For Obama, a Test of Leadership - WaPo

[rndmprsn]

ONE WORD: LEADERSHIP

please note the comments as well...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/18/for_obama_a_test_of_leadership.html

PHILADELPHIA -- The damage to Barack Obama's presidential candidacy was already real when he stepped into the pulpit of the National Constitution Center here on Tuesday morning. Obama was a politician under fire, his campaign engulfed in controversy by the fiery, divisive and racially charged words of his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

His text was the Constitution and his theme "A More Perfect Union" and his most urgent political mission was to explain his relationship to a minister whose words were so at odds with the tone and message of Obama's presidential campaign in hope of tamping down the controversy that threatens to undermine his candidacy...

...Both whites and blacks, he said, must recognize "what ails" the other -- and embrace the idea, as he said Rev. Wright has not, the idea that American can change. "This union may never be perfect," he said. "But generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected."

Neither Obama nor his advisers can know at this point where the Wright controversy will lead. It is not likely that one speech, however well-crafted, can put it to rest. But the test of leadership is to turn adversity into opportunity and on Tuesday Obama took it. Now he must await the judgment of the voters.



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COMMENTS

I found his words amazing in how he is able to see both sides of the racial issue in America.

Obama is truely uniquely qualified for the job of POTUS in '08.

We need him now more than ever : http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=1lxipd

Posted by: rust1d | March 18, 2008 03:18 PM

My wife and I watched Obama's speech this morning. We are independent, secular conservatives and had been completely polarized by the Reverend Wright's rants . If our reactions are any indication, Obama has more than repaired the damage. We both had watery eyes when he finished. My wife called her sister to compare notes She's a fundamentalist Republican. Even she had gotten emotional. She related it to her childhood experience in Eastern Oklahoma where she was treated as white trash with Indian blood.

This man is phenomenal. Afterward, we watched the press commentaries for only a few minutes and turned the set off. Nothing they were saying seemed to matter when compared to what we had just heard.

Jerry Brown, Huntington, NY

Posted by: jerrybrown11743 | March 18, 2008 03:20 PM

A thoughtful, honest, solemnly paced speech. The Philadelphia Speech may well go down in history as the point at which America engaged in a real and frank discussion of race and racism in our country and where we go from here. Whether or not it helps Obama's election bid, in my mind it has already helped America start moving forward.