Speaking from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Senator Barack Obama paid tribute here today to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and reprised his call from four decades ago, “Unity is the great need of the hour.”
“It’s the great need of this hour as well,” Mr. Obama said, addressing hundreds of worshipers during an overflowing service. “Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it’s the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.”
The deficit, he said, is one of morality and of empathy.
This is why I support Obama.
Imagine Romney is front a business audience, McCain in front of veterans, Hillary in font of affluent women or Edwards in front of trial lawyers – I suspect none of them would speaks with this type of moral challenge.
The only way that politicians should be in church is to worship, not to give talks. The problem with non-Lutheran churches is that they confuse the Right and Left Hand Kingdoms.
I suppose Obama doesn’t give specifics because he’s in a church (although that doesn’t stop left-wing politicians generally). He talks about uplifting subjects but in general gives no details. You have to go to his votes in Illinois and in the U.S. Senate to get what he would do, and as a standard left-winger, his policies will be “divisive,” since half of the population leans left and half leans right. His “moral challenge” presumably is the adoption of the left-wing policies and programs he favors.
Katherine, his moral challenge is transcend the bitter hatred and categorization that cuts us apart.
Katherine, you’re right. His record in Illinois and the Senate do tell us a great deal. They tell us that though he works for liberal policies he does so without partisan rancor. He never demonizes his political opponents, instead debating the merits of his positions. He doesn’t engage in character assassination and at all possible works in a bi-partisan fashion. He couches his criticism of America in terms of a very deep hope and love for America. He also admits when other people are right, and has cordial relations with his opponents. This is why so many Republicans, like Sen. Lindsey Graham of SC like him. It is also why so many conservatives are threatened by him. Hillary is easy to paint as the Dragon Lady. Obama is just plain likable, and an almost irresistable advocate for liberal issues.
In an age when most Democrats rail against the Corporate America Monster and the vast right wing conspiracy to scare us all into war and middle-class poverty, in an age when most Republicans rattle the saber of 9/11 and the liberal plots to tax us all into oblivion and talk show hosts raise the specter of Hillary hoisting the Hammer and Sickle over the White House, Obama threatens to revolutionize politics in America. But anyone who talks about hope these days is blasted as delusional or a con man, just look at what the conservative establishment is saying about Huckabee.
*tsk* speaking in a church. That pastor better watch out — The ACLU might bring him up on charges of violating the ‘Separation of Church and State’. what’s that? He’s Liberal/Democrat? Oh, never mind, then, that’s perfectly acceptable. As long as he’s not Conservative/Republican, he has nothing to worry about.
{/sarcasm}
Katherine,
Absolutely! How many ‘present’ votes does it take to tell someone’s leaning and stance on the issues? 🙂