Obama: " When people ask me if I've been to Selma before, I tell them I'm coming home."

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT/AP: In Selma, Obama Appeals to Black Voters
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
March 4, 2007

SELMA, Ala. -- Barack Obama reached out to the civil rights generation Sunday on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march, saying the protesters helped pave the way for his campaign to become the first black president. He also urged blacks to take more personal responsibility.

"I stand on the shoulders of giants," the Democratic senator from Illinois told hundreds at a breakfast to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the clash between voting rights demonstrators and police.

He was just 3 when police with billy clubs bloodied blacks who tried to cross the bridge out of Selma on the way to Montgomery, the capital. On his first visit to Selma, Obama was coming face-to-face with Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as the candidates seek support from the party's loyal black constituency....

***

The Selma civil rights demonstrations, Obama said, reverberated across the globe and helped inspire his father growing up in Kenya to aspire to something beyond his job herding goats. His father came to Hawaii to get an education under a program for African students and met Obama's mother, a fellow student from Kansas.

Obama said he was not surprised when it was reported this week that his white ancestors on his mother's side owned slaves. "That's no surprise in America," he said and added that his mother's family was inspired by the unity in the Selma marches.

"If it hasn't been for Selma, I wouldn't be here," Obama said. "This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. When people ask me if I've been to Selma before, I tell them I'm coming home."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top11mar04,0,5167322.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlines

[MADem]

1. I saw the speech. I thought he started out slow, to be honest.

He got a bit better as he got into it, but my frank assessment is that he's capable of a MUCH better presentation. I don't think he hit a home run. He stayed afloat, and it wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either.

He might have done better with a little more WE and and little less ME.

That is just my take. The guy can give a speech, and this is just one speech of many to come. But I'd be lying if I said he hit it out of the park, because IMO he didn't.

Now, where's that asbestos cloak--I know I left it around here somewhere....!!!!

[Kahuna]

5. I thought that his message was more geared to our youth who don't

have a memory of seeing the events that took place crossing that bridge like people of my generation did. I connected with speech because I will never forget seeing people being beaten, hosed and attacked by dogs on my evening news.

[tblue]

6. I didn't hear it, but you don't need the cloak. If he said a lot of MEs and fewer WEs then he

didn't learn as much as he should have from Clinton '92.

[eleny]

2. He was very well received by the crowd

His speech was greeted with agreement and much applause throughout. I think he should be greatly encouraged by their strong appreciation.

He's definitely in my plus column of candidates along with Edwards, Kucinich and Richardson.

[Clark2008]

3. Oh, brother.

That sounded very pandering-like, which usually isn't Obama's MO.

We're in for a long season of politics, aren't we?

[unblock]

4. it occurs to me that "pander" has got to be one of the most useless words in our political language

or at least the most annoyingly overused.

it's not like wherever he goes, he claims that the local football team is his favorite.

[tblue]

7. What does it even mean? To tailor a speech to your audience?

[MADem]

8. No, he was CONCEIVED in Selma--it actually was FACT, not pandering

Edited to repair formatting error and add NYT citation.

As I said upthread, I did NOT think the speech was one of his best efforts at all, and I'm not in the "uncritical cheerleader" crowd, but in context, the sentence actually made sense:

“If it hasn’t been for Selma, I wouldn’t be here,” Mr. Obama said. “This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. When people ask me if I’ve been to Selma before, I tell them I’m coming home.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/politics/04cnd-selma.html?ref=politics

Maybe a bit of 'too much information' for the older set, IMO...

It might strike a chord with the younger crowd, who never had as many opportunities as their parents and grandparents had to experience the youthful joys of "ripping off a piece" at a peace or civil rights protest with that good looking gal or fellow who looked even better because they shared your same ideological goals, making the entire encounter that much more enjoyable, memorable, and meaningful.

Though I guess nowadays there's less requirement for ideological concordance, and it's called "hooking up"...eh?

And the other difficulty is, if one is dissecting the speech, that though he may have been conceived in Selma, it wasn't during the protest, as he was three years old when Bloody Sunday happened.

[MGKrebs]

9. I read that as a metaphorical conception.

[Colobo]

11. Yep; he is the "son" of the struggle

He, along with all African-Americans who grew up in the post-Civil Rights era, are the sons of the struggle. Selma, along with all the other sites of struggle and strife in the 1950's and 1960's, are the spiritual homes of those of us who didn't have to fight, bleed or die for our civil rights.

[MADem]

12. Well, I didn't hear it that way, but he may well have intended it that way.

The whole construct was a bit unusual for the venue, IMO. I am not a mind reader, so his intent is whatever it was; maybe he'll expand on it at some point in time.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. According to the article, this speech was actually the opposite of pandering --

In a call to action perhaps politically unfeasible for his white rivals to make, Obama said the current generation needs to honor the civil rights movement by taking responsibility for rejecting violence; cleaning up "40-ounce bottles" and other trash that litters urban neighborhoods; and voting in elections.

"How can it be that our voting rates dropped down to 30, 40, 50 percent when people shed their blood to allow us to vote?" Obama asked....

He criticized the Bush administration for opposing affirmative action and said blacks must fight for banks to reinvest in their communities and for more spending in their schools.

But, he added, parents also have to "turn off the television set and put away the Game Boy and make sure that you're talking to your teacher and that we get over the anti-intellectualism that exists in some of our communities where if you conjugate your verbs and if you read a book that somehow means you are acting white," he said....

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. Oh man,

Obama has a way with words! Let's hope we can rise about our racist past and give him a chance.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. LINK NO LONGER WORKS -- NEW LINK HERE:

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070304/D8NLH6200.html