click on each candidate to see today's news stories (caricatures by Linda Eddy)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Obama Speech coverage       transcript    full video

ABC's Jake Tapper: cliff's notes for Obama's race speech

1. How we got here to this speech today

2. Wright is Wrong (and I'm not anti-Isreal)

3. Yes, I've heard some controversial stuff in the pews

4. But disowning him would be like disowning the black church itself... or my grandma

5. We need to talk about the 'racial stalemate' we've been stuck in for years

6. Why Wright and blacks are angry

7. Why whites are angry

8. I = America

9. American can change

10. What blacks can dot o fix this mess

11. What whites can do to fix this mess

12. Stop covering the Wright controversy and talk about race and my platform instead

Hillary Clinton reacts to speech:

"In the end, the test is not the speeches a president delivers," she said. "The test is whether the president delivers on the speeches."

LATimes: Obama stands his unique ground on race

“It was a speech that seemed unlikely to come from a politician viewed as simply white or black. Obama rejected the most controversial of Wright's comments, while saying he could never renounce the man who had helped introduce the senator to Christianity, officiated at his wedding and baptized his children.”

WSJ: Obama puts race closer to center of campaign

While the speech was hailed by many Democrats, some conservative critics and others said the senator didn't -- and perhaps can't -- explain why he allied with a pastor of such views for two decades if he didn't agree.

Bloomberg: Obama's race speech echoes Kennedy's 1960 address on religion

Obama's speech ``made clear that his own views differed'' from those expressed by his longtime pastor, just as Kennedy made clear that a Catholic president would not answer to the Vatican, said Ted Sorensen, 79, an Obama supporter who helped Kennedy write the Houston speech that was a turning point in his race for the White House.

``The parallels with Kennedy instantly came to mind,'' said political scientist Stephen Hess of the Washington-based Brookings Institution who was a speechwriter for President Dwight Eisenhower.

Robinson/WashPost:  Obama's road map on race

Obama called on African Americans to embrace "the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past," and to take "full responsibility for our own lives." And he's absolutely right.

This amounts to a new set of talking points for a discussion about race: Don't be paralyzed by history but acknowledge its effects. Recognize that whites have legitimate grievances that are not racist. Don't cling to victimhood as an all-purpose excuse. Accept personal responsibility.

NYTimes: Obama urges U.S. to grapple with race issue

Standing against a backdrop of eight American flags on Tuesday morning, Mr. Obama offered the most thorough explanation to date about his association with the church and his pastor, whom he has known for nearly 20 years.

“For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course,” he said. “Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely ...

Politico: Obama parses Wright & wrong in race speech

... Why wasn't this issue dealt with until now? What else do voters not know about Obama? And how will voters receive his pledge to unite the country given his attendance at a church where those of his mother's hue might not feel comfortable?

Amid much keen thought and fine oratory, those questions, today, went unanswered.

Liberal groups set $400M spending target

MoveOn.org and the other groups participating in this week’s “Take Back America” conference are trying like never before to avoid stepping on each others’ toes — and messages — as they gear up for an intense general election battle. 

... Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, which is hosting the conference, floated the possibility of $400 million in combined spending during a telephone interview with Politico after the news conference.
 

Meghan McCain, 23, has been given a prominent place in her father’s presidential campaign, most notably with her blog, McCainBlogette.com. Loosely inspired, she says—loosely!—by Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72, McCain Blogette is a sometimes irreverent, sometimes overly rah-rah account of life on the Straight Talk Express (“Lindsey Graham is hilarious!”), with tons of photographs and even iPod playlists (favorites have included Wolfmother and Hot Hot Heat). Charming and self-deprecating, McCain Blogette often makes Meghan’s 71-year-old father seem less old, which is surely one of the reasons it exists, even if Meghan occasionally does something like refer to Barack Obama as “sexy,” which she did right before the New Hampshire primary...