This is how Fox News spins Obama's speech. Fair and Balanced? You be the judge.
Obama Seeks to Stop Wright Coverage ‘Loop’
by FOXNews.com
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
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Tuesday: Barack Obama delivers a speech in Philadelphia on race, politics and unifying the country. (AP Photo)
As Barack Obama wrapped up his ambitious speech on race, politics and the historical origin of his longtime pastor’s heated sermons Tuesday, advisers questioned whether he had achieved a simple and practical objective: halting the “loop.”
The “loop” is the barrage of anti-American invective from Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. that has saturated national television for the past week.
Obama has vigorously disavowed Wright’s inflammatory remarks, but in Tuesday’s speech refused to disavow the pastor himself or the 20-year relationship he’s had with him. Some political observers say the Illinois senator still has some more mending to do.
“I think it goes on,” National Public Radio national correspondent Juan Williams said of the controversy.
Williams, a FOX News analyst, questioned why Obama allowed himself to remain publicly associated with Wright. He said Obama did not address the “judgment and character” issues that he’s running on.
“I think he had to take responsibility … and that’s what he didn’t do,” Williams said.
But CitizenJane.com Editor Patricia Murphy said it’s too late for Obama to try to divorce himself completely from Wright.
“There’s no way he didn’t know the nature of that church. He knows what goes on there, both good and bad. If he were to denounce this church and leave this church right now, it would look like nothing more than political gamesmanship, and for somebody who is selling himself as an honest broker and trying to paint Hillary Clinton as someone cold and calculating, that will be totally unproductive,” Murphy said. “The horse has left the barn on that.”
GOP strategist Fred McClure praised the speech but said it’s no antidote for Obama’s pastor problems.
“The winds are going to keep swirling around Senator Obama as this campaign goes forward, even though he, I think, very strongly denounced the words of Reverend Wright,” he said.
For a solid week, Wright’s comments have been in heavy rotation, with sermon highlights showing Wright blaming the United States for HIV and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, rejecting the Clintons as anathema to the welfare of American blacks and portraying the country as institutionally racist.
Obama’s association with Wright, who officiated his wedding, baptized his children and served as his spiritual adviser, was developing as a potentially damaging credibility problem for his campaign of hope and change. The direct political effects of the relationship remain unclear, but some telling clues showed Obama had a pastor problem.
A Rasmussen survey taken from March 14-16 of 1,200 likely voters showed 56 percent of those interviewed were less likely to vote for Obama because of Wright’s comments.
Other national polls continue to show Obama and Hillary Clinton flirting with the lead in their ongoing fight to become the Democratic presidential candidate.
Seeking the quell the outcry, Obama condemned Wright’s statements on Friday, Saturday and again on Tuesday. But he walked a fine line, using his address to explain and give context to his pastor’s commentary.
“As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. … I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother,” Obama told an audience at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
He later added: “To simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.”
Crisis management consultant Mike Paul told FOX News that Obama needs to go a step further.
“Any time you are dealing with a crisis, you have to go to the root of the problem. The root here is the pastor. As those comments continue, the crisis will continue. Unfortunately, the rhetoric of the speech will not solve that,” he said.
Paul suggested Obama sit down with Wright and try to “melt his heart” and change his way of thinking. He said Obama needs to offer the public a “solution” to the controversy Wright has caused.
“That’s something that Barack Obama should be able to do as a potential president,” Paul said. “You’ve got to have a changed man come out.”
But Rev. Jesse Jackson told FOX News he thought the speech was effective.
“I thought he bared his soul today,” Jackson said, urging the candidates to return to the issues. “This campaign is ultimately about candidates, not surrogates and not about supporters.”
Obama is making a clear attempt to move back to issues, announcing what the campaign billed as back-to-back “major speeches” over the next two days on Iraq and the economy. He plans to speak on Wednesday in North Carolina and Thursday in West Virginia.
For her part, Clinton has not drawn attention to Wright’s sermons. On Tuesday, she said she didn’t hear Obama’s speech.
“I did not get a chance to see or read Senator Obama’s speech, but I’m very glad that he gave it,” she said in Philadelphia.
“It’s an important topic. Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history,” Clinton said. “But we should remember that this is an historic moment for the Democratic Party and for our country. We will be nominating the first African-American or woman for the presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate.”
Democratic strategist Tanya Acker, an Obama supporter, said she had no idea whether the speech would put the controversy to rest, but she downplayed the fact that Obama never explicitly disavowed Wright.
“What he tried to do is explain that some of those statements … he was really addressing a bitterness in the African-American community,” she said. “That may make other people feel uncomfortable, but it is truly there.”
FOX News’ Aaron Bruns and Major Garrett contributed to this report.
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