that he has been damaged expect more mud to start flying. The Clintons are running out of time.
Update: Rassmussen’s daily tracking poll is showing huge hits on both Obama and Clinton when compared head-to-head with McCain:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows John McCain’s lead growing against both potential Democratic opponents. McCain currently leads Barack Obama 49% to 42% and Hillary Clinton 51% to 41% margin (see recent daily results). African-American support for Clinton has collapsed, falling to 55% in the general election match-up. Obama, on the other hand, earns solid support from African-American voters but attracts only 36% of white voters in a match-up with McCain.
As I have been saying (see my previous post here) Hillary has pulled Obama down to her level and taken damage in the process. The Dem crack-up is proceeding as I expected – except it is happening faster than I would have predicted.
Feel good news of the morning:
Sen. Hillary Clinton has extended her lead over Sen. Barack Obama among registered Democrats likely to vote in the Pennsylvania primary on April 22, a poll released today shows.
Clinton of New York leads Obama of Illinois by 16 percentage points — 51 percent to 35 percent — according to the Franklin & Marshall Poll conducted for the Tribune-Review, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh and other news outlets. Nearly one in seven likely Democratic voters — 13 percent — are undecided.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_558179.html
AJ,
Watcha think about a connection between this radical cleric stirring up hatred among the disadvantaged and Islamic clerics?
Re: Previous comment.
I didn’t mean they are talking to each other. What I meant was the similarities.
Victor Davis Hanson summed up the speech very succinctly. Check it out. It’s short sweet and accurate.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODRiMDFlMjNlNmUyYjMyZjM5OWU5ZWM1N2VlOTJmZjQ=
I still refuse to believe, that a person goes to the same church for 20 yrs, has the same pastor for 20 yrs, and never heard that minister make racial comments like the ones showing on all the tv news. I have gone to church my entire life (46 yrs) and have attended many different denominations including some black churches, NEVER EVER have I EVER heard a minister say those things this man said to his congregation nor heard one curse at the pulpit. Obama is being disingenious when he makes claim that black ministers say outlandish things in the *heat of the moment*. We Baptist consider Mr Wright’s type of preaching the *Hell, Fire, And Brimestone Preacher* which are fine, but like I said above NEVER EVER have I sat in and heard any one of those type ministers say such vile things and had they said vile remarks like Mr. Wright’s they would had been asked to leave the church. FIRED! Lastly, doing good deeds does not excuse nor does it make up for spread hate and lies. Mr. Wright who is suppose to be an example among men, who is suppose to teach the LOVE of GOD has squandered away all his good deeds by his vile mouth. Sham on Obama!
CJ_THESPOOK,
Unfortunately, Newsweek polled several black churches to see if their pastors say the things that Wright had been saying for twenty years.
The answer is yes.
Lurker,
Like I said, and stand by my statement from MY experience. I don’t know every black minister in the USA nor have I attended every black church in the USA.
.
Well they probably polled politically active ministers. I think there are a lot of regular people who just do not want to go there.
Wright reminds me of Ward Churchill. Remember him? The so-called Native American college professor who called the 9/11 victims “little Eichmans”…
He was no more Indian than I am, in fact considering the fact that I have ancestors who walked the Trail of Tears I guess I could say I am a lot more native than he is.
It’s obvious that the members of Rev. Wright’s church believe every word the Rev. says and they see Obama as their knight in shinning armor who will overcome the rule of “the evil whites and Jews” and put them in charge. The sad thing is that they have not shown that they are capable of taking charge and running things. Examples: South Africa…Shortly after blacks took control, gangs raided outlying towns, looted the stores and burned everything to the ground. Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe…Blacks were told that whites were rich because they owned the land. So they put one of their own in charge, evicted or killed off the white farmers, and distributed the land to the “rightful” owners who are all black. Today nobody works the land and the new black owners squat on the land and blame the former white owners because they are still poor and starving because they think the whites took the wealth with them. The same will be true if Mexico takes over the SouthWest. Do they really think that if that territory becomes a part of Mexico all the property and businesses now owned by Americans would automatically be theirs? If it should ever happen, within a short time it would be just like the rest of Mexico. If the Mexicans were capable of handling a developed area like the Southwest, there would be similar developed areas in Mexico today.
One of the biggest disappointments in store for Obama’s black supporters is that his winning the Presidency is not going to change anything for them. Even if he redistributed everything in America to them, they have not shown that they could take care of it. After observing numerous attempts to help blacks lift themselves up out of poverty,I have come to believe that they do not want what the rest of us have, they just don’t want anyone to have more than they have.
I see Obama as one of those clever sociopaths who has the ability to con his people into thinking he will elevate them all to positions of power so that they can can get even and punish those whom they blame for their miseries, while at the same time conning the other side into thinking he is a healer who will solve the problem of calming the agitated masses who blame them for their inadequacies.
Values spoken without actions taken are just slogans. Values are not just words. They’re what we live by. They’re about the causes we champion and the people we fight for. — John Kerry
Momdear
Mexicans are neither lazy nor dumb. They are more of a conservative family group that are hard workers. They are not as ambitious as some but extremely likable as a people. They have not been raised with a sense of entitlement. They have developed some new attitudes. They are now exposed to the Dem’s MSM. If you send their kids to our schools………………..
Obama has a problem. Most of the ‘whiteys’ that Wright was screaming about have moved past all this hate. Obama seems to think it is so ingrained in us that we can’t.
You can listen to Farrakhan or Wright, and you will hear almost exactly the same message. Conyers created the Congressional Black Caucus. They do not believe in equality. They believe they are superior. It is the same-o black power millitant message of many years past.
No one calls them on it. Why should we allow CBC? Because we have all been made to feel too guilty and do not want to be labeled racist. Even in Congress. Conyers is a Farrakhan supporter. But these are the people who pass hate crime legislation.
Imagine voting on legislation after you have sat and listened to this.
“…those people who need to talk about race seem to be asking for therapy.”
Amen brutha.
the struggler—-Down with the struggle before being down with the struggle was cool.
This whole hoopla has set race relations back decades. Now we will wonder if certain blacks go to these churches and have this attitude. It really explains the hostility you see in some blacks. But this black supremacy is not the worst. I saw on a link to Little Green Footballs where Rev Wright’s masters’ thesis was on Islam in Africa. He said so on his pastor’s page of the church bulletin. Is it possible that this church is a mix of black supremism and Islam? Rev Wright is evidently in sympathy with the Palestinians. Is this why Obama is so loyal to this man and this church?
I dont think this sets anything back.
i know this is a surprise to aging hippies and other leftist.. but most of us DON’T CARE ABOUT RACE. We have moved on.
Only people who are obssesed with race will be effected by this