Obama's Kennedy Speech

Although it was never billed as such, Barak Obama's latest speech addressing the Reverend Wright controversy followed in the footsteps of Mitt Romney in giving his version of the reassuring Kennedy speech. Kennedy, of course, gave the original speech during the 1960 election season in order to reassure voters that, though he considered himself a devout Catholic, he would run the presidency according to the laws and the Constitution of the United States-not according to the dictates of the Pope or the Vatican. The speech was hailed as a success.

When Mitt Romney repeated his own particular version, it too was hailed as a good speech, though it was, as we now know, not nearly as successful. At the very least, though it might have reassured potential voters as to his determined independence as a Mormon regarding governmental affairs, it certainly did not win him enough support to make a difference.

Barak Obama has got a serious problem. White Americans concerns are understandable, if not entirely fair. He tried to address those concerns, and only time will tell if he was ultimately successful. Make no mistake about it. This speech and this controversy is as much about religious dogma, faith, and fervor, as the Kennedy and Romney concerns before it.

There is a very real thread running through American black churches of which the Reverend Wright is just one strand, albeit now a more noticeable one than most. He is by no means out of the ordinary. Actually, you might compare him to a run in a woman's pantyhose. It just sticks out more noticeably than the rest of the garment, but in actuality it is a part of the whole that would ordinarily be indistinguishable.

Obama's job now is to convince Americans that he can run the presidency fairly and even handedly, without favoritism toward one group over another, despite the fact that he is a seemingly devout adherent to a faith that would give most white Americans cause for concern. That is the task he set out to perform in this speech, but I'm not so sure he accomplished what he obviously set out to do.

For one thing, the bit about the white grandmother was a bit over the top. Any old person would feel intimidated passing a group of black men on the street. Hell, I'm not an old person, and I feel intimidated under certain circumstances. If they are a group of black teenagers I find myself wishing for a grenade on the grounds that if it's necessary I'll take them all out with me. This is not racial prejudice or bigotry. This is familiarity with the national news. Also, sad to say, personal experience has a bit to do with it.

It is also disingenuous at best for him to insist that he does not believe at least somewhat the same as the Reverend White believes. How could he not? Unfortunately, whether white Americans want to face this reality or not, Obama, like myself, has news and history to back him up, to at least some degree.

But, just as I might well be advised to get over my angst at passing multiple blacks on the street, Obama and his fellow worshipers would be equally well-advised to get over the past. It's time for us all to move on. You don't do that by engaging in subterfuge and denial.

Of course, he is in a bit of a jam. He can't come across as an angry black man running for the presidency of the United States determined to make right the injustices of the past. He has to put himself across as a man who is, in fact, bi-racial, and who wants to heal the divisions caused by those injustices of the past. At the same time, he has to show he can walk and chew gum at the same time by proving that he can look at the myriads of problems that face the US and approach them evenly and fairly when race is involved, and avoid injecting race into them when race is not involved.

I want to be clear about something. I am not an Obama supporter. I can think of many reasons to vote against him. In fact, I can think of quite a few damn good reasons to vote against him. I'm just not so sure this is one of the reasons. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt he has given much of a reason to dissuade the concerns of those who have them.

As for the "Not God Bless America, No No, God Damn America" bit, I think the religious rhetoric is over the top on both sides. I've heard this same kind of stuff from Falwell, from Robertson, and a few others who insist that God either has or will damn America because of first one thing or another. The exact same white Christians who are most concerned about Reverend Wright and Obama's affiliation with him are, as we speak, doing their damndest to encourage all out war between Israel and its Middle Eastern neighbors in order to hurry Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. Most of these folks, by the way, tend to vote Republican, if they vote at all.

Many of them seem to forget that John McCain publicly sought reconciliation and support from the Reverend Jerry Falwell, not too long before Falwell died, despite the fact that Falwell blamed the attacks of 9/11 on secular humanists, gays, feminists, pagans, etc., who, according to Falwell, "helped make this happen". The litany of sins and sinners responsible was mind-numbing, and the Reverend Pat Robertson, who stood beside him at the lectern, offered no disagreement. Robertson, in fact, applauded the incapacitation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying God punished him with a stroke for trying to give a part of the "Holy Land" to the Palestinians-land that Robertson insists God intends Israel to have.

We have listened with baited breath at how God sent Hurricane Katrina to destroy the wicked city of New Orleans and how, evidently to make sure he got the point across, he made a little side trip to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. He seems to have been somewhat pissed at the gambling and other apparent debaucheries going on there at the time.

You can write a book on this stuff. Yeah, a good many Republicans have decried such rhetoric, to their credit. By the same token, a good many others have not, and have even voiced agreement with it. In any event, they should not pretend that Wright is anything out of the ordinary. The only real difference would amount to a disagreement, not as to whether God Damns America, but why God Damns America.

Unfortunately for Obama, the people he has to convince are not the ones in the other camp, who are unlikely to vote for him at any rate (though he might have convinced some of them that have been loathe at the idea of voting for McCain to hold their nose and do so). The main people he has to convince are those who would just as soon religion was kept in the background and our political leaders concentrate on the very real issues the country faces. As it is now, though, they must wonder if Obama shares to at least some degree his former Reverend's beliefs.

At the same time, he has to walk a thin line. He can't run his campaign on the defensive about this issue, nor can he afford to take time away from concentrating on those issues of most concern to the voters who can make or break a candidacy. Yet, he can't by any means imagine that, with this one speech, he can ignore the problem from here on out.

If he doesn't face this problem squarely and convincingly-and fast-then if he does manage to win the Democratic nomination (which now is by no means a sure thing) then by the time Election Day arrives, independent voters will run to McCane in droves.