Obama speech on race(03/18/2008) 
10:03
EM: Welcome to the live blog for the Barack Obama speech!
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:03 
10:04
Can Obama make a case that will assuage doubts regarding Jeremiah Wright?
Yes
 ( 7% )
No
 ( 93% )

Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:04 
10:05
EM: We'll start with a poll ....
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:05 
10:07
EM: Al Sharpton tried to defend Obama on Fox just now by saying that an attack on his judgment means an attack on the judgment of everyone who attends the church, including Oprah Winfrey ...
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:07 
10:07
EM: That's true - but Oprah's not running for President, either.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:07 
10:13
EM: MT, maybe we'll ask that in the next poll question
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:13 
10:15
EM: Most churches preach some form of social commentary, Richard, but it's what kind of commentary it is ...
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:15 
10:17
EM: So far, this speech is great!  Oh, wait, he hasn't arrived yet.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:17 
10:20
EM: Dow up 225 points ....
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:20 
10:23
EM: Eight minutes late now.  Feeling the Obama love ...
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:23 
10:23
AP: I like that "god damn America" stars and stripes display behind the podium
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:23 
10:24
EM: Not to mention the US of KKK-A insignia.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:24 
10:25
What size bus will Obama throw Wright under today?
VW Microbus
 ( 27% )
Pierce-Arrow RV
 ( 2% )
Greyhound
 ( 21% )
Airbus (outsourcing!)
 ( 49% )

Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:25 
10:26
EM: A fun new poll for you ...
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:26 
10:26
AP: From the transcript: "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."
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:26 
10:27
AP: Then he goes on to distinguish the comments shown on the news from the merely controversial comments he heard him say in church.  I can't wait to hear what sorts of "lesser" outrages these other comments were.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:27 
10:28
EM: They sent out the advance copy , AP?
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:28 
10:28
It's on Drudge. I linked it in the post.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:28 
10:28
EM: Cool.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:28 
10:28
AP: Further down, now he's into the cherry-picking defense...
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:28 
10:30
AP: Why, to disown this shrieking hate merchant would be to disown black American entirely!  "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:30 
10:30
AP: I can't wait to hear black reaction to that little equation.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:30 
10:31
EM: Wright=all blacks?  Oh, wow.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:31 
10:31
EM: Looks like some technical issues at the podium.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:31 
10:32
AP: Oh, you've got to be kidding: "But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now."
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:32 
10:32
AP: He would have ignored it happily enough if Brian Ross and Fox hadn't laid this crap right on his plate.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:32 
10:36
EM: CNN says he'll specifically repudiate the 9/11 "chickens coming home to roost" comment
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:36 
10:36
EM: But the question is why he continued to fund the church after that accusation
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:36 
10:37
Will Obama succeed in making Jeremiah Wright the equivalent of the entire black community?
Yes
 ( 15% )
No
 ( 79% )
Not Sure
 ( 6% )

Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:37 
10:38
AP: From Tom Maguire, and further to Obama's "Wright = black America" point: "Brutal - MSNBC is presenting black ministers who insist that Wright is way out of the mainstream, and that most black churches preach a more traditional Christian message of love.  Ooops."
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:38 
10:42
AP: More from Obama.  Sure, Wright pops off in offensive ways, but that's coming from a place of righteous rage among his generation.  And so if you condemn it unthinkingly, you're being ... divisive. "to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:42 
10:43
EM: I like the way he equates Wright with Geraldine Ferraro.  Wasn't it his campaign that shrieked for Ferraro's dismissal?
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:43 
10:44
EM: The speech hasn'y started yet, but we're hearing it will begin in a couple of minutes.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:44 
10:45
AP: The left will appreciate his choice of words here in critiquing grievance culture: "Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons."
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:45 
10:46
AP: " In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us."

Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:46 
10:46
AP: Is that what Wright meant when he said we had it coming on 9/11?
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:46 
10:47
EM: Sen. Harris Wofford introducing Obama; he's a mediocre speaker, who sounds like he just sprinted to the mike.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:47 
10:51
AP: So here's the big insight of the speech: Blacks need to avoid letting their mistreatment turn poisonous like Wright's and whites need to acknowledge that blacks have been mistreated.  And this can be done by coming together to vote Obama.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:51 
10:53
EM: Can we have a political speech that doesn't end in a heartwarming and uplifting personal anecdote?
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:53 
10:53
EM: Here we go, Obama takes the podium ...
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:53 
10:54

EM: Wasn't it 222 years ago?


Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:54 
10:56
EM: No, it was 221, my mistake; they produced the document in 1787, even if they had been meeting before that
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:56 
10:56
EM: Perfecting the union means "electing me".
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:56 
10:59
EM: Here's the rub.  He hasn't made the case why he should be President, but why his ancestry should be President.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 10:59 
11:00
EM: I wonder why  he thinks it's based on Affirmative Action? ...  I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:00 
11:00
AP: Yes, which is why it's so disingenuous to criticize Ferraro for saying his ancestry is an asset.  He's the physical embodiment of racial harmony.  He even alludes to it when he talks about his blood and how he has little pieces of American history in his DNA
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:00 
11:01
EM: "Stalwart allies like Israel" ...
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:01 
11:02
EM: Given my background ... my condemnations will not be enough for some people.  You know -- racists!!
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:02 
11:03
EM: Not a single reaction from the crowd yet.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:03 
11:09
EM: The complexities of race -- and explain once again why your campaign demanded Ferraro's resignation or dismissal?
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:09 
11:10

EM: What a double standard -- it's OK for Wright to talk about the US of KKK-A, but if Ferraro talks about race, she's done.

Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:10 
11:11
EM: The crowd finally reacted with a smattering of applause on two lines regarding the economic disparity between the whites and blacks
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:11 
11:13
EM: CJ, did you ever watch network TV through the 1990s?  You could honestly call them all White Entertainment Television. 
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:13 
11:13
[Comment From cj_thespookcj_thespook: ] 
Show me an all white school, a TV station called White Entertainment TV, Scholarships just for white kids. Ask him how many white people attend HIS church in Chicago?
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:13 cj_thespook
11:14
EM: Anger prevents confronting our own complicity in our condition ... interesting.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:14 
11:17
EM: Hey, let's focus on the real bad guys -- corporations!!
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:17 
11:17
[Comment From sandysandy: ] 
mitt's speech was inspiring and riveting - this guy, same old same old.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:17 sandy
11:17
AP:  A good point from Verbal Abuse in the comments -- this is basically a class warfare speech masquerading as racial healing.  He wants whites and blacks to come together and focus on the real enemy.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:17 
11:18
[Comment From IrishEiIrishEi: ] 
EM, I disagree. What about Flip Wilson, Bill Cosby Show and I Spy, The Jeffersons, and the one with Jay-Jay, etc.--just to name a few
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:18 IrishEi
11:18
EM: That's about all of them, IrishEi.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:18 
11:19
EM: Over a 30-year period.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:19 
11:19
EM: how many were owned by blacks?  Only the Cosby Show.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:19 
11:21
EM: It's the old Workers of the World approach.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:21 
11:22
AP: Hey, when does McCain give the "if you criticize me over Hagee, you're against religious reconciliation" speech?
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:22 
11:23
How effective has Obama been in this speech?
Very effective
 ( 7% )
Somewhat effectivee
 ( 14% )
Somewhat ineffective
 ( 24% )
Very ineffective
 ( 55% )

Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:23 
11:24
[Comment From yarrryarrr: ] 
How many people's watching this liveblog?
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:24 yarrr
11:24
EM: 1135.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:24 
11:25
EM: I'm in the Somewhat effective camp, with a couple of major reservations.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:25 
11:25
[Comment From T-SteelT-Steel: ] 
I think he has righted the ship. But those who still don't like him will still continue to do so. He's hardly embarrassing himself.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:25 T-Steel
11:26
EM: T-Steel, welcome ... that's what I figure, too.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:26 
11:26
EM: The audience for this is the Democratic superdelegates.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:26 
11:28
EM: Anecdote!  That means the speech is almost over.
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:28 
11:34
I'll be shutting this down -- it looks like it stopped working.  Be sure to comment at Hot Air with your thoughts!
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:34 
11:35
Thanks, everyone, for participating!
Tuesday March 18, 2008 11:35 
11:35
This Live Blog has now ended.

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 Writer: Allahpundit
 
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