A More Perfect Union (speech)

For the phrase from the United States Constitution, see Preamble to the United States Constitution.

"A More Perfect Union" is the name of a speech given by United States presidential candidate Barack Obama (Sen., D-IL) in his 2008 campaign. The speech responded to controversial remarks made by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama's religious mentor and a former member of his campaign. It also addressed broader issues of race in the United States. The title of the speech is taken from the Preamble to the United States Constitution.

Obama spoke directly of racial tensions in the United States, discussing black "anger", white "resentment", and other issues as he sought to explain and contextualize Wright's controversial comments. His speech closed with a plea to move beyond America's "racial stalemate" and address shared social problems.

Events prior to the speech

See also: Coverage of Obama's religious background

Obama, the son of a white mother and black father, is pursuing the first U.S. Presidential nomination for an African-American candidate.

In March 2008, ABC News released a story examining the sermons of Obama's long-time pastor, Jeremiah Wright, in which Wright denounced the United States and accused the government of crimes against people of color. Wright has said, among other things, "God damn America" for its racism and "for killing innocent people." Obama had begun distancing himself from Wright when he called his pastor the night before the February 2007 announcement of Obama's Presidental candidacy to withdraw his request that Wright deliver an invocation at the event. Wright did however, attend the announcement, prayed with Obama beforehand, and was named to the Obama campaign's African American Religious Leadership Committee. When several videos of Wright's Christmas sermon appeared on YouTube in the first week of March 2008, Obama responded by going further then he had before, "vehemently disagree[ing with] and strongly condemn[ing]... inflammatory and appalling remarks Wright made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents." On March 14, the campaign announced that "Rev. Wright is no longer serving on the African American Religious Leadership Committee."

Feeling that he had failed to sufficiently address and explain the context of his relationship with the Reverend, Obama began writing the speech that became "A More Perfect Union". He worked on it alone for two days and two nights, showing it to only a handful of his closest advisors.

Speech

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. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.

During the 37-minute speech, given at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 18, Obama pleaded for the United States to break "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years." He also addressed the "anger" that exists between races.

Obama specifically clarified his relationship to Jeremiah Wright by saying, "I can no more disown him [Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

The speech, as actually delivered by Obama , is essentially the same as the prepared text of the speech that had been distributed to the media, except for small differences.

Response

Politicians

Some Democratic activists think Obama largely succeeded in his speech.

"No other person in this country, black or white, could have given a speech like that," said Stephanie Cutter, who was John Kerry's spokeswoman in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's chief Democratic rival in the 2008 Election, said she was glad Obama had given the speech.

Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history, and they are complicated in this primary campaign... There have been detours and pitfalls along the way, but we should remember that this is a historic moment for the Democratic Party and for our country. We will be nominating the first African-American or woman for the presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate.

Senator Joe Biden called it powerful, truthful and "one of most important speeches we've heard in a long time."

The Reverend Jesse Jackson, who until Obama had been the black candidate closest to winning a major party's presidential nomination, said video of Jeremiah Wright's sermons, along with comments made by Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro that Obama wouldn't have gotten so far in the campaign if he were white, had threatened to derail the campaign with racial fear.

Jackson said of Obama, "He made the case we've been here before, but not this time will we linger. This time we're going to higher ground."

News media and pundits

A New York Times editorial praised the remarks, saying, "Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better."

Chris Matthews of MSNBC referred to the speech as "what many of us think is one of the great speeches in American history, and we watch a lot of them."

Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said "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. Just steps from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, he rang the bell hard and well."

Jim VandeHei & John F. Harris of The Politico said, "The Philadelphia speech offered lines calculated to reassure all the groups with which he is most vulnerable." He goes on to point out that Obama's race problem transcend Wright's statements.

Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve, wrote at National Review Online 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. It is so far above the standard we're used to from our pols."

Also at NRO, Peter Wehner, former deputy assistant to the president and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center wrote "Senator Obama’s speech on Tuesday was a brilliant effort to deflect attention away from what remains the core issue: what did Obama hear, when did he hear it, and what did he do about it? The answers, as best we can tell at this stage, is that Obama heard some very harsh things said from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ; that Obama heard them said a long time ago and probably repeatedly; and that he did little or nothing about it. This from a man who tells us at almost every stop along the campaign trail that he has the “judgment to lead.”"

Historian Roger Wilkins called the speech "the most extensive discussion of race ever by a presidential candidate.".

Ben Smith at The Politico compared the speech to Mitt Romney's earlier campaign address regarding his religion: "A smart colleague notes that this speech is the polar opposite of this year's other big speech on faith, in which Mitt Romney went to Texas to talk about Mormonism, but made just one reference to his Mormon faith. Obama mentions Wright by name 14 times."

Dean Barnett of The Weekly Standard wrote a piece subtitled "Answering the question no one asked", saying "Jeremiah Wright is a man who less than a week after 9/11 gave a sermon that sadistically rejoiced how America's chickens had come home to roost... The fact is, Barack Obama opted to remain in this minister's company for more than six years after that sermon until partially distancing himself just last week in the heat of a presidential race... What the analysts who are gushing over Obama's sentiments regarding race relations are missing is not only did Obama fail to accomplish the mission he needed to, he didn't even really try. He made no attempt to explain his relationship with Wright and why he hung around a man who habitually offered such hateful rhetoric. Obama instead offered a non-sequitur on race relations."

Other groups

Religious groups incorporated the speech into their services. University classes analyzed the speech's content and delivery. Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, said 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."

External links

• A More Perfect Union speech transcript and video