Obama's Racial Problems Transcend Pastor

Politico: Speech Offered Lines Calculated To Reassure All Groups With Which He Is Most Vulnerable

(The Politico)  This article was written by Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris.

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Barack Obama’s plunge into the race issue in Philadelphia Tuesday at times sounded more like a sermon than a speech.

But beneath the personal anecdotes and historical allusions, it was a delicately crafted political statement - one that makes clear that Obama understands exactly how much peril he is facing.

Even before the Jeremiah Wright controversy erupted in recent days, voting patterns in several states made clear - for all the glow of Obama’s reputation as a bridge-builder - how uneven his record really is when it comes to transcending deep racial divides.

The Philadelphia speech offered lines calculated to reassure all the groups with which he is most vulnerable.

For working class whites-whose coolness toward Obama helped tilt Ohio to Hillary Rodham Clinton - Obama spoke with understanding about why they dislike busing and affirmative action. “Like the anger in the black community, these resentments aren’t always shared in polite company,” he said.

For Hispanics, who have sided with Clinton in the vast majority of states this election, he lashed pundits scouring polls for signs of tension between “black and brown” and said the two communities face a common heritage of discrimination and inadequate public services.

Finally, Obama sought to connect with white Jewish voters - potentially one of the rawest nerves of all amid the Wright controversy - denouncing those blacks who see “the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.”

It will take weeks, at least until the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, to know whether all of Obama’s political and cultural base-touching succeeded.

Even before that verdict arrives, the speech counts as a remarkable event - most of all for the specificity with which Obama discussed racial attitudes and animosities that politicians usually prefer to leave unmentioned.

Of his own candidacy, Obama said, “I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.”

Truth be told, Obama and his most fervent supporters often have acted as if he could end some of the most persistent divisions in American life by proclamation.

When pressed on racial questions, Obama usually invoked his own biography and achievements and appealed to America’s hunger for unity. When pressed on a voting record that National Journal called the most liberal in the Senate, Obama dismissed ideological labels as “old politics.”

The Wright uproar showed that there is no way to sneak race and ideology through customs, blinding skeptics with his life-story and phrase-making. The candidate will need to address these volatile topics directly.

But this was becoming clear even before the Wright story caught fire.

It is true that Obama won a majority of white voters - a precedent-shattering achievement for a black presidential candidate - in an array of states like Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Virginia.

But many of his recent victories came when he got the better end of highly polarized voting patterns. He lost the white vote, sometimes by gaping margins in states like Alabama (whites went 72 percent for Clinton to Obama’s 25 percent), Maryland (52 to 42) and Louisiana (58 to 30). He compensated only with overwhelming support by black voters.

In Ohio, it was Clinton who benefited from the racial pattern in the voting. She took 64 percent of the white vote, according to exit polls. That was easily enough to offset his 87 percent of the black vote. Overall, she won the state by eight percentage points.

This result could haunt Obama. The past two general elections wee tipped by narrow GOP victories in Ohio and these rural whites are a prototypical swing bloc in elections stretching back decades. Obama failed to win more than 35 percent of the vote in 11 of the 12 rural counties that border Pennsylvania.

Obama’s cross-racial and even cross-partisan support has been driven by a belief that he is a new-era politician, not defined by the grievances and ideological habits of an earlier generation.

Then came Wright, who Obama has described as an important mentor, suggesting that in important ways he is a product of familiar animosities. “Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people. Hillary ain't never been called a n---,” he thundered in a sermon played relentlessly on television and the web this past week.

Merle Black, an expert on southern voters at Emory University, said Wright is a “huge, huge problem.”

“The new information, especially about his minister and his twenty-year association with this church, really undermines the message he’s been delivering for the last year, it completely undercuts it,” said Black.

Latinos have been an even tougher obstacle for Obama than whites. The only states where he has carried this group, Connecticut, Virginia, Illinois and Iowa, have relatively small Hispanic populations. Obama has worked hard to break down this bloc’s preference for Clinton, a task that likely is set back by Wright.

“There is an older generation, U.S. born, of the Latino population who can identify more with the black community on these civil rights issues and can identify with where the reverend is coming from,” said Angelo Falcón, president of the National Institute for Latino Policy. “There are also people who have not been here as long who are going to find the whole mix of the reverends’ words totally alien.”

Obama’s problems with some Jewish voters also predated the Wright coverage. The Illinois senator lost the Jewish vote by double-digits in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. He has been the victim of both an unwanted endorsement (Louis Farrakhan) and a dirty e-mail campaign claiming falsely that he is a Muslim.

In some quarters, his support of Israel has been suspect, despite his outspoken support for the U.S. ally. Wright didn’t do him any favors when he accused Israel of “state terrorism against Palestinians.”

“Wright’s comments make the job of supporting Obama in the Jewish community more difficult,” said a Jewish Democratic leader who asked that he not be identified by name in order to share his views more candidly. “On a rational level, Obama should be an easy sell in the Jewish community. This stuff is based on pure fear-mongering. There has been a concerted smear campaign against Obama that has targeted the Jewish community, in emails and conservative blogs.

“Obama’s speech is a powerful tool to be used in support of Obama,” he continued, “but on balance this is an issue that could have a negative impact on the Jewish vote.”

David Paul Kuhn contributed to this report.

[popstom1]

If Obama was white what do think would have happen

[j0hnwi11iams]

Who would ever want to be associated with a country that is infiltrated by STUPID republicans?

[j0hnwi11iams]

I am an Obama supporter. I guess now it''s OK to accuse me of being responsible for the comments of Pastor Wright. Funny how Republicans preach personal responsibility when they actually have very little faith in it.

[hhkeller]

Obama fed the race base machine inorder to win a monolithic vote in the south. His surrogates played the media during the same period. His payed blogger followed suit. Its no surprise that the spotlight has focused on Obamas lack of record and former afiliations.

[blkpresident]

New Anchor: I''m joined here by Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Let me start with Senator Clinton first: What''s your plan to protect America from terrorist?

''Lil Hillary: I''m planning to bake a batch of cookies and brownies for them every time they threaten America.

News Anchor: Senator McCain, same question.

OLD man McCain: I was napping when you asked that question. Hope it wasn''t anything important like protecting America. Hey, ''Lil Hillary, look at my new "blankie"

"Lil Hillary: Look at those geritol messages on your "blankie". Here check out my new cook book, especially the chapter on recipes for dealing with terrorist and all the goodies one can bake for them when they threaten us.

News Anchor: "Cut, cut, cut!!! Will somebody bring on the only real man in this race--PLEASE! Back after these messages, America, with the only real man who won''t wear an apron in the Oval Office or fall alseep in a "blankie". Back in two minutes with Senator Obama.

[dschellb]

A question for those outraged by Obama''s church.

How is it different from some evangelical leaders like Franklin Graham who say the the following:

In an October interview broadcast last Friday on NBC''s "Nightly News," Graham said that Muslims worshipped a different God than Christians and that he believed Islam to be "a very evil and wicked religion."

This same minister delivered the invocation at George Bush''s inauguration. How come no outrage over that? o

[blkpresident]

Hillarygrl34,

After PA. votes, ''lil Hillary will have to drop out. Maybe she, Geraldine Ferraro and all her followers can conduct a bake sale. Somewhere in NY a lonely kitchen stove is in need of a woman''s touch. Missy needs to simply drop out and unite the party. America doesn''t want a housewife pretending to be presidential worthy. Soccer mom anyone? NOT!

[quepdds]

Obama is responsible for the political persona he has sought to create. In order to be elected to the state senate from the south side of Chicago: he joined Trinity for instant street credibility. He went to see BIll Ayers "as a rite of passage", a memeber of the Weather Underground and self-admitted domestic terrorist, for his approval, in order to appeal to the extreme Left, then he sought out Tony Rezko for campaign finance. It''s all a political calculation to be elected to the Illinois senate. Unfortunately for Obana, it doesn''t translate to the base he needs in a Presidential election.

[jemiltd]

Is it just me or is something else going on? I got to thinking last night and came up with some interesting thoughts about the media.
In the emotion of the doubts cast about Obama, his integrity, his faith, his allegiance to this country and its citizens, have you asked yourself who stands to benefit the most from you changing your mind and why the media is so invested in this effort? Is this really about race, white paternalism, or religious affilation or are there a larger reasons --- MONEY and POWER -- that play an important role? Ask yourself which candidate would be less likely to become bedfellows with the powerful lobbyists in Washington, DC? Ask yourself why it has been consistently acknowledged that the Republicans are afraid of Senator Obama''s candidacy? There was a very timely joke made by the newly appointed Governor of NY: The second-to-last question to Paterson came from New York Sun reporter Jacob Gershman, who asked whether he%u2019d (Paterson) ever patronized prostitutes. No, Paterson said, only lobbyists.

I did a quick study on the Internet; the results are on my blog, because of the character limitations here. Get the FACTS, You judge the real reasons for the media efforts to dissuade voters who are looking to Barack Obama for change.

[micbrid-2009]

Everyone posting on here is no different than those in the argument. The media says " a BLACK man, A WHITE man, they are both simply JUST men. This country has tried to band-aid the racial issues with Affirmative action and all other sorts of nonsense, the Government plays right into the issue. If we really want unity, then these things need to go too. When a news report comes on, or a speech is made it should not mention COLOR, it should talk about men, women, people.
People follow the media, maybe they need to take the issue of race out of their language, a Man running for president, a woman running for president. Mr. Jones killed a young man today, not a white man killed a black man, or vice-versa. We breed ignorance in our children through education of hate and showing them there is a difference, when there really isn''t. The people who first came to America left their Countries because they were not accepted where they were from. When do we stop paying for bad judgments by our ancestors and start living in reality?
Obama is a man who wants to make a difference and change the divide of ignorance we live under. He is neither white nor black, and if we all look in our family trees, neither are we. We are American, a melting pot of all races. We need to recognize this and move on. Many changes need to made, and maybe Obama has the intelligence to rise above it and make those changes, maybe he don''t. BUT someone needs to. We need to say enough is enough.

[azoldtimer]

It is amusing to watch the News analysts present their views on Obama%u2019s race speech. If you were able to actually watch the speech you could make your own judgment about it and him.
The news analysts and TV journalists seem to be reporting what they would like to have it all mean instead of what it actually means.
It is an attractive prospect to the analysts to propel Obama to the pinnacle of historic speech making. Whether he got there on his own is irrelevant.
It is easy to pinpoint the part of the speech that Obama contributed. It was the petty attack on his elderly self sacrificing white grandmother to make a cheap political point. All she did was give up her life to raise the mixed race child of her rebellious daughter. Obama''s judgment here was very bad.
My view of the rest of the speech is that it was a collection of fairly stock political talking points probably drawn from many sources. He was a flawless presenter of this material, However we need more than just an actor presenting a smooth and slick presentation.

As I examine his campaign I hear no solutions, no new ideas, see no new directions, merely a well dressed presenter of tired political drivel who is skilled at cutting and pasting the ideas of others. Obama advertises his mixed racial makeup as some sort of bridge between the races. I suspect it is a bridge to nowhere.

[eje153]

Do you really believe that Barack Obama will be able to put together a coalition of politicians to pass some of his idealisms. He wants to reduce the lobbyists influence in Washington, but lobbyists are the only way individuals can have their ideas heard in Washington. Also, the Republicans are just going to tear him apart because of his lack of experience, and his support of Black Clergy who preach racism againt whites. Anyone who preaches hatred against another human being should not be apart of our government. I just don''t think it is the right time for Barack Obama. I believe he is a fine man but he needs to stop preaching. We don''t need a preacher in the White House; we need a dooer. If he become the Democratic canidate I not sure how I will exercise my right to vote. Change is needed but I just not sure he is the the individual who can lead this nation away for Bushism.

[mudrose-2009]

Barack Obama is not an idiot. He is a brilliant orator who exudes charm and arouses near-worship from his host of giddy, hypnotized supporters. He is also a committed socialist and a talented salesman for his brand of Marxist snake oil.

Beware of camels bearing gifts, and politicians promising utopia.

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[enaudnella]

Chico........The black man is the reason the black man is able to say what they want......also the black man is the reason the "chicos" like u can say what u want. Whites admit they have predujice so I can deal with them but the mexicans use up affirmative action, use martin luther kings speech for support illegal immigration but when they hear the N word they step back join in try to act white then they go back home put in Tupac , Beyonce . They dont have any real identity so they ride the fence and lie their way in America

[blkpresident]

The New Black Panthers Party is NOT running for president!!! Rev. Wright is NOT running for president!!! Michelle Obama is NOT running for president! OLD man McCain is running for president and so is ''lil Hillary. Unfortunately for them, America doesn''t want or need an OLD man with feeble and trembling hands or a soccer mom playing president.

[blkpresident]

ranger1948,

Obama is younger than OLD man McCain, and last time I checked ''lil Hillary is the only candidate who wears an apron.

[blkpresident]

After PA. votes, Rev Wright and his church won''t matter any more. Then Missy can find her way back to her kitchen stove in NY.

[armydog2]

rowdy texan2
what more can we do,racism is still very alive and well in this country. How many folks believed bush and continue to believe that god actually talks to him. his first speech in his reelection campaign was at a very racist southern college.
Where does christianity say it is ok to go and invade a country and tell 937 lies to do it? Where does christianity say it is ok to kill innocent women and children so the oil companies can post billions of dollars profits each quarter?
three or four pieces of legislation for freedom and equality do not make up for hundreds of years of racism.
Obama is half white, and he sees both sides of the fence. Maybe he is the one to make positive changes in our country.

[jegibbons]

There is NO SANTA CLAUS,Virginia!

[ekucrew]

Obama is in a love-fest with CNN for two days... what''s the big three to do?