If my very first diary here at DKos was titled "A New Hope", the flurry of events over the past several weeks would surely be "The Clinton's Strike Back". Or perhaps "Attack of the Kitchen Sink".
In the past 24hrs, however, Obama has unleashed a stunning onslaught that I believe will put him in an even stronger position to finish this battle and officially take the Democratic Nomination.
**UPDATE**:
Here's the transcript of the speech http://thepage.time.com/...
**UPDATE II**:
Here's the video. Thank you aj4runner for instructions on how to embed!
**UPDATE III**:
Better quality video than the first one I linked:
Yesterday, I shared my thoughts regarding Barack Obama and Reverend Wright. While I could not really offer much in terms of how to cope with this situation last night, I wrote on another forum the following:
The one benefit of this is that it does give him a platform to talk about Racism, Religion, and their place in America. The country will be listening to how he responds over the next few days and weeks to this situation.
He has a unique chance at this point, so it's incumbent upon him to seize it and try and turn vinegar into wine.
Today, Obama gave the masterful response that I hoped he would.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
By addressing the real problems of race, religion, sexism, et al in America, and how we move forward, Obama has opened up a way for us to do something we've never truly done at the national level. Something that I believe would be very very good, not only politically for Obama, but socially for the country.
This is a phenomenal way for him to show that he truly is running a campaign of the future, a campaign that is looking to move us beyond our divisions and embrace what this country can be.
Some bits that stood out to me:
"I noticed over the last several weeks that the forces of division have started to raise their ugly heads again. And I'm not here to cast blame or point fingers because everybody, you know, senses that there's been this shift," Obama said.
"It reminds me: We've got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country. We've got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding. ... This country wants to move beyond these kinds of things."
That would have been a great summation, but then he took it into the stratosphere. It's been a while that the printed word made me raise my arms and yell "YES!!" at my computer monitor, but the following passage did just that:
"Most recently, you heard some statements from my former pastor that were incendiary and that I completely reject, although I knew him and know him as somebody in my church who talked to me about Jesus and family and friendships."
Obama said that pointing out racial differences only makes it harder to "deliver on the big issues we face in this country," which he said include health care, the slumping economy, terrorism and caring better for veterans.
Obama, whose mother's family was from Kansas and his father from Kenya, said he was speaking "as someone who has little pieces of America all in me."
He said schools should do a better job of teaching all students African-American history "because that's part of American history," as well as women's struggle for equality, the history of unions, the role of Hispanics in U.S. and other matters that he suggested aren't given enough attention.
"I want us to have a broad-based history" taught in schools, he said, even including more on "the Holocaust as well as other issues of oppression" around the world.
Here he has shown his ability to take that which would be poison to anyone else, turn it around, and use it to unite our forces. Whereas less adept and more cynical politicians like Bush or Clinton would use these kinds of situations to dig in their heels to protect the constituency they've got, Obama sees this adversity as an opportunity to expand his constituency and continue to build the broad coalition he will need to enact his vision for the country.
However, "The Return of Obama" didn't stop there.
In a media barrage that I've never seen any politician unleash, Obama talked with every major Chicago newspaper to address the Rezko issue, once and for all.
The final result?
The Chicago Tribune, which endorsed Obama a few months ago: http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama waited 16 months to attempt the exorcism. But when he finally sat down with the Tribune editorial board Friday, Obama offered a lengthy and, to us, plausible explanation for the presence of now-indicted businessman Tony Rezko in his personal and political lives.
The most remarkable facet of Obama's 92-minute discussion was that, at the outset, he pledged to answer every question the three dozen Tribune journalists crammed into the room would put to him. And he did.
Along the way he confronted the starkest innuendo that has dogged him and his campaign for the presidency: the suggestion that the purchase of an adjacent lot by Rezko's wife subtly subsidized the Obamas' purchase of their home on Chicago's South Side. "This notion that somehow I got a discount and Rezko overpaid is simply not true . . . simply, factually, incorrect," Obama said Friday, adding that he didn't need any intervention from Rezko to grease the purchase of the house.
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Obama said Friday that voters who don't know what to make of his Rezko connection should, in the wake of his discussion with the Tribune, "see somebody who is not engaged in any wrongdoing . . . and who they can trust." Yes, he said, he comes from Chicago. But he has risen in this corrupt Illinois environment without getting entangled in it.
Obama tries to live by "high ethical standards," he said. Although "that doesn't excuse the mistake I made here."
Obama should have had Friday's discussion 16 months ago. Asked why he didn't, he spoke of learning, uncomfortably, what it's like to live in a fishbowl. That made him perhaps too eager to protect personal information—too eager to "control the narrative."
Less protection, less control, would have meant less hassle for his campaign. That said, Barack Obama now has spoken about his ties to Tony Rezko in uncommon detail. That's a standard for candor by which other presidential candidates facing serious inquiries now can be judged.
Even the right-leaning Chicago Sun-Times, which has absolutely BLISTERED Obama during the past year, walked away stunned, impressed, and cowed.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Better late than never.
Barack Obama came home Friday and faced up to the questions about his friend Tony Rezko that he’s been ducking for more than a year.
I’m sure he’d disagree with the characterization he’s been ducking, but, either way, I don’t think anybody at this newspaper can make the claim any longer that he hasn’t answered our inquiries after an exhaustive 80-minute interview session Friday evening. I won’t.
He patiently took all comers, and, when it was over, the biggest outstanding question was why he hadn’t done so sooner.
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One of the things we learned in the process of preparing to talk with Obama is that even the reporters and columnists at the Sun-Times have a difference of opinion as to the important avenues of inquiry in the Rezko story. The more minds, the better. Just the same, even if he holds a press conference, I doubt the others will get much further than we did.
Obama made the point that if this is the worst thing we can find about him after 12 years in Chicago politics, then he’s done pretty well.
Admitting he made a mistake with Rezko, Obama added: "Does it speak to a trend of mine? No."
If I have detected any trend in this, it’s only that Obama can be too obstinate when he feels under attack.
and http://www.suntimes.com/...
Watching Obama as he answered questions from this paper’s reporters and editorial board, I was struck by two things.
One, how much better it would have been if he had offered these details earlier. Because the senator’s description of his relationship with Rezko is entirely plausible.
"My guard would have been up had I seen a pattern of him asking for favors, or even being obtrusive. He wasn’t one of these people who wanted pictures taken all the time," said Obama, "or was calling you to show up for things. He was a very gracious individual."
Then again, Obama admits with regard to the land deal, "There is no doubt, it was a mistake."
There were clearly a lot of things about Rezko that should have been setting off alarms somewhere in the vicinity of the senator or the law firm with which he was associated. The low-income housing Rezko was developing was going belly up, and some of it was in Obama’s district. But for whatever reason, Obama didn’t know.
I believe that too.
The second thing that struck me Friday had to do with loyalty.
This could not be a more intense time for Obama as he slugs it out with Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. And it arguably would be a fine time to throw Tony Rezko under the bus.
But Obama remains grateful that Rezko supported him in his failed congressional race against Bobby Rush when, given a relationship with Rush, it wasn’t easy. "That was loyalty that I appreciated," the senator said.
And so Obama still calls Rezko "a friend, with the caveat that if it turns out the allegations are true, then he’s not who I thought he was, and I’d be very disappointed with that."
So, candor — though delayed — gives us a clearer view.
And friendship — tested but not abandoned — looks more like a virtue than a fault.
The Chicago Sun-Times have been hammering away at Obama for more than a year now, and they are now writing glowing responses about his candor, his forthright answers, and their believability. They've also said he sets the standards for the other two candidates. Yes, including John McCain.
This sentiment was echoed by the Chicago Tribune.
But did "The Return of Obama" end there? No!
After releasing any and all information that could be used against them in the General Election regarding Rezko, and after forcefully and powerfully laying the stage for how he will discuss Race, Religion, Sexism, and all of the other divisive forces in our country today, he put the slam on Hillary Clinton's campaign for daring to question Obama on transparency, ethics, and earmarks.
While covered at DKos today, http://www.dailykos.com/... I found the actual Obama memo at Time Magazine's website: http://thepage.time.com/...
Short of actually releasing the information that Senator Obama has already released, she should answer the following the questions to shed some light on the projects that she has requested:
- Taxpayers For Common Sense has estimated that Senator Clinton has received $2.2 billion in earmarks over her Senate career. What earmarks has she requested during that time period and for what programs?
- Since Clinton now says she plans to release her requests for FY 09, why isn’t she releasing them for previous years?
- We know that Clinton has requested at least two earmarks linked to top fundraisers and donors – GM lobbyist Steve Ricchetti and billionaire Alan Gerry. Will her campaign release the other earmark requests she has made that are linked to fundraisers, campaign donors, or donors to the Clinton Library?
- Has Senator Clinton proposed any earmarks that Bill Clinton has personally advocated for?
- Last year, Senator Clinton voted against an amendment sponsored by Senator Durbin and supported by Senator Obama to require public disclosure of earmark requests. If that amendment were to be offered again, would she support it?
Now with the credibility Obama has gained by disclosing everything on Rezko and silencing his critics, as well as bringing the painful "-phobias" and "-isms" to the fore in a unifying way, he laid the gauntlet down on the Hillary Clinton campaign.
I sit here, shocked, awed, and beyond amazed by this deft level of political maneuvering. And he did it without going negative or nasty.
THIS is the kind of person I want sitting in the White House working for us, the American people. THIS is the kind of Presidency I want to see after we've had 8 years of corruption, partisanship, and secrecy.
I felt so despondent yesterday while thinking of my own religious feelings, as well as thinking how this would affect the Obama campaign. After seeing this masterful performance today, just in time for the coming week's news cycle, I am even more impressed and ready to see this man become the next President of the United States.
Way to go!