WaPost: Obama Reaches Out With Tough Love

[Hissyspit]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202813.html?hpid=topnews

Obama Reaches Out With Tough Love
Candidate Says Criticism of Black America Reflects Its Private Concerns

By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 3, 2007; Page A01

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are "disenfranchising" themselves because they don't vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying "anti-intellectualism" in the black community, including black children telling peers who get good grades that they are "acting white."

As he travels around the country in his effort to become the nation's first black president, Obama has engaged in an intense competition for black voters -- a crucial Democratic Party constituency that accounts for as much as half the electorate in some key primary states such as South Carolina. But the first-term senator, who has sought to present himself as an agent of change eager to challenge political convention, has taken the unusual route of publicly criticizing his own community.

In a brief interview, Obama said he is simply giving broader exposure to the problems that African Americans discuss with great frankness in private. "It's what we talk about in the barbershops in the South Side of Chicago," Obama said, adding that he talks about these problems more in the black community because they are more pronounced there. "There's an old saying that if America has a cold, we have pneumonia," he said.

Aides say there is no specific strategy to target black voters by injecting these themes into the race and note that Obama speaks to white audiences about the importance of parents turning off their kids' televisions and demanding that they finish their homework. Obama says he is echoing the concerns he hears from and shares with other African Americans.

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[Czolgosz]

1. GO OBAMA GO!

[David Dunham]

2. Obama's third in NH and IA and second in SC.

[Czolgosz]

3. That puts him well ahead of Biden, Dodd, Richardson, Kucinich, and Gravel and it leaves Obama nine

months to catch Hillary.

I think we're most likely down to a three way race that any of the three could win and I'd be thrilled with Obama or Edwards but would also work for Hillary if she gets the nomination.

[Colobo]

4. You only appear on Obama threads just to bash him

[illinoisprogressive]

6. who is david for? Sounds like an Edwardsbot to me.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. he wants people to take responsibility and an interest in their kids.

it's too easy to give the kid the credit card and send them to the mall or to not really pay much attention after a long day at work.
But, we all know it's been getting harder and harder for kids. They are along alot, need attention and have to compete in the world. We have to change with the times and to not forget about them.