Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times has pictures of Sen. Barack Obama speaking at the home church of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Sunday and highlights his latest efforts to portray himself as Unifier:
“And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King’s vision of a beloved community.
“If we are honest with ourselves, We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants only as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.”
A more cynical view might be that Obama is trying for a softer Sister Souljah moment in hopes of denting Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Hispanic firewall, which held up quite well in Nevada yesterday.
The entirely credulous coverage from Sweet, however, is to be expected, given her past coverage of Obama:
Obama’s physique is old news to Chicago Sun-Times readers. I’ve worked out several times next to Obama at the East Bank Club, but alas, could not follow him into the locker room. My colleague Neil Steinberg did and reported on Jan. 6, 2006, that the undressed Obama “doesn’t have enough fat on his body to make a butter pat.â€Â
Sadly for Sweet, Obama wore his Sunday best to the church… but I’m sure she still has that old copy of People magazine tucked away somewhere.
Update: A commenter below prompts me to observe that Obama’s comments would be taken more seriously had he directed them to his own church.
[…] might call it a softer Sister Souljah moment, and it just might be. But if Barry is going to go Sister Souljah on black people — in […]
Well, that certainly is a cynical view. I’ll give you that.
I don’t think it is very accurate, though. I would have to commend Obama for not taking the well-worn Jesse Jackson – Al Sharpton tack of blaming every problem on racism.
It’s really kind of refreshing to see Obama admit that some of the problem lies with the black community, too. Especially in the church of Martin Luther King.
No, my first name ain’t baby, it’s Barack… Mr. Obama if you’re nasty.
It’s an improvement. I would be less cynical if Obama’s spritual adviser didn’t give awards to Louis Farrakhan. And if the church he would normally be attending today didn’t blame everything on Whitey.
Don’t try to take the high ground against the Clintons, Barack. The only place they will fight is in the mud. Plus, when you start pulling the race-baiting, class warfare, and gender politics in the general, you will just look like hypocrite.
” Well, that certainly is a cynical view. I’ll give you that.
I don’t think it is very accurate, though. I would have to commend Obama for not taking the well-worn Jesse Jackson – Al Sharpton tack of blaming every problem on racism.”
True. And it makes me think that I’d maybe like to buy him a beer and shoot the shit with him. As for voting for him to be the president of the United States? Nah. I guess, I don’t really care that he’s not a race pimping moron. Or that he’s a great guy. His policy prescriptions will prevent me from ever even thinking about voting for him.
An excerpt:
I doubt I’ll many converts here. :) But here goes …
I’ve been a Republican all my adult life. I’m 53. I’ve seen a lot of politicians and presidents. He’s a giant among pygmies.
The link to the video of the Ebeneezer speech is at my site, or at Campaignnetwork.org.
I’ve been a Republican all my adult life. Then I tried Ovaltine. Mmmmmm.
He might get more converts if he didn’t just use the exact same quote I used, and spent more time addressing how it squares with Obama’s membership in a Black Nationalist church.
The smiley face really kind of sells it though.
I loves me some ovaltine. Obama, not so much.
There’s the same quote, right in your post.
My bad.