Obama video: October surprise or old news?
It was billed as a bombshell on the eve of the first presidential debate: A video showing then-Sen. Barack Obama making controversial comments about class and race. It wasn't until Fox News and the Daily Caller unveiled the video that it became clear that it was an event that had already seen by the public: Mr. Obama's speech to Hampton University in 2007.
What it succeeded in doing was reminding people about Mr. Obama's warm welcome at the event to his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright - the pastor whose incendiary remarks created such a controversy that Mr. Obama was forced to deliver his famous "race speech" in 2008 in response.
"I've got to give a special shout-out to my pastor, the guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me," Mr. Obama said at the Hampton event on June 5, 2007. "He's a friend and a great leader. Not just in Chicago, but all across the country."
His remarks came less than a year before Wright's infamous "God damn America" speech grabbed the spotlight in 2008.
Fox News' Sean Hannity seized on what the Daily Caller deemed as "racially charged and at times angry" parts of the speech that hadn't been on YouTube since 2007, where Mr. Obama criticized the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and suggested something about a "racist, zero-sum society."
"What's happening down in New Orleans? Where's your dollars?" he asked the audience. "Makes no sense. Tells me the bullet hasn't been taken out. Tells me that somehow the people down in New Orleans, they don't care about it as much."
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Another part of the speech that was flagged by Hannity and the Daily Caller also hadn't been seen since it was delivered in 2007 and focused on helping inner city residents find work.
"[We] need additional federal public transportation dollars loaned to the highest need in the community. We don't need to build more highways in the suburbs if we have people in the city who want to work and have no way to get into those jobs," Mr. Obama said. "We have to help connect them to the jobs that exist. We should be investing into minority owned businesses so people don't have to travel so far away."
The release of the video is a clear contrast to Mother Jones' release of a video showing Mitt Romney speaking to campaign donors and suggesting that he doesn't care about "47 percent" of the country that is dependent on the government.
While Romney's remarks have had a negative effect on his standing in the polls, Mr. Obama's detractors seem to want the same to happen to him after the release of the Hampton remarks.
The Romney campaign is denying responsibility and the Republican National Committee isn't commenting about the video. Romney had previously distanced himself from a conservative group considering an ad campaign featuring Wright.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt called the video's release "a transparent attempt to change the subject from [Romney's] comments attacking half of the American people."
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I guess no one remembers the people crammed into the Dome and on the bridge for 3 days and doctors breaking into drug stores for bandages and medications?
This racism and bigotry that many in the Republican party continue to hint at (not all) must stop!
I wish the Union had lost the Civil War, if so the GOP and state rights bigots would not be a part of my life.
And don't delete this CBS! Stop being biased....
Interesting that many on the other side will acknowledge that a president, even if they did not vote for him, still deserves respect. Even though I think W is a simpleton groomed to be the face of the party he still did some good. No one who sits in that chair is evil (so far) but seems the people who think Obama is a Saudi spy (and worse) will stop at nothing and I think for some of them it's because of his race.
This video was selectively edited by the mainstream media in 2007 to omit the incindiary lies, and they were lies, that Obama told his black supporters in order to stir up racial hatred for his own selfish benefit. One doesn't have to believe Obama has "horns" or a "Saudi spy" to see that he's a hateful, divisive and incompetent President.
Typez although damning I personally don't think this equates on any level with the 47% bit, I don't think it "incites racist and class warfare" (that would be GOP policies) and the reason many point the finger at your side is they know EXACTLY what this is. As has been said it's a blatant attempt to beat a dead horse as a response to 47%.
Regardless of your interpretation of truth or integrity the reality is that all levels of government failed many residents of New Orleans and by the way: all you cretins who believe anyone who votes for Obama has been "fooled" - I got a novels' worth of reasons to not vote for Mittens or any Republican, save a few. All you $&!#heads are going to be crying in your beer next month, stewing about 'next time' so wise up and realize that approximately HALF the populous disagrees with you.
The Republicans are ALWAYS whining about how the "mainstream" media is so liberally biased!
NOW apparently, several right-wing "mainstream" media sources are actually conspiring to PUSH an old video clip of pre-President Obama that is basically "old news".
This CLEARLY exposes the acute DESPERATION of the Republican Party!
If obama was a white politician, the media would be hounding him 24/7!
Oh sure fox is fair and balanced, they never report the other side of a story, it's all far rightwing opinions.
How do you explain a divisive President who falsely claimed a desire to unite us?
Now we have 4 years of failure and the media still refuses to do it's job!