{"id":4984,"date":"2008-03-20T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2008-03-20T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/03\/obamas-race-speech-not-well-re.html"},"modified":"2008-03-20T10:00:17","modified_gmt":"2008-03-20T10:00:17","slug":"obamas-race-speech-not-well-re","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/03\/obamas-race-speech-not-well-re.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s race speech not well received in PA"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was thinking that PA wasn’t the best place for Obama to give his speech. And it appears I was right<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Stephanie Gill, a bartender in a white working class neighborhood in this Rust Belt city, noticed the shift immediately.
\nA week ago, her customers at Rauchut\u2019s Tavern in Tacony didn\u2019t have much to say about Barack Obama. But when she returned to work Wednesday, a day after the Illinois senator attempted to quell the furor over his pastor\u2019s racially incendiary remarks, the reaction inside the corner bar was raw and unapologetic.
\n\u201cPeople are not happy with Obama,\u201d Gill said. \u201cIt\u2019s the race stuff.\u201d
\n[…]
\nAnd his speech Tuesday, although widely praised by the pundit caste and Obama supporters, has only seemed to widen the gulf with the Budweiser class here.
\n[…]
\nMore than a dozen interviews Wednesday found voters unmoved by Obama\u2019s plea to move beyond racial divisions of the past. Despite baring himself with extraordinarily personal reflections on one of the most toxic issues of the day, a highly unusual move for a politician running for national office, the debate inside taverns and beauty shops here had barely moved beyond outrage aimed at the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Obama\u2019s refusal to \u201cdisown\u201d his longtime pastor.
\nA day after the speech, local residents were left wondering whether Obama was candid in the last week when he said he hadn\u2019t heard any of Wright\u2019s most objectionable remarks, but then said Tuesday that he had heard \u201ccontroversial\u201d remarks while sitting in the pews.
\n\u201cHe lied to Anderson Cooper<\/strong>,\u201d said Rodica Mitrea, an aesthetician and immigrant from Romania, referring to an Obama interview Friday with the CNN anchor.
\n[…]
\nGlenn Peter, 54, a patron at Rauchut\u2019s Tavern, said he heard finger pointing, not reconciliation. He took issue with Obama\u2019s explanation that Wright\u2019s observations of a racist America were reflecting the racial scars of his past.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t want to hear that you are blaming us for him saying this,\u201d said Peter, who is white and worked at an auto parts factory until it was shuttered several years ago. Cutting ties with the church \u201cwould have been the best way to do it. That way, I could have been able to listen to him again.\u201d
\n[…]
\nPeter said he\u2019s never voted for a Republican for president, but if Obama is the nominee, he will support Sen. John McCain.
\n[…]
\n\u201cIt was a great speech,\u201d one man said. \u201cBut what concerns me is that on the website for his church, they say they are unabashedly Afro-centric. \u2026 The underlying message is they are perpetual victims and they enjoy the victim status and by proxy, me as a white person is their victimizer. And as long as we perpetuate these divisions, we will never heal.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those who have been criticizing the right (me) for having a problem with Wright’s comments might want to note that these are Democrats<\/em> who are being interviewed. Up to this point Obama has transcended race, he even beat back the Clintons’ attempt to make him the “black” candidate but his pastor derailed that and people are viewing him in light of his pastor’s comments. They’re feeling played. And maybe they have been or maybe not. I think it’s hard to tell with Obama. Did he join the church to further his political career, giving him street creeds that he lacked as a half white half-Kenyan Hawaiian<\/a>? Or was he drawn to the church because of the message of Jesus Christ that Wright proclaimed? And now that the association is hurting him, does he remain connected to the church because he feels he loses credibility if he leaves? Or does he really have a connection with the church and doesn’t want to break it? I haven’t a clue. As a Christian I can understand the strong bond that can form when someone leads you to Christ and if he really did receive encouragement and direction from the pulpit, it would be hard to break that bond and Obama’s right, in many ways it’s impossible to ever really leave because you take a part of the church with you when you go (I know this from experience). The question in the minds of the voters is probably, what part of Wright is a part of him? I know I wonder about that.
\nI guess I was right when I said this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

But ultimately it will probably have as much impact on the race as Romney’s speech did. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Romney wasn’t able to transcend the negative reaction to Mormonism by his speech though the pundits thought it was excellent and I guess Obama isn’t able to transcend the negative reaction to the words of Wright even though the pundits saw it as one of the greatest speeches since Lincoln<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was thinking that PA wasn’t the best place for Obama to give his speech. And it appears I was right: Stephanie Gill, a bartender in a white working class neighborhood in this Rust Belt city, noticed the shift immediately. A week ago, her customers at Rauchut\u2019s Tavern in Tacony didn\u2019t have much to say…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-2"],"yoast_head":"\nObama's race speech not well received in PA - Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/03\/obamas-race-speech-not-well-re.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama's race speech not well received in PA - Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was thinking that PA wasn’t the best place for Obama to give his speech. 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