From Unknown to the World’s Most Recognized Face

Just eight years ago a little known Barack Obama arrived at the Democratic National Convention in Boston unable to obtain a floor pass. He ended up watching most of the speeches on TV monitors in the arena. He was so broke that his credit card was rejected at the car rental counter. His political future was bleak. He had just been trounced in his bid for Congress.

Four years later the change was remarkable. This time when Barack Obama attended the 2004 Democratic convention he was tapped as the keynote speaker, a coveted spot for up-and-comers, and as a U.S. Senate nominee generating political buzz, he fit the bill. Barack Obama still was an unaccomplished state lawmaker, a virtual unknown to the cheering delegates gathered in the Boston convention hall that July night. But his words lit up the crowd.

Now jump forward to the 2008 Democratic convention. On Aug. 28, Senator Barack Obama will step on the stage before a crowd of 75,000 to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. He will be at the summit of U.S. politics, a phenomenon who has smashed every fundraising record, drew astounding crowds, and made history.

How did this man go so far so fast? He is a candidate with political savvy and electrifying oratory skills, enormous confidence, and fierce drive, and an uncanny knack of making friends and forging connections in all the right places. He likes to get along with people. He listens to them. Someone said that he is lucky. And like I always say luck happens when preparation and opportunity meet. A lucky man is one who knows how to take advantage of a break when he gets it.

Senator Obama also has a life story unlike that of any man ever nominated for the U.S.'s highest office. And while his unconventional experiences have made him an unconventional candidate, they also have helped fuel his extraordinary rise. It is truly the American dream – one of the most unlikely political biographies of all times. When you look at his life, there are half a dozen times when he could have failed ... being abandoned by his father, his troubled teenage years... but he seems to weather adversity better than most people.

"It's a leap electing a 46-year-old black guy named Barack Obama," the Illinois senator told a crowd in July at a Missouri fundraiser.
There is his biracial roots and foreign-sounding name. It's his youth spent wrestling with questions about his racial identity and a foreign father he barely knew. It's his admission that he tried drugs as a teen. That kind of revelation is rarely made known by politicians. It's his travels from low-prestige community organizer in the poverty-ravaged corners of Chicago to the high-powered halls of Harvard Law School. And it's his rapid climb up the political ladder.

Barack Obama's life story is familiar to many by now. The Kansas-born mother, Stanley Ann Dunham (her father wanted a boy). The Kenyan-born father, Barack Obama Sr. Their meeting at the University of Hawaii, their marriage, the birth of Barack ("blessed" in Arabic). The father's departure two years later to study at Harvard, his return just once when Barack was 10. The childhood in Indonesia, homeland of his stepfather, Lolo Soetero; the exposure to poverty and beggars, crocodiles and roasted grasshopper. And then, after his mother's second marriage broke up, the return to Hawaii, where the young Obama (then known as Barry) enrolled in the prestigious Punahou School, a private academy in Honolulu.
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As a teen, Barack Obama was smart and liked to read but he wasn't particularly driven or ambitious (there were no obvious signs -- unless you count a grade school essay -- that pointed to politics as his destiny). He wasn't part of student government. He wasn't in any advanced placement classes. “He was a young man concerned with ... hanging out with his buddies, playing basketball and body surfing,” says his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.

When his mother's work as an anthropologist took her back to Indonesia, Barack stayed behind for high school, living with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn, known as Tutu or Toot (Hawaiian for grandparent), and Stanley, or Gramps. He played golf and poker, he practiced his left-handed jump shot on a playground into the night (he had a minor role on his school's championship basketball team), he sang in the choir, he listened to the music of Earth Wind & Fire (great musical taste).

In some ways, he was a typical teenager. In other ways, he was anything but: His mother was far away, his father was gone forever, he had already lived in a Third World country and was growing up in Hawaii (all of which shaped him into someone who could easily be flexible and adapt to change).

At Occidental College in Los Angeles, he who started using his given name, Barack and took his first plunge into politics, speaking at an anti-apartheid rally. Barack was confident and casual on campus; he favored flip-flops, shorts and a trim Afro, and not one to dominate dorm discussions about political issues. But Occidental was a small liberal arts college and Obama wanted to expand his horizons, so he transferred across the country to Columbia University in New York.

Barack Obama graduated with a political science degree and held a few jobs in New York. It was there he received a call from an aunt in Nairobi, Kenya notifying him his father had been killed in a car accident. The news eventually led Obama on a journey to Kenya and a visit to his father's grave.

After New York, Obama headed to Chicago, a city where he knew no one, taking a low-paying job, motivating poor people to participate in a political system that had traditionally shut them out. Starting out as a $12,000-a-year community organizer, Obama walked the run-down streets of the South Side that had been devastated by the loss of steel mills and factory jobs. Working for the Developing Communities Project, Obama met with Black pastors and tried to mobilize people to speak up for themselves, whether it was lobbying for a job training center or cleaning up public housing. He established an easy rapport with people in the community, many of whom treated him like a son (they teasingly called him "baby face.") "He would tell us you've got to do things right, you've got to take the high road," says one of the project founders. "He would talk about no permanent friends, no permanent enemies. He would say, 'Don't get personalities involved.'"

Obama — who calls his organizing work "the best education I ever had" — became a skilled conciliator. He became very effective at getting people who initially did not get along to work together and build alliances. He found a way to be tough and challenging when he didn't like something. At the same time, he was not one to burn his bridges with people. This is the way a president should deal with adversaries instead of not talking to them. And they continue to say he has no experience. This is REAL experience. If you can be successful in the hard nosed Chicago politics you can be successful anywhere.

Chicago is the city where Barack Obama put down roots. He joined the Trinity United Church of Christ and became friends with its pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose remarks Senator Obama denounced after they created a national uproar. He no longer attends the church.

Chicago also was Obama's political boot camp, where he learned how to win over skeptics who wondered why that tall, skinny guy was at their door when Harold Washington, the first black mayor, was in City Hall. "Black people would say, 'Harold will take care of the problem. Why do we need a community organizer?'" recalls Mike Kruglik, a fellow organizer. "He'd say, 'We have to build the power ... we can't trust any individual politician.'" Senator Obama was not all work. He attended Chicago Bulls games and wrote short fictional stories that evocatively captured the feel of the streets. (He later wrote two best-selling books, one of them a memoir.)

Obama also remained close to his family. After her father died, Maya, who is nine years younger, says Obama "really took on the role of a father," taking her on college tours, introducing her to jazz, blues and classical music — and, much later, consoling her when their mother died of ovarian cancer at age 53.

Then Senator Obama made a giant leap from the tough South Side to the heady atmosphere of Harvard Law School, the training ground for America's political elite. He made history there, as the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review, the most prestigious law journal in the U.S.

After his first year, Obama was a summer associate at a corporate law firm in Chicago where his adviser was Michelle Robinson, another Harvard law graduate and a product of a working-class family. They later married, and had two daughters, Malia, now 10, and Sasha, 7. As Obama prepared to leave Harvard, job offers poured in. But he already had a plan. He would return to Chicago for a political career.

At first, he chose a behind-the-scenes job. Obama ran a voter registration drive that added tens of thousands to the rolls. "He was very straightforward and had a no-nonsense, all-the-cards-on-the-table approach," recalls Sandy Newman, founder of the national group, Project Vote!

Obama also began carefully mapping out a path that positioned him for public office. He joined a small, politically connected law firm that did civil rights litigation. He and his wife, Michelle, lived in Hyde Park, the racially mixed neighborhood around the University of Chicago that is home to progressive politics, intellectuals and a sprinkling of Nobel Prize winners. By choosing to move to Hyde Park, he moved in an area where an independent can come out of nowhere to win. He also broadened his circle of acquaintances, impressing influential Democrats and party donors who proved invaluable in his campaigns.

Obama was a great networker. He worked all the right circles. Foes called him a calculating politician; friends called him a smart, methodical worker. He does nothing that's different from most politicians. The difference is he's extraordinarily gifted. His greatest capability is he never makes the same mistake twice. But that skill was nothing without a political opportunity. While waiting for one, Obama became a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He taught constitutional law. "He's a great conversationalist and a good listener," says Richard Epstein, a law school professor.

In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois state Senate, but as a member of the Democratic minority, his legislative proposals were consistently let down by Republicans. Some dismissed him as a college liberal. Obama won over many lawmakers in nearly eight years in the state Senate (inexperienced?). He played in weekly poker games, befriending suburban and White rural legislators. He also had an important ally in an old-school Chicago Democrat who became Senate president when the party took control of the chamber, a change that increased Obama's influence.

Obama had several legislative successes. He passed measures that limited lobbyists' gifts to politicians, helped expand health care to poor children and changed laws governing racial profiling, the death penalty and the interrogation of murder suspects. He reached across party lines to work with Republicans. He can compromise without giving up his principles.

Obama stumbled badly, though, in 2000 when he challenged Representative Bobby Rush, a former Black Panther member with deep roots in the community. During that contest, Obama was dogged by the question raised by some critics and Black politicians (whether he was "Black enough" for the district). He is running for president of the U.S. not president of the Black community. But in that congressional campaign, Obama was seen as the outsider. Rush, the insider, crushed him by 31 percentage points in the primary.

Two years later, Obama set his sights on another office: U.S. Senate. He won in a massive victory. Months later, Senator Obama impressed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry during a joint campaign appearance in Chicago, leading to his stirring keynote speech. In 17 minutes, Senator Obama went from an obscure state lawmaker to a force in national politics.

When Barack Obama announced his presidential candidacy 18 months ago at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, he was still unknown to most Americans. The freshman senator Obama had been in Washington just two years. He has appeared on numerous magazine covers, won two Grammys for recording his best-selling books, made TV appearances, received hundreds of invitations a week and traveled the country in 2006, campaigning for other Democratic candidates and building up relationships along the way. And the spotlight only grew during the primary season. Senator Obama proved to be an enormous draw on the campaign trail, packing arenas with overflow crowds as he promised an end to the Iraq war, a new era of bipartisanship in Washington and "change we can believe in."

Just like John F. Kennedy tapped into the television market in the 1960 election, Senator Barack Obama has tapped into the internet better than any candidate ever has, he knew what to do with the Internet and e-mail in a way no candidate has.

In Denver, at Democratic Party Convention, Senator Barack Obama will turn to the old-fashioned powers of speechmaking when he steps on stage to address the crowd and accept the nomination as the Party’s nominee for President of the United States. And this time, everybody will know exactly who he is.

Why Are Formal Clinton Supporters Changing Horses?

With such a big uproar concerning the relationship between Jeremiah Wright and Senator Barack Obama, it seems that the media should be asking a crucial question in my mind. It may not always be fair, but we are judged by the company we keep. What then does it say about the company we no longer keep? If Jeremiah Wright's behavior raises questions about Senator Obama, are not similar questions raised by the defectors within Senator Clinton’s camp?

This week, former Democratic National Committee Chairman and superdelegate, Joe Andrew switched his support from Clinton to Obama. On the heels of the Indiana primary, Andrew, who lives in Indianapolis, also stated he planned to call the other superdelegates he knows, lobbying them to back Senator Obama. Former President Bill Clinton appointed Andrew chair of the DNC in 1999; he led the party through the disputed 2000 presidential race before resigning in 2001. He originally endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy last year. Given the context of Jeremiah Wright and the contested Indiana primary the Andrew defection is big not only because of his superdelegate status, but because he worked with the Clintons. But he is not the first.

Former Ambassador to Chile Gabriel Guerra-Mondragon, a major fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, recently left her campaign apparently to hold a similar position with Barack Obama. He raised nearly $500,000 for Clinton. Guerra-Mondragon was appointed Ambassador to Chile by President Clinton in 1994 and served until 1998. Among the reasons for Guerra-Mondragon's defection included his uneasiness with the tone of the Clinton campaign and was beginning to worry about what this would mean for the general election.

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, recently endorsed Senator Obama. In addition to serving in the Clinton administration, Reich's personal relationship with Bill and Hillary Clinton spans five decades.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's recent endorsement of Senator Obama has been viewed by some as betrayal of the highest order. Former Clinton campaign strategist James Carville, referred to Richardson, the former Clinton Energy Secretary and former presidential candidate as "Judas."

In addition, Greg Craig, who served as special counsel to Bill Clinton during his impeachment; Anthony Lake, former National Security Adviser, have thrown their support to Senator Obama. Even Obama's chief political strategist David Axelrod worked for Senator Clinton during her Senate campaign.

Then there are the members of the Senate who have known and worked with Bill and Hillary Clinton for the past two decades who have decided to support Barack Obama, including John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and former presidential candidate Christopher Dodd. There have been several reported cases of heated telephone conversations, most notable, between the former president and Kennedy as well as Richardson after they decided to endorse Senator Obama.

Is this string of defections merely politics as usual? Are they the residue of angry former employees? Or is there something else at play? Why is this not questioned in the media?

The first hint of defection came in early 2007 when Hollywood media mogul David Geffen, once a Clinton supporter who was reported to have raised $18 million for the former president, decided to hold a fundraiser for Senator Obama. Geffen told a New York Times columnist, "Everybody in politics lies, but they (the Clintons) do it with such ease, it's troubling." Geffen described Hillary Clinton as "incredibly polarizing" and Bill Clinton as "reckless." The adjective Geffen used to describe the former president conjures memories of Monica Lewinsky, a subject the Clinton's have deemed off limits during the primary season but should be reexamined in the post Jeremiah Wright world.

Obama Closing in on Clinton's Advantage Among Superdelegates

Even in the mist of a bad week Senator Barack Obama continues closing in on Democratic presidential rival Senator Hillary Clinton's advantage among superdelegates, building on his overall lead in the primary race. He has out gained her 10 to 6 in superdelegates endorsements since the Pennsylvania primary. Party leaders are encouraging superdelegates to pick a side by late June to prevent the fight from going to the national convention in August, and it seems some are listening as the race enters its final five weeks of voting.

Chelsea Clinton got a superdelegate for her mom while campaigning in Puerto Rico on Wednesday, just as Senator Obama’s press secretary Bill Burton sent out a statement announcing the support of Representative Lois Capps. Senator Clinton had a big jump start among superdelegates, many of whom have ties to the Clintons and backed her candidacy early on. But most of the superdelegates taking sides recently have gone for Senator Obama, who has won more state contests and also leads in the popular vote. He trails her by just 21 superdelegates, 243-264, cutting her lead in half in less than two months.

The superdelegate chase is a key piece of good news for Senator Obama in what has been a bad week. But the problems aren't stopping his ability to win support from superdelegates that are likely to cast the deciding votes in the Democratic race. Senator Clinton had stalled in drawing their support as Senator Obama won more states than she. Superdelegates are especially valuable in this race since neither candidate can get enough delegates to win the nomination through the primaries and caucuses held across the country. Senator Obama now leads in the delegate count overall 1731.5 to 1598.5. A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. About 230 superdelegates remain undecided, and about 60 more will be selected at state party conventions and meetings throughout the spring.

Representative Bruce Braley of Iowa said he decided to endorse Senator Obama even though his former pastor, Pastor Jeremiah Wright, has continued creating waves by making controversial statements. Senator Obama denounced Pastor Wright in a news conference Tuesday and said the pastor does not speak for him. "That's been one of the most frustrating things about this prolonged campaign, is we seemed to have gotten away from the critical issues that started this campaign during the Iowa caucuses and now it's more about the side spectacle than the issues that voters really care about," Braley said. "I'm confident that he has taken this issue head-on. He has addressed it in a thoughtful and enlightened way."

Representative Capps said it wasn't an easy decision to pick between Obama and Clinton. She has family ties to both candidates — Obama's spokesman is married to her daughter, Laura Burton Capps, who also worked in the Clinton White House. Lois Capps filled the congressional seat held by her late husband, Walter Capps, when he died suddenly 10 years ago. Bill Clinton had campaigned for Walter Capps and presided over his congressional memorial service. Capps said Hillary Clinton would be a great president and fill a dream for those who have fought for women's rights. But she said Barack Obama's call for a change in Washington was the most important factor in winning her support. "Walter once said that 'we are strongest as people when we are directed by that which unites us, rather than giving into the fears, suspicions, innuendoes and paranoias that divide,'" she said in a statement. "For years I have been waiting for a president that speaks to that vision. I believe Barack Obama may very well be that rare leader."

Two of the most important superdelegates to sign on this week come from the states that vote next — North Carolina and Indiana, which hold primaries on May 6 and are the largest states left to vote. Senator Obama got the support of Representative Baron Hill of Indiana, while Senator Clinton won the backing of North Carolina Governor Mike Easley even though Senator Obama is expected to win the state. Senator Obama had earlier gained the support of the candidates running to become the new governor of North Carolina. So the pattern continues of Clinton being supported by the old establishment and Obama gaining the support of the new regime.

Will Jeremiah Wright Knock Barack Obama Out?

Hearing what Pastor Jeremiah Wright said in his speech to the National Press Club Monday was both liberating and alarming. Liberating because, after weeks of the endlessly repeated sound bites from his controversial sermons, which have been used as justification to smear Senator Barack Obama, Pastor Wright got to speak up for himself. He spoke plainly about racism, his own political point of view. What is so good about him speaking is that the United States is one of the few places on earth that it could happen. Also with Pastor Wright seeming to literally go off the deep end surely no one in their right mind could think that these two have anything in common at this point.

It was alarming to me because Pastor Wright, knowing full well that anything that he says at this point is attributed to Senator Obama. And many people cannot seem to separate people you know from you. I am glad that Senator Barack Obama received the Audacity of Hope message and cast out your audacity of grand standing. His name is out there -- is he seeking a book contract? It appears to me that Pastor Wright cares little for the welfare of one of his flock. In the middle of a race this tight race Senator Obama does not need any more negative fodder for the already swarming sharks in the media to feed. There is no one Black church. There are many Black churches as there are many White churches. If you are a Christian church, preach Christ. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.

In the past few days Pastor Wright blew away any hope Senator Obama’s campaign may have had that he would stay in the background and let the storm of controversy he kicked up with his politically incorrect sermons pass. Instead, Pastor Wright came out swinging, mocking the media for knowing nothing about the Black church, for taking sound bites from his sermons out of context, and, basically, for being lazy and ignorant. He called the news generated by his controversial remarks "the most recent attack on the Black church." And while he takes the media characterizations of him personally he implied that his decision to speak up now was a defense of his people -- the Black church.

The audience of his friends and supporters, including Cornel West and Jim Wallis, ate up his strikes back against what has surely been a racist and unfair campaign against him. Pastor Wright's 9/11 sermon, though it looks, in sound bite form, supremely insensitive, was actually a profoundly moving statement on the tragedy and on the desperate, destructive logic of revenge. The "chickens coming home to roost" line was a quote from a U.S. ambassador, by the way, not Pastor Wright's own words. He is a scholar, and he brings layers of meaning and understanding to the themes he addresses. But that is quickly lost in a news report.

Unlike Senator Obama, who is relentlessly positive, Pastor Wright's points in his speech tended to characterize the U.S. government as an agent of evil more than a beacon of hope. "While our government cuts Food Stamps and spends billions fighting an unjust war in Iraq," he said, his own church has been working hard to serve the poor. On slavery, South African apartheid, and other issues throughout history, he pointed out the leadership of his church, contrasted with the unenlightened thinking of the U.S. government. "While those who call me unpatriotic have used their position of privilege to avoid military service . . . sending others to die for a lie."

Furthermore, Wright pointed out, "the Christianity of the slaveholder is NOT the Christianity of the slave." So much for national or religious unity. Wright doesn't hesitate to puncture the national myth of America's essential goodness. None of this is terribly shocking to those of us who are quite familiar with the U.S. government's misdeeds over time. But it's a heck of a message to send mainstream American voters. Needless to say, this is not the Obama campaign jingle. What will this mean for the rest of the nation?

Wright fielded questions on all his controversial statements. Including patriotism: "I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?"

We'll see what the press, whom he clearly enjoyed teasing, makes of it. And what the voters have to say. Not to mention Senator Obama. Senator Obama’s campaign raises hopes that the U. S. could get past its racially torrid history. Pastor Wright is here to remind us what a huge feat it will be to make that dream a reality.

Senator Clinton Tries to Reignite Wright Controversy

Wow, just when I thought a new era of politics was being ushered in, up pops the same old same old. Evidently we have not left the old political ways that you say or do whatever you have to say to get elected. Well I am speaking only on the Democratic side only; I know the Republicans are digging in the trash can looking for dirt. But, what are voters supposed to believe about Senator Hillary Clinton’s back-handed criticism of Senator Barack Obama’s decision not to disown the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr., his former longtime pastor?

After two weeks of acting as if the cat had her tongue, Clinton coyly told reporters on Tuesday that "he [Pastor Wright] would not have been my pastor. You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend," she said. Nicely said for a person without loyalty to anyone but themselves. Senator Clinton is the type of person that would not only throw her friends under the bus, but would back up and run over them again. When she said that she was happy to have the discussion about race, it seemed as she would be taking the high road. Now as soon as Senator Clinton is caught in a lie, she tries to turn the attention to non-issue. Instead of following Senator Obama's lead and using this incident to seek racial reconciliation, Senator Clinton is further fanning the flames by attempting to paint herself as the more racially sensitive candidate. "You know, I spoke out against Don Imus, saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that," Clinton said. "I just think you have to speak out against that." Since Senator Obama has already spoken out against Wright's remarks, Senator Clinton is simply trying to milk the controversy for political advantage.

Indeed, the fact that Senator Clinton found her voice on this issue on the same day she was outed as having “misstated” her Bosnia experience is merely a coincidence. Isn’t it funny how the conversation came up at the same time some of the media were grilling her about her blown up account of her 1996 Bosnia trip? Her explanation that she “misspoke” and that she was “sleep-deprived” when she retold the bogus incident (more than once) about having to run for cover from sniper fire after landing in Bosnia is noting but a flat out LIE!! After video footage show she and Chelsea leisurely walking and talking to reporters her memory suddenly come back. Anyone who has ever had to dodge gunfire as Senator Clinton claimed to have done would certainly remember it very well.

I find it insulting that some politicians think the American people are idiots; in fact they depend on us being idiots. That is how the get elected. But what I find depressing is that some Black folks still refer to former President Bill Clinton as the first Black president. Just like her husband, who became unglued in South Carolina and began exploiting our racial divisions, Hillary Clinton is playing the same game. The Clintons are no strangers to the Black church when they are campaigning. They have heard some of these same sermons. Now Senator Clinton says that Pastor Wright wouldn't be her pastor but why then was he, along with other Black pastors, invited to the White House when President Clinton had his personal problems. She knows that Senator Barack Obama went as far as he could go in addressing this issue, and that he has left it up to the voters to decide. The Clinton strike Tuesday was a shameful attempt to manipulate those voters. Given that Senator Clinton is embracing the support of the Pennsylvania governor who has publicly declared that White men in Pennsylvania won't vote for a Black man, she isn't the one to talk. I guess the saying that Pennsylvania is made up of Philadelphia and Pittsburg and everything between them is 1960’s Alabama. Hillary Clinton is from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Senator Obama's Speech Echoes Kennedy's 1960 Speech on Religion

In his speech on racism in America Senator Barack Obama tried to do for race what President John F. Kennedy did for religion. The Democratic presidential candidate yesterday attempted in Philadelphia to quell a firestorm set off by incendiary sermons made in past years by his former pastor and adviser, and to challenge Americans to transcend racial prejudices. While the speech Senator Obama delivered is unlikely to win over those who oppose his candidacy because of his race, it may serve a similar purpose as Kennedy's address to Protestant ministers in Houston in 1960 -- easing concerns among some voters about his core beliefs, analysts and historians said.

Senator 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.

Senator Obama said, ``Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity.'' He added, however: ``I can no more disown him than I can disown the Black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my White grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who loved me more than anything and who also made racist remarks that made me cringe.” Obama said his own mixed heritage has taught him that ``we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together -- unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes.'' In his 1960 speech, Kennedy voiced similar hopes, saying he believed in ``an America where religious intolerance will someday end, where all men and all churches are treated as equals'' and where ``there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind.''

In 1960, Catholics comprised almost a quarter of the American electorate, and most experts believe that Kennedy gained as much with Catholic voters as he may have lost with some Protestants. Today, Blacks comprise about 10 percent of U.S. voters and have overwhelmingly voted for Senator Obama, but contrary to what the media constantly fails to report is that he has done well in states very few Black, i.e. Idaho, Wyoming, Iowa; instead they focus on his struggle in many states to carry white male voters.

And the assault on Senator Obama, for his connection to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, from some Republicans and Democrats isn't likely to cease. Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, said Obama -- by trying to justify Wright's comments as a legacy of bitterness among Blacks who grew up in the era of segregation -- didn't go far enough to condemn the pastor's words. It was ``an enormous missed opportunity to really assert as a very articulate and capable African-American leader how damaging Wright's expressions of hatred and animosity are to the African-American community itself,'' Reed said. (This coming from a man who criticized Gandhi; His name should never be linked with the word “Christian” – it is an insult to the term). I am pleased that Senator Obama did not throw his pastor under the bus as most politicians would have. He condemned the word but would not and should not condemn the man. This is a fundamental Christian principle that he undoubtly learned under the ministry of Dr. Wright; condemn the sin while loving and trying to correct the sinner. This shows how little conservative White America knows about Blacks in this country. Dr. Wright is well respected in religious circles throughout the U.S. and you can not judge a person for a 30 second sound bite out of a lifetime of achievement and good in the community. And let us not forget, sermons similar to this can be heard in any number of inner city churches throughout America. The civil right movement started in the Black church?

Harris Wofford, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who advised Kennedy on civil rights, said the barriers Obama has to overcome are higher and the message he was trying to convey more complicated than was Kennedy's. Senator Obama's speech "was aimed at White people who are having a hard time in our economy and may be distracted by the old fears related to race," Wofford, who introduced Obama at the National Constitution Center, said in an interview. It was also directed at Black people who are ``seeing everybody telling them that these White workers are voting against a Black man because he's Black.'' Race is ``in some ways a far more significant issue than Catholicism was for JFK,'' agreed Hess. ``We fought a Civil War over this one. This was a much more complicated message.'' Sorensen said while President Kennedy's address was critical in allaying the suspicions of many Protestants, there were some ``anti-Catholic bigots'' who were unconvinced. Today, he said, those who oppose Senator Obama for his race ``are probably going to continue in their bigoted attitudes.'' Exactly!

Obama: Our Country Has a Choice

Senator Barack Obama sought today to quell the most threatening controversy of his historic presidential campaign, detailing his relationship with his church and his background as a multiethnic American and presenting his candidacy as an attempt to put aside generations of racial divisions and start solving problems. In a speech delivered in a city settled by Quakers who envisioned a race-neutral society, Senator Obama explained the inflammatory comments by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright as reflective of the times in which the 66-year-old pastor grew up and “a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years.”


Drawing a link between anger that has consumed both Blacks and Whites, Senator Obama said the country has a choice: It can continue to argue over race as a distraction, or “at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, ‘Not this time.’ The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through — a part of our union that we have yet to perfect," Obama said. "And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American."


He acknowledged that Wright’s comments belittle the “greatness and goodness of our nation,” and was offensive to Whites and Blacks. “I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy,” Obama said. “For some, nagging questions remain. 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. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely — just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.” But Obama reiterated once again that he would not severe ties from Pastor Wright or his church. “As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me,” he said. “He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat Whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.”

The speech was described by some as an attempt to discuss the issue of race. But it was about much more: It was a snapshot of the Black experience in America, and the common threads of their struggles with those of Whites, the love of country; It was about political toughness and campaign survival. For weeks, if not months, questions have been raised about Obama’s patriotism, a story line fueled by a picture of him not placing his hand over heart during the national anthem, his decision not to wear an American flag pin on his lapel and his wife’s statement that his candidacy made her truly proud of her country for first time in her adult life. The Wright sermons have intensified the criticism. His speech was directed to the audience there in Philadelphia, but also to the superdelegates, who are looking for signs that Senator Obama can emerge relatively unharmed from the biggest challenge yet to his candidacy.

The location carried broader significance. Pennsylvania, the next state on the primary calendar, reflects the demographics that Obama most needed to reach with this speech. Census figures show the population is older and less diverse than other key swing states and the United States as a whole (basically the same dynamics as Ohio, which he lost to Senator Clinton).

Senator Obama has used the church to explain who he is and to vouch for his Christianity against continued e-mails falsely claiming he is Muslim. In states with large numbers of churchgoers, Senator Obama draws wild applause when he tells crowds that “I praise Jesus every Sunday.”

He has used Pastor Wright’s teachings — even using a variation of his sermon as the title for his second book The Audacity of Hope — to inform his political worldview. But from the moment Senator Obama announced his candidacy more than a year ago, his affiliation with Pastor Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ have helped fuel a low-level crusade of bloodsucking bloggers aimed at raising questions about his message of hope and racial unity and his own patriotism.


Senator Obama has rarely chosen to deal with race in as direct of terms as he did today. But what he did was to now cause America to look at itself in the mirror and ask are we really ready for change or should I keep my head buried in the sand and no notice the changing world around me. He laid bare his multiethnic, multiracial background, describing in blunt terms that he was the son of a Black man from Kenya and a White woman from Kansas. He was raised by his White grandparents. “I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners — an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters,” Obama said. “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.”


I believe this was one of the most presidential speeches that Senator Barack Obama has given. This was by no means a "feel good" speech, this was a speech about the reality of race in America. He was very honest and clear about his positions. This was undeniably one of the best speeches in recent history. So many issues were addressed that I believe it will be weeks before all the critics have an opportunity to address all the subject matter. It raised many questions that America needs to think about seriously. They will say that he didn’t say enough. They will ask why he decided to stay under such a racist pastor. They will totally overlook 90% of the substance that the speech contained, and therefore will miss this major opportunity to have serious conversation about race in America. It is so much more convenient to write off Rev. Wrights comments as racial and condemn Senator Obama than it is to search for the validity in the statements, and examine why they were felt in the first place. Senator Obama made a very strong point when he said that this discussion happens in barbershops and kitchen tables in Black communities across America. People need to realize that this sentiment is real, regardless of how they personally feel about it. It is my sincerest hopes that people actually begin the discussion and not just pick it apart and disregard its points. Oftentimes truth is hard to swallow, so we just ignore the realities of life. That is why they tell people that you cannot fix something unless you first admit that a problem exists. We will see the way people try and spin this. Will America accept the challenge?

Who is Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

Reverend Doctor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. was born in Philadelphia on September 22, 1941. His father, Jeremiah Wright, Sr, was a Baptist minister, who pastored Grace Baptist Church, from 1938 to 1980. He completed his elementary education in that city and then went to Virginia Union University, a historically black school (HBUC). After three and a half years at Virginia Union, Pastor Wright left school and entered the United States Marine Corps. He transferred from the USMC into the United States Navy where he served as a cardiopulmonary technician. After six years in the military, Pastor Wright transferred to Howard University where he received a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a Master’s degree in English in 1969. His second Master’s Degree was from the University of Chicago Divinity School. His Doctorate was received from the United Theological Seminary. In addition to Pastor Wright is the recipient of eight honorary doctorates.

Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. became Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), a largely Black megachurch located Chicago, on March 1, 1972. Within a matter of months he demonstrated an understanding and deep commitment to help TUCC achieve its motto and vision. The motto, "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian", was a phrase coined by his predecessor, the Reverend Dr. Reuben Sheares, and was officially adopted by the congregation shortly after Pastor Wright began his ministry. He retired on February 10, 2008, after 36 years of service as the senior pastor of that congregation. Since 1972, under Dr. Wright’s leadership, the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ grew from 87 members; and currently exceeds 8,000. Dr. Wright has lectured at seminaries and universities across the United States and has represented TUCC and The United Church of Christ around the world. He is recognized as a leading theologian and pastor and has published four books and numerous articles.

Relationship with Barack Obama
The title of Senator Barack Obama's book The Audacity of Hope was inspired by a sermon written by Pastor Wright. Senator Obama first met Wright and joined his church in the 1980's while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago prior to attending Harvard Law School. Obama and his wife, Michelle, were later married by Wright, and both their children were baptized by him. Senator Obama's connection to Pastor Wright first drew attention in a February 2007 Rolling Stone article that described a speech in which Wright forcefully spoke about racism. At this point, Obama claimed that Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with". Pastor Wright had previously told Senator Obama that the senator would probably have to distance himself from him during his campaign due to some of his inflammatory speeches. Pastor Wright was appointed to Senator Barack Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee on December 4, 2007, and he was removed on March 14, 2008. Obama decried and denounced Wright's positions. On Tuesday, Senator Obama delivered a speech addressing not only on his relationship with the pastor, but on the role of race in his candidacy and the country as a whole.

Controversies
During the course of the 2008 campaign, Pastor Wright's beliefs and past remarks have become closely scrutinized. Critics have accused Wright's Black liberation theology of promoting black separatism. Wright has rejected this notion by saying that "The African-centered point of view does not assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism. It assumes Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history."

In 1984, Wright traveled to Libya and Syria with Reverend Jesse Jackson and Minister Louis Farrakhan in a peace mission which resulted in the freeing of United States Navy pilot, Lieutenant Robert Goodman who was shot down over Lebanon. (The media only said that Pastor Wright went to Libya with Louis Farrakhan to meet with Gadaffi – there is no mention that Jesse Jackson also went and nor that it was a peace mission.) Pastor Wright was quoted as saying that "When [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli to visit Colonel Gadaffi with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell." He added that his trip implied no endorsement of either Louis Farrakhan’s views or Qaddafi’s.

In 2007, Trumpet Magazine (which is published and edited by Wright's daughters) presented the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to Farrakhan, whom managing Editor Rhoda McKinney-Jones said "truly epitomized greatness." Wright is quoted in the magazine: "When Minister Farrakhan speaks, Black America listens. Everybody may not agree with him, but they listen...Minister Farrakhan will be remembered as one of the 20th and 21st century giants of the African American religious experience." Obama, on the other hand, has both denounced Farrakhan and rejected his endorsement.

In addition, Wright has said that Zionism has an element of "white racism"; still, the Anti-Defamation League says it has no evidence of any anti-Semitism by Wright. Another of Wright's controversial sermons took place following 9/11, when he suggested the attacks were a consequence of violent American policies and proved that "people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just 'disappeared' as the Great White West went on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns."

When tapes were put for sale by the church after Wright's retirement, ABC News publicized several controversial sermons. In the sermons, Wright accused the federal government of crimes against people of color, including selling drugs to blacks, creating the HIV virus to infect Blacks, and perpetuating racism that led to disproportionate imprisonment of Blacks. In one sermon, Wright said that the United States was responsible for the September 11th, 2001 attacks and urged Black Americans to ask God to "damn America." (They failed to mention the end of the statement…until she changes her ways and begins to treat all her citizens as equals).

Pastor Wright's comments were heavily critical of the United States Government, saying of the events of September 11, 2001: "The stuff we have done overseas is brought right back into our homes". In other sermons, he said "The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color", referring to AIDS origins theories, and "The government gives them the drugs [referring to the Iran-Contra Affair], builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people...God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme".

Senator Obama Denounces Pastor's Comments

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama on Friday denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has ranted against the United States and accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism. Senator Obama called the statements appearing on television and the Internet "completely unacceptable and inexcusable" in a Fox News interview and said they didn't reflect the kinds of sermons he had heard from the Reverend Jeremiah Wright while attending services at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama, who has been a member of the church since the early 1990s, said he would have quit Trinity had such statements been "the repeated tenor of the church. ... I wouldn't feel comfortable there."

Earlier Friday, Senator Obama responded by posting a blog about his relationship with Reverend Wright and Trinity on the Huffington Post. It was Wright who brought Obama to Christianity, turned the young agnostic into an avid churchgoer who often peppers his speeches with references from his Christian faith; Wright officiated at his wedding, baptized his daughters. Senator Obama's 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention that thrust him onto the national stage was based on a 1988 sermon by Wright called "The Audacity of Hope," which is also the title of Obama's latest book outlining his hopes to change US politics. Obama wrote that he's looked to Wright for spiritual advice, not political guidance, and he's been pained and angered to learn of some of his pastor's comments for which he had not been present. Senator Obama told MSNBC that Wright had stepped down from his campaign's African American Religious Leadership Committee. "I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies," Obama said in his blog posting. "I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue."

In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks. "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Wright said. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."

In a 2003 sermon, he said Blacks should condemn the United States. "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

In January, Reverend Wright spoke from the pulpit in praise of Obama's leadership, comparing his campaign to Jesus's struggles under the Romans. "Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich White people," Wright said. "Hillary would never know that." He went on: "Hillary ain't never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person." Wright also took issue with the idea that Bill Clinton was a friend to Black people. "Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain't. Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty."

Senator Obama told MSNBC that he would not repudiate Wright as a man, describing him as "like an uncle" who says something that he disagrees with and must speak out against. He also said he expects his political opponents will use video of the sermons to attack him as the campaign goes on. Questions about Senator Obama's religious beliefs have dogged him throughout his candidacy. He's had to fight against false Internet rumors suggesting he's really a Muslim intent on destroying the United States, and now his pastor's words uttered nearly seven years ago have become an issue. Obama wrote on the Huffington Post that he never heard Wright say any of the statements, but he acknowledged that they have raised legitimate questions about the nature of his relationship with the pastor and the church. He wrote that he joined Wright's church nearly 20 years ago, familiar with the pastor's background as a former Marine and respected biblical scholar who has lectured at seminaries across the country. "Reverend Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life," he wrote. "And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor and to seek justice at every turn." He said Wright's controversial statements first came to his attention at the beginning of his presidential campaign last year, and he condemned them. Because of his long and deep ties to the congregation, Senator Obama said he decided not to leave. Trinity's present congregation of more than 8,500 now draws followers from both nearby public housing projects and the Who's Who of the Black community, including celebrities like Oprah Winfrey. "With Reverend Wright's retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Reverend Otis Moss III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good," he wrote. Wright, who recently preached his last sermon as he heads into retirement at age 66, has long expected that his controversial views might become a problem for the candidate. After nearly two decades serving as a mentor and moral guide to Senator Barack Obama, Reverend Jeremiah Wright may become his biggest liability as he closes in on the Democratic nomination.

Such disputes are not exclusive to the Democrats. Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, is under pressure to repudiate a televangelist supporter, the Reverend Rod Parsley, who has spoken of a clash of civilizations between Islam and Christianity and also Reverend John Hagee who called the Catholic Church the mother of all cults. Sound like pastors should concentrate more of saving souls and less time on politics. The United Church of Christ issued a statement defending Wright and his "flagship" congregation. The statement lauded Wright's church for its community service and work to nurture youth and the pastor for speaking out against homophobia and sexism in the Black community. "It's time for all of us to say no to these attacks and to declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends," John H. Thomas, United Church of Christ's president, said in the statement.

I applaud Senator Obama for staying with the church even if it comes down to costing him the nomination or the presidency after all the Word of God says what good is it for a man to gain the world and lose his soul. I saw the video of Minister Wright’s sermon from January on YouTube last night and immediately said that this is going to be TROUBLE. You know the Clinton campaign is so happy to get the past few days of heat off them. I pray that Senator Obama's campaign survives the heat that will come from this.