MLK had a dream . . . Obama gave a speech in a political campaign

[bigtree]

There was Martin, struggling for equal access and opportunity, rights and justice for blacks, against the backdrop of segregation and Jim Crow.

Here's Barack Obama, struggling to close out a presidential bid in a primary election, giving a damage-control speech in response to the flurry of controversy which has engulfed his campaign over statements his longtime pastor made in his church.

It's not so far out of line to see this speech as a political means to pull the Obama campaign out of the ditch the press had dug for them and elevate his campaign to the presidency. That may be well and good. His election to office would be an historic and inspiring event, complete with the promise of his follow-through on his fine words.

But, it's still mainly politics in a primary race in which his own campaign hasn't shied away from putting forth strategies and tactics which are, by nature, divisive and undermining of any calls for unity from the podium. It's not Birmingham, Selma, or the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It's a speech in a campaign.

Good for Obama. Good for the issues he raises and elevates. But, the speech was not the earth-shattering manifesto that it's being described as in many circles tonight. It adequately distanced Obama's campaign from the controversial remarks of his pastor and may serve to define him outside of that controversy. I'll wait until that effect becomes real and evident before declaring that his damage-control effort has the potential to transform the issues and debate about race in America.

[OhioBlue]

1. it was an amazing, moving speech

I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to see it.

[bigtree]

4. oh, but I did

every bit of it.

[musicblind]

48. I love how they assume that if you don't agree with them on the speeech

then you must not have seen it. I mean I thought the speech was GREAT! Wow, what a speech. But come on... why does everyone have to share the same opinion on it???

[BOSSHOG]

5. I didn't think so

Just damage control from a politician. If I want to be amazed I'll watch Paula Deen on Sunday Mornings. Lordy that Lady can cook.

[JoFerret]

26. It was good speech.

Moving? Amazing? Not to everyone. Not to me.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Thanks Bigtree

No doubt the cult will cast spells upon you but you are right and alas will be "ignored" by those who preach unity.

[polpilot]

55. It seems, if I'm hearing him correctly, that Bigtree is now an Obama supporter.

Welcome & yes we can!!!!

[Blue_Roses]

69. omg...I know that voice...I knew it

Haley, Haley Barbour is that you? I knew it. I knew it:bounce:

[NYCGirl]

3. ....

[scheming daemons]

6. Obama is a product of MLK's dream.....

...and MLK would've been proud today.

[bigtree]

8. maybe

let me consult my oracle

[gabeana]

11. were you consulting you oracle

when Ann Richards from grave supported Clinton, in Texas via her daughters

not to be a smart ass but don't you think MLK would be proud of both barack and hillary?

[bigtree]

33. maybe.

He'd be more in line with Dennis, I think, on the issues.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

10. Doubtful

Compare Martin's words as relates to the deep systemic change in America versus Obama's and you'll see an unbridgeable gap.

I think the comparison, which Obama has no trouble fostering, is really an insult to MLK's life and legacy.

Compare MLK's "Time To Break Silence" with anything Obama has said about US aggressions in Iraq.

[EffieBlack]

50. One of Dr. King's dreams was that one day blacks would have political power

and not just have to stand on the sidelines. While some might find it noble and romantic for a black man to have no political power or position and have to speak from outside the arena as the "conscience" of a society, as Dr. King so brilliantly did, one of the things that Dr. King was fighting for was for future generations to be on the INSIDE where they are able to effect real change. Obama is one of the many who are helping to fulfill that dream.

I, too, am sure that Dr. King would have been enormously proud and pleased today.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

7. Totally agree

I'm stridently opposed to Hillary but I can't believe the gushing over what was really a very average political exercise in damage-control.

Personally watching the video of the vaunted speech tonight I found myself wincing at certain points.

[mikelgb]

9. Part of me knows this... but damn it was still a good speech

and I think the message transcended the fact that it was a damage control speech in a tight primary race

[bigtree]

14. that would not be a bad thing

I understand

[shockra]

35. I think that something extra he gave was due to the fact

that it could be his swan song.

[anamandujano]

81. Good point!

[writes3000]

12. Here's how great this speech was. For me, it transcended politics.

Of course, the impetus for this speech today was a political situation. There's no denying it.

But for many of us, thousands of us, this speech spoke to many unspoken truths. It laid bare our own personal struggles with race, this country and our place in it.

I want Barack Obama to be President. But if that doesn't happen, I will remain eternally grateful that he had the platform today to speak out so clearly, so insighfully and so passionately as he did.

One way or another, I think he opened eyes, opened hearts and opened souls today.

For those focused solely on the politics, that may not matter. But for those of us who deeply care about improving the fabric of country's race relations, it matters a great deal.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. This was a better political speech

[bigtree]

20. wow, that's unifying

do all aspects of these folk's personal lives define them?

Do we judge them on their entire life's history, or just the points of character you choose to highlight?

[Ichingcarpenter]

40. That wasn't personal, that was on national TV

The content of his character was displayed at that time.
If he would have been a straight shooter, but he wasn't and
I would not admonish him.
He pointed at the me and the american people and lied.

Now your little post is just something
that I would hardly call UNIFYING, but a smear.

[bigtree]

49. I would have liked him just as well if he had managed to cover up the affair

I just don't think it's ANY of our business.

[Ichingcarpenter]

67. You liked if he would have cover up the affair?

I would have liked him to say, yes I did, and get over it.

That is the difference, that you don't get.

[bigtree]

87. good for you. I want the public eye away from these politician's keyholes.

. . . as much as I want theirs out of mine/

[Bonobo]

15. Perhaps "Little Stree", "Small Tree" or "Petty Tree" would be more appropo.

[bigtree]

21. personal insults? outta here . . .

[Bonobo]

34. The underlying point is that you are being petty. Call it personal. Who cares?

[JoFerret]

29. It is fans like you

Fans ready and willing to demean and abuse - that make too many Obama followers so unattractive.

[housewolf]

16. Is it so far out of line to consider

that Obama's entire run for the presidency comes from a dream that he has of a a transformed politics, one that is not based in divisiveness and hate? Is that less worthy than MLK's dream? Obama's dream comes from MLK's dream. He has spent most of his life in service to his community while his community has stretched from a neighborhood to his state and potentially the whole country.

No, he's not MLK. He knows it and doesn't pretend to be. No one can be MLK again. Obama can just be what all the rest of us are - ourselves. MLK was a product of his time and the needs of his time. Obama is a product of today's time and needs.

[bigtree]

27. like I said, his election would be historic and meaningful

so would Hillary Clinton's.

This is politics.

[Demeter]

17. Obama's Speech Was the Culmination of MLKing's Dream

and the only candle in all this imperturbable darkness.

[earthside]

18. I'm Starting to Really Feel Sorry ...

... for the Clinton(s) supporters who are mired in the old politics of pitting one group against another -- just in order to win.

A remarkable event happens in a campaign, and they are so petty that they cannot see it.

By the way, MLK's speech on the mall was all about politics and building a movement for equal rights ... that is actually the beauty of democracy.

So sad you cannot see that either.

[bigtree]

24. I don't yet know if 'a remarkable thing occurred'

I didn't for me, personally. Maybe you can qualify exactly what's changed, or, is due to change because of the speech?

[Liberal Veteran]

36. Nobody knew when MLK gave his speech where the future would lead....

...but it inspired people to do more than just listen and go about their daily lives.

In fact, many people reviled him in his time as a "rabble-rouser".

The prescience of Cassandra is rarely rewarded until after the fact.

[Voice for Peace]

44. I think it's simply that more people got a better sense of where this guy is coming from.

This speech from 2006 in my opinion was better and affected me more, probably
because I hate religion in almost every form, and it really made me think, and
reevaluate my own prejudices.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid463869411?bctid=416343938

He's going to be good for this country, and that's going to be good for the
world. Calling upon the best part of humanity, that's a challenge and an
inspiration. People are thirsty for truth, for inspiration.

[TK421]

73. The speech made me cream my shorts..to be honest with you

:shrug:

[slinkerwink]

80. I'm tired of the politics of division

It's time to start multiplying!

[SunDrop23]

19. Disagree with you, but whatever. (n/t)

[grantcart]

22. your candidate would be so proud of you

[theredpen]

23. And he talked about that dream... in a SPEECH

[Sulawesi]

25. You are entitled to your opinion I suppose...but I found it remarkable.

[boppers]

28. Those crazy speech people, always stealing the work of others...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr._authorship_issues

:evilgrin:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

30. This is a classic case of damage control.

Obama made an awful lot of people look really stupid with his speech this morning, and now they're spinning it as hard as they can for the sake of damage control.

[bigtree]

51. Well, I don't think he did a thing to the Clinton camp, which received the speech well.

It will probably reverse most of the negative impressions some folks got from associating him with the remarks of his pastor.

For me, it was a wash. I didn't think he felt the same as his pastor. The issues he raised in his speech weren't new. I felt like I was repeating a course I had already taken and passed as I listened to his description of the problems we face. I feel that way every time I hear any of these candidates do that. It was just a political speech to me, wrapped around damage-control over his association with Rev. Wright.

[VolcanoJen]

75. Because the game is changing.

The reaction I'm reading all over the place is fascinating... conservatives, mostly, just have absolutely no idea what to do with Obama. They are flailing and thrashing. It's as if the nasty, mean "game" of politics that they have mastered of late has been challenged to its core; the board was upended and there are gamepieces flying around and everyone is just... grasping.

It is a political and historical watershed moment. I think it's pretty damned cool that it's happening, I think a lot of us do.

I think the Clintons have handled "the speech" very well today. But if you really want to have a laugh at cynicism and utter disbelief/freakout mode, take a spin around the Malkin-esque sites. :-)

[Liberal Veteran]

31. If words have no power, then let's just close up shop on the human race.

Abraham Lincoln gave us a couple of great speeches from the political pulpit.

FDR inspired a nation to pull itself out of a depression and to win the war against the Axis with his words.

John F. Kennedy inspired people with "Ask not what your country can do for you".

In the final analysis, they were only words that all of them spoke. They had no power except the vision and eloquence to make people pay attention and think.

If we have become so cynical that we no longer care about communication, then our future as a people is at best chancy.

[bigtree]

47. The impetus and backdrop for this speech was damage-control

Obama acknowledged that. Whether his effort to move beyond and above that manages to separate itself from the opportunistic maneuvers of his political campaign remains to be seen. It's an open question as to whether his advancement will mean the advancement of the issues he represents. That's what this continuing campaign is meant to decide. I don't think we have to abandon our skepticism just because a candidate makes an opportunistic speech in a campaign.

[Liberal Veteran]

52. Most great speeches come from some kind of "damage control".

[tekisui]

32. bigtree, I don't know why folks are beating up on you.

You told like you see it. You gave props to Obama. He had to give this speech, he did it well. I agree.

Time will tell what impact it has. For his campaign. For history. I hope the impact will be positive for both.

[bigtree]

38. right. How could that be a bad thing if he succeeded and was elected behind this?

But, it will be judged in the context of a campaign which will, probably, not adhere to the unifying spirit in the address. I think it's already being used as a political wedge against the Clintons by some who are mired in this campaign. (post up-thread)

But, we can hope . . .

[Nia Zuri]

37. Alert - new meme - it's just a campaign speech!

You will strt to see this around

[Bonobo]

41. Yup, It was MLK's dream. Obama is just borrowing rhetoric. He doesn't really care!

[bigtree]

42. POlitics? In a PREsidential campaign?

Gads!

[OhioBlue]

45. I've noticed that too. must be the latest talking point. n/t

[mopinko]

46. you must not have gotten the memo-

damage control. it was just damage control.

[okasha]

39. You ever feel like one of those poor left-out sinners

at a come-to-Jesus where the faithful all fall to their knees and start speaking in tongues, while the rest of us just stand there and wonder WTF?

[ctaylors6]

66. I'll guess I'm standing there with you because

it didn't move me. I thought is was a nice speech, and I agreed with much of it from a factual perspective. As someone of a mixed race background, I certainly understand the context of Wright's sermons (although I don't like a lot of the rhetoric I've seen played in clips on TV this week) and I'm glad Obama didn't throw him under the bus like he did last week. I feel like something's wrong with me, but Obama's just never affected me in any emotional way.

For the record, I'm really not a big supporter of Hillary either but I'll vote for the nominee.

[bigtree]

89. .

[rodeodance]

43. K AND R

[Nine]

53. The speech contained its own hypocrisy.

We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary.

Yeah, Obama. Tensions created by you.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304

The very next morning, Obama's national co-chair, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., a congressional supporter from Chicago, played the race card more directly by appearing on MSNBC to claim in a well-prepared statement that Clinton's emotional moment on the campaign trail was actually a measure of her deeply ingrained racism and callousness about the suffering poor. "But those tears also have to be analyzed," Jackson said, "they have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head to South Carolina where 45 percent of African-Americans will participate in the Democratic contest ... we saw tears in response to her appearance, so that her appearance brought her to tears, but not Hurricane Katrina, not other issues." And so the Obama campaign headed south with race and racism very much on its mind--and on its lips.

(snip)

It has never been satisfactorily explained why the pro-Clinton camp would want to racialize the primary and caucus campaign. The argument has been made that Hillary Clinton wanted to attract whites and Hispanics in the primaries and make the case that a black candidate would be unelectable in the general election. But given the actual history of the campaign, that argument makes no sense. Until late in 2007, Hillary Clinton enjoyed the backing of a substantial majority of black voters--as much as 24 percentage points over Obama according to one poll in October--as well as strong support from Hispanics and traditional working-class white Democrats. It appeared, for a time, as if she might well be able to recreate, both in the primaries and the general election, the cross-class and cross-racial alliances that had eluded Democrats for much of the previous forty years. Playing the race card against Obama could only cost her black votes, as well as offend liberal whites who normally turn out in disproportionally large numbers for Democratic caucuses and primaries. Indeed, indulging in racial politics would be a sure-fire way for the Clinton campaign to shatter its own coalition. On the other hand, especially in South Carolina where black voters made up nearly half of the Democratic turnout, and especially following the shocking disappointment in New Hampshire, playing the race card--or, more precisely, the race-baiting card--made eminent sense for the Obama campaign. Doing so would help Obama secure huge black majorities (in states such as Missouri and Virginia as well as in South Carolina and the deep South) and enlarge his activist white base in the university communities and among affluent liberals. And that is precisely what happened.

First came the Martin Luther King-Lyndon B. Johnson controversy. Responding to early questions that he was only offering vague words of hope instead of policy substance, Obama had given a speech in New Hampshire referring to Martin Luther King, Jr. "standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial" during his "I have a dream" speech. (This rhetorical formulation was reminiscent of a campaign speech delivered in 2006 by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, another client of David Axelrod, Obama's message and media guru; in a later speech, Obama would repeat Patrick's rhetoric word for word.) When asked about it, Clinton replied that while, indeed, King had courageously inspired and led the civil rights movement, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law. "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act," she said, adding that "it took a president to get it done." The statement was, historically, non-controversial; the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, among others, later said that Clinton "was absolutely right." The political implication was plainly that Clinton was claiming to have more of the experience and skills required of a president than Obama did--not that King should be denigrated. But the Obama campaign and its supporters chose to pounce on the remark as the latest example of the Clinton campaign's race baiting. Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a black congressman--neutral in the race, but pressured by the Obama campaign arousing his constituency--felt compelled to repeat the charge that Clinton had disparaged King, and told the New York Times that "we have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics." Several of the Times's op-ed columnists, including Bob Herbert and Maureen Dowd as well as Rich, rushed to amplify how Hillary was playing dirty, as did the newspaper's editorial page, which disgracefully twisted her remarks into an implication that "a black man needed the help of a white man to effect change." Clinton complained that her opponent's backers were deliberately distorting her remarks; and Obama smoothly tried to appear above the fray, as if he knew that the race-baiting charge was untrue and didn't want to level it directly, but didn't exactly want to discourage the idea either. "Senator Clinton made an unfortunate remark, an ill-advised remark, about King and Lyndon Johnson. I didn't make the statement," Obama said in a conference call with reporters. "I haven't remarked on it. And she, I think, offended some folks who felt that somehow diminished King's role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act. She is free to explain that. But the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous."

Meanwhile, below the radar, the Obama campaign pushed the race-baiting angle hard, rehearsing and sometimes inventing instances of alleged Clintonian racial insensitivity. A memo prepared by the South Carolina campaign and circulated to supporters rehashed the King-Johnson matter, while it also spliced together statements of Bill Clinton's to make it seem as if he had given a speech that "implied Hillary Clinton is stronger than Nelson Mandela." (The case, with its snippets and ellipses, was absurd on its face.) The memo also claimed, in a charge soon widely repeated, that he had demeaned Obama as "a kid" because he had called Obama's account of his opposition to the war in Iraq a fanciful "fairy tale."And a few reporters, while pushing the Obama campaign's line that black voters had credible concerns about the Clintons' remarks, had begun to notice that the Obama campaign was doing its utmost to fuel the racial flames. "There's no question that there's politics here at work too," said Jonathan Martin of Politico. "It helps campaign to... push these issues into the fore in a place like South Carolina."


Note also the three gratuitous references to the Ferraro flap:

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.

We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card,

Oh no, Obama, I'm sure you hate it when people pounce on things like that. That's why you keep mentioning it.

[AZBlue]

54. Open your mind as well as your ears.

[pointsoflight]

56. This speech was NOT politically expedient

If he wanted to do what was best politically, he would've completely distanced himself from Wright. He didn't do that. What he did was VERY risky from a political perspective. But he chose to speak what was in his heart anyway.

[jasmine621]

64. Yes it was. He only decided to do this after so much was being made

of Rev. Wright's sermons. Otherwise, he could have and should have addressed the race issue long ago. But he was too busy basking in the darkness of allowing his minions to paint Hillary and Bill as racists. He could have easily used this type of speech to stop the shamful spinning of Hillary's and Bill's comments as playing the race card. By doing so, he himself played the race card and won the hand. This speech today was too late and not quite enough to make me believe he really believe what he said.

[AX10]

57. The pundits, most of Hollywood, and the lefty bloggers..

have gone gaga for this slick talker. It is sickening.
He does not have the record of MLK and JFK, yet people are making him just that in their minds.:puke:

[Name removed]

61. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Straight Shooter]

58. I call it the "I Have My Ass In A Sling" speech.

And, "Lordy, Lordy, I hope this fixes it."

Didn't Reagan give a stirring speech every time big trouble loomed on the horizon? :)

[DesEtoiles]

60. Hillary needs a much bigger sling

[Straight Shooter]

65. Why? Did her spiritual mentor compare the U.S. to al Qaeda and say "God damn America"?

Has she been discovered to have been attending a church for 20 years that villifies blacks?

Nope. Didn't think so.

[DesEtoiles]

68. no, because she has a big ass

[Straight Shooter]

76. I see what kind of inspiration you get from your guy. Mean-spirited humor.

Sort of like george w. bush. He inspired people, too. :eyes:

[VolcanoJen]

77. What do you want him to do to please you?

He's denounced, he's rejected, he's spoken honestly about how he understands how Wright reached his conclusions, but that he is wrong, and divisive.

Short of becoming an Episcopalian, I have a feeling Obama is lost to you.

[Straight Shooter]

83. As Christopher Hitchens said, religion poisons everything.

I wouldn't want a friend who was that loyal to a racist, because that loyalty is a form of tacit approval.

Obama lives for words. He knows their power. He knows he was moved by the Reverend's words. He studied his sermons. A lot of influence there, and how much sunk in subconsciously, who knows.

Yes, Obama is lost to me. He gets my vote if he's the nominee, but I don't trust him. Too many words designed to affect the hippocampus.

[RBInMaine]

71. Thank you for validating the right wing echo chamber. Typical Hillary blogger.

[Straight Shooter]

78. Wrong. It's Obama who validates the right wing echo chamber, calling Hillary divisive, polarizing.

It's part of his campaign theme, in case you hadn't noticed.

And I'm not a blogger. I post on DU as a member. That doesn't make me a "blogger."

[DesEtoiles]

59. MLK dreamed...of someone like Obama

[berni_mccoy]

62. Hi. I'm bigtree and I need some attention. So I'll post the most outrageous thing I can

So the Clinton supporters (all 20 of them) will K&R my post.

[larkrake]

63. Excuse me, it is obvious Obama has a dream

are you deaf? He is sincere about equality and getting rid of the lobby game. He isnt anything like MLK, he is his own self, probably just as grand, certainly, extending what MLK started, with a further vision, not hampered by death threats. MLK was not a political visionist, Obama is.

[Bluebear]

72. "Are you deaf?" What kind of stinking comment is that?

[RBInMaine]

70. It was an excellent speech challenging all of us to see that we need

each other to succeed as a nation, and that unity begins with comming to grips with the resentments of the past, grieving them, understanding one another's legitimate grievences, and then recognizing that we are bound to each other; that our commonalities greatly transcend our differences.
That we MUST unite because we can't succeed divided. It was an excellent speech ranking high among any ever made in a political campaign. It too envisions a dream, very much in the spirit of MLK's dream. Made me proud to be an AMERICAN.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

74. you make a good point

[thevoiceofreason]

79. And thevoiceofreason took a dump on your picture

[bigtree]

86. what the hell is that supposed to mean?

[arthritisR_US]

82. oh yee of little substance.....n/t

[bigtree]

88. I've got it

. . . I'm just not bringing it here.

[alcibiades_mystery]

84. Do you know any damned thing about the civil rights movement

It was very much a political campaign.

If all you saw was "damage control" then you're more of a deluded partisan than you've been letting on.

[MindMatter]

85. Martin Luther King just had the good fortune of being assassinated

If it weren't for that, nobody would have given his speech any thought.

Or so says Geraldine Ferraro anyway.

Let's get real. Obama never said this moment should be on par with MLK and his moment in history. Nonetheless, it was a courageous speech, and a message that needed to be spoken at this moment. The basic message is that the vestiges of racism are used by the few to manipulate the many to act against our self interests.