[Michael Raizer]

Quote by: Chaossaber314 What Obama should have said from the beginning: Pretending he didn't know is going to hurt him because either he's completely ignorant to the environment around him, or he's lying and neither option helps his campaign. All he had to do was say that he knew Reverend Wright has some controversial ideas but that their relationship is based upon friendship which transcends such disagreements on issues.

Quote by: Obama I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. 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.

Quote by: Technosoul But the Obama speech left the impression just voting for him would somehow overcome such segregations that still exsist. That voting for him would be the glue that can united all the diverstiy that exists in American thinking. And that voting for other canidates would prolong the unity he dreams about.

Quote by: Chaossaber314 More so than that, I thought (and you mentioned this as well) that there was a staggering level of arrogance in the speech by his assertion that electing him will somehow repair wounds caused by slavery, reconstruction, and the civil rights period of this nation.

Quote by: Obama This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

I don't think that this was so much a "vote for me speech" but more so a speech to address the controversies regarding his race that have only been even more so stressed upon recently by the media. Obama had to make this speech to get the issue of his race out of the way just as Kennedy had to make his speech to get the issue of his Catholic faith out of the way.

I think the reason some people do have a problem with what he says is because they missed the point of his speech and got distracted by the minor components of his speech. All he is saying is that racial inequalities have existed in the past, and the resulting tensions still exist today. However instead of focus on racism as a problem, we should focusing on working out the issues such as education (at home and in schools), health care, and corporate America, that only worsens the racial divide. Obama did not want to have to make this speech, but it had to be made for the people that actually take the media depiction of his Reverend's views seriously, and actually believe that Obama share the same views. I personally do not disagree with anything he says, and if anyone can quote him and disagree to what he says I'd like to see it.