A More Perfect Union (speech)

[2] Speaking before an audience at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Obama was responding to a spike in the attention paid to controversial remarks made by Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor and, until shortly before the speech, a participant in his campaign.

[5] Then-Senator Barack Obama, the son of a white American mother and black Kenyan father, launched a campaign in January 2007 to be the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nominee.

He mentioned that he achieved primary victories in "states with some of the whitest populations in the country"[2] and in South Carolina, where he won with the support of white and black voters.

"[2] Obama then invoked the history of racial inequality in the United States, first by paraphrasing a line by William Faulkner: "The past isn't dead and buried.

The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning.

That anger is not always productive ... it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

[2]Obama then shifted to an expression of what he called "a similar anger" in the white community based on resentments over busing, affirmative action, and the way in which fears about crime are often met with accusations of racism.

Obama concluded his speech by relating an anecdote about a young white woman who organized for his campaign in South Carolina and the personal connection she made with an elderly black volunteer.

Former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee praised Obama's speech on the MSNBC program Morning Joe, while also commenting on the Wright controversy.

Referencing his experience growing up in the segregated South and the legacy of Jim Crow, the former Arkansas governor noted that "we've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, 'You have to sit in the balcony when you go to [a] movie' ...

"[31] Condoleezza Rice, the top ranking African American in the Bush cabinet, responded to the speech on March 28, saying, "I think it was important that he (Obama) gave it for a whole host of reasons."

"[39][40] Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said that "Barack Obama didn't simply touch the touchiest subject in America, he grabbed it and turned it over and examined it from several different angles and made it personal.

"[41] Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan called the speech "strong, thoughtful and important", and noted that its rhetorical style subverted the soundbite-driven coverage of contemporary news media.

However, they noted that "Obama's cross-racial and even cross-partisan support has been driven by a belief that he is a new-era politician, not defined by the grievances and ideological habits of an earlier generation ... Then came Wright."

The authors quote Southern academic Merle Black as saying: "The new information, especially about his minister and his twenty-year association with this church, really undermines the message he's been delivering for the last year, it completely undercuts it.

"[43] Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve, wrote at National Review Online (NRO) that "As far as I'm concerned, it is just plain flat out brilliant—rhetorically, but also in capturing a lot of nuance about race in America.

[47]Writing for progressive journal The Nation, Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher Jr., Danny Glover, and Barbara Ehrenreich said that Obama's speech on racism was as great a speech as ever given by a presidential candidate, revealing a philosophical depth, personal authenticity, and political intelligence that should convince any but the hardest of ideologues that he carries unmatched leadership potentials for overcoming the divide-and-conquer tactics that have sundered Americans since the first slaves arrived here in chains.

[48]In a moment of rare straight-faced sincerity, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show finished his otherwise-typical satirical coverage of the speech by calmly stating: "And so, at 11 o'clock AM on a Tuesday, a prominent politician spoke to Americans about race as though they were adults.

"[50] In contrast, liberal columnist Frank Rich said that he shared "the general view that Mr. Obama's speech is the most remarkable utterance on the subject by a public figure in modern memory.

[55][56]After Obama had secured the Democratic nomination, journalists continued to refer to this speech when analyzing the role of race and racial attitudes in the presidential contest.

Sabato noted that a debate about race was "inevitable" in the campaign and that "from Obama's perspective, it's much better to have this discussion now", rather than shortly before the November election (assuming he captured the Democratic nomination).

[29] Congressional scholar and Brookings Institution senior fellow Thomas Mann[59] argued that Obama gave "an extraordinary speech—not because of any rhetorical flourishes, but because it was honest, frank, measured in tone, inclusive and hopeful."

[29] Some political science professors questioned whether Obama's speech would have the effect he hoped for in terms of distancing himself from the controversial comments made by Wright and allaying the concerns of a number of white voters.

Munger argued that "[a] black candidate named Barack Hussein Obama can't have questions about his patriotism, and commitment to America, not if he is going to beat a genuine war hero" (a reference to John McCain and the general election).

Susan B. Hansen of the University of Pittsburgh noted that "the dilemma for Obama is that the more he talks about race being unimportant or transcended, the more important it will become to the media and voters' perceptions."

"[62] Houston A. Baker Jr., a professor at Vanderbilt University, scholar of African-American literature, and former president of the Modern Language Association, criticized the speech, saying: Sen. Obama's "race speech" at the National Constitution Center, draped in American flags, was reminiscent of the Parthenon concluding scene of Robert Altman's Nashville: a bizarre moment of mimicry, aping Martin Luther King Jr., while even further distancing himself from the real, economic, religious and political issues so courageously articulated by King from a Birmingham jail.

[64] The New York Times reported that, within days of the speech, some religious groups and institutions of higher learning were "especially enthusiastic" about Obama's call for a racial dialogue.

According to the Times, "Universities were moving to incorporate the issues Mr. Obama raised into classroom discussions and course work, and churches were trying to find ways to do the same in sermons and Bible studies.

"[66] Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, said that she hoped that Obama's speech would help people "talk more openly and honestly about the tensions, both overt and as an undercurrent, that exist around race and racial politics.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun and a founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, argued that "this has got to be more than a speech because these things don't just happen spontaneously ...