March 19, 2008 11:43AM
Obama’s Defining Moment
By Alexis Glick
Did you see Sen. Barack Obama’s speech yesterday on race relations? Whether you like him or not, plan to vote for or against him, I highly recommend you watch or read it. I have listened to a fair amount of speeches and thought this was his moment. His defining moment on the campaign trail! I was riveted and e-mailed many friends and colleagues. Some will argue that he did not denounce the Rev. Wright as aggressively as he should, but what he did do is give the speech of his career.
Here’s an excerpt from Sen. Obama’s speech:
“This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country.”
Will his call for change, unity and an end to the bickering change the political landscape? Will he get down to specifics especially as it relates to the economy? Can he be the candidate of change while Clinton has become the voice of the economy and McCain the voice of security and terrorism?
This morning we took a different approach. We asked three black executives and experts in their respective fields to react to his speech. Broderick C. Byers, CEO of The Employment & Career Channel, Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, the president and CEO of Women in Cable Telecommunications and Angela McGlowan, a political analyst and Fox News analyst joined me.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley told me Obama’s speech is the best speech she has read and heard since Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
“He got to the heart of the problem, it wasn’t a political speech, it was very much a heartfelt person-to-person type of a dialogue and I really appreciated getting all of those issues out on the table and speaking out about them in a way that we normally don’t in our homes, in our communities and certainly not in the business world.”
Watch the whole segment below.
Comment by GARY J ANDERSON
Mar 19th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Alexis, you’ve been duped! Speeches about change, promise, and hope have got you all distracted from the issue that your “golden boy” has unveiled no real plans for making his rhetoric relaity. He is niave and inexperienced.
Tell me, how can someone that runs his entire campaign on the notion that his is the candidate of hope and change - a “great uniter” when he associatews himself with someone who has not only spread hate and racism, but has done so with lies. If Obama cannot point out to his paster - whom he has know for twenty years that his speeches are worng and hateful, how in the world is he going to sit down with Il Jong Kim, or Amadinajhad (with no conditions) and change their minds about anything? Stop the celebrity worship, and open your eyes. He is an empty suit!
Comment by Karl
Mar 19th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Yes I have seen it and it was a good speech. But here is the thing that is so troubling to me. If the shoe was on the other foot. If Barak was white and his pastor was white and his pastor was bashing the black community. The black community would be asking Barak to resign from the senate and drop out of the presidential race. Rev Al would be asking for heads on a platter. It doesn’t matter to me what his pastor says. Freedom of speech is an individual right. People in this country have to learn to listen with discretion. I have friends that I converse with that are misguided “In my eyes”, but who am I to say that their views are not correct. There is just a popular opinion of what is right and wrong. Not an absolute. Your pastor does not form your morals, scruples and ethics. They should stem from your family. And this country dwelling on what his pastor is advocating in a time of financial crisis is just plain stupid. There are bigger problems that we are facing. All this is, is a distraction.
Karl
Ron Paul 2008
Comment by Maria Silva
Mar 19th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
He did not respond the question that was asked. Why does he take his children to hear a Reverend that speaks that way.
Comment by Sharon Lane
Mar 19th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Some people are comparing Obama to Martin Luther King today. I marched for civil rights in the 60’s. Reverend King believed in peaceful demonstration and protest. He believed you could not fight bigotry and hatred with even more hatred. And, he often publicly admonished African-Americans who used hateful, anti-white, rhetoric.
When Reverend Wright said his hateful anti-white remarks, Martin Luther King would have gotten out of that pew, walked out of that church, and never come back. I am absolutely sure of that.
Barack Obama is no Martin Luther King!
Take Care, Sharon
Comment by Bill Simpson
Mar 19th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Alexis,
I am surprised at you. You have drunk the Obama Kool-Aid. This is not a man who preaches “change”. He preaches despair, gloom & doom, coupled with a sense of hopelessness. If a white pastor, say Hillary’s or McCain’s, put forth such hatred, the race would be over. Words and velleities are not the mark of a leader. His anti-business rhetoric should chill every American. Who does he think creates the jobs? In his view it’s the government. He did not shake off the anti-American hatred and venom spewed by his “pastor”. This misanthrope helped shape his beliefs over the past 20 years. Rhetoric does not change this.
Comment by Dennis
Mar 19th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Alexis, you aren’t listening. Just like many other liberal, they are quick to point out problems, but have no real answers. Hope is just that - Hope.
I recommend that you stay with business and not get burned with politics. You are too trustworthy and not curious enough to think through the hype.
Comment by Virginia
Mar 19th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Oh, Alexis—I can’t believe you are buying this speech. I am a faithful Fox Business viewer. Being from the West Coast, many days I get up early to see much of your show. I also love your blog and the pictures of your “boys” are terrific. They are as cute as can be. But getting back to the Obama speech, he never said he would break from either Rev. Wright or Rev. Wright’s church. He is running on hope, change, and charater. Well, if he had real charater and is asking us to change then he should stand up to Rev. Wright comments. He should also leave that church whose own web site uses hateful and anti-white statements. When he was interviewed on Fox news, he indicated that he had never remembered hearing those statements. Now in this speech he indicates that he does remember hearing those hateful lies but it makes no difference. It seems that he will continue to associate himself with Rev. Wright. Now I understand why his wife for the first time in her life said she is proud to be an American. I have always been a proud American. The speech was a defining moment for me as I believe actions speak louder than words. I’ll wait to see action!
Keep Bogging,
Virginia
Comment by Anna
Mar 27th, 2008 at 3:02 am
other commodity and these owners can never be collected into he employs, may still belong indifferently either to his country, or to