Seeking Unity, Obama Feels Pull of Racial Divide
By Ginger Thompson (NYT – 2/12/08)
Senator Barack Obama first began seriously considering running for presidency
about two years ago. At that time, he and his group of political advisors devoted only a
few minutes to the issue of race, which the senator considered relatively unimportant in
affecting his chances for success. Now, after several victories over his fellow Democrat
and rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the initial lack
of concern with race seems to have been justified. In radio interviews, Obama himself
referred to his primary victories in Nebraska, Utah, and Idaho, which states do not have
large contingents of African American voters. In the same interview, the senator also
pointed to his across-the-board victories with black, white, and Asian voters across both
genders, as well, in Washington State.
However, inside Senator Obama's campaign, the issue of race has generated
several strategic disagreements. Early on in his campaign, white advisors to the senator
to distance himself from his church pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and to retract the
invitation to the pastor to deliver Obama's campaign kick-off rally so as not to alienate
white voters over the pastor's previous public sermons that many considered anti-white.
Among the statements attributed to Wright he has said, "Racism is how this country was
founded and how this country is still run."
Immediately after removing Rev. Wright from the senator's campaign kick-off
rally, he received criticism from several African American public figures, some of whom
accused the senator of keeping black voters at arm's length so as not to alienate white
voters. Specifically, a Princeton scholar suggested that the senator should not be
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