Obama meets with Jewish voters in PA
Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 2:15 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
PHILADELPHIA -- Obama pleaded his case in front of the local Jewish community at a Philadelphia synagogue, saying that he had always had a "kinship" with the Jewish community and any mistrust that might exist of him was because of "scurrilous emails' and speculates based on him having a Muslim middle name.
"But if people don't mind, I'd like to be honest: A lot of the concern has been generated because of scurrilous emails that have been sent, generated based on speculation of the fact that my middle name is Hussein," he said, adding: "A lot of it has been generated as a consequence of the fact that I'm African American and that at times there've been tensions between the African-American leadership an the Jewish community."
Today's meeting was the seventh that Obama has held across the country with members of the Jewish community, seeking to assuage fears that he is anti-Israel, especially after comments by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became public. In attendance were religious leaders and members of Jewish organizations in the local area.
Obama repeatedly said that he was for a Jewish state, while Reps. Robert Wexler and Steve Rothman, Obama backers who were both in attendance, put it more bluntly, saying that Obama would not allow Palestinians in the right of return.
Obama also affirmed his support for allowing Israel to retain Jerusalem as part of a two-state solution and said that the United Nations' attacks on Israel needed to end. He also said that he would keep all military options on the table should Iran acquire nuclear weapons.
Over and over again -- through the surrogates that spoke on his behalf, as well through his own words -- Obama said that he strongly supports Israel and its positions. The meeting appeared to be his most emphatic public comments to date on the issue.
He re-read part of his race speech from Philadelphia in prepared remarks, where he said that he denounced his former pastor's comments on Israel and re-affirmed his support of Israel as a Jewish state. The issues of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and President Carter's visit with Hamas were raised only twice. Obama denounced Carter's trip, saying that there should be no discussions with a terrorist organization.
Asked by a member in the audience, to clarify how much he had known about Wright's comments, Obama appeared to make a surprising admission, saying he had learned about Wright's controversial comments since running for president and he had addressed them with him but had chosen not to publicly denounce his pastor. "I'll be honest with you. I did not become aware of them until I started running for president. And at that point, yes, I had conversations with him, which I shared with him my deep concerns."
"The sermons that were the source of controversy were deeply disturbing to me, and I did address them, I did tell him, that I found them disturbing and wrong. As I mentioned, he was also, at that point, several months from retirement. So you make a decision about how are you going to handle that? Do you publicly denounce his comments? Do you privately express concerns with him, but recognize that you're part of the broader church community that is going to be transitioning? I chose the latter."
He also reiterated comments he had made earlier that any characterizations of Wright as something more than just his pastor were inaccurate. "And I also want to note, this notion that's been put forward that he's my spiritual advisor -- he was my pastor. Which means when I went to church. There were sermons. Many of them insightful and powerful and speaking about justice and the social gospel," he said.
One student present told Obama that the Jewish community had been satisfied with his speech in Philadelphia on his relationship with Wright, but were worried about how this might affect him in a general election. Would he become another McGovern or Dukakis?
"In the middle of a primary contest against a very formidable candidate, you know every bone gets picked over multiple times. And after, after a time you're going to take some dings and get some nicks and cuts," he said. Obama added, however, that he believed that the country was in a "sober mood" and that in a general election there would be more of a stark contrast on the issues between the candidates to focus on rather than the latest "gaffe."
"Within the primary, what's happened is, is because there's so much overlap between Sen. Clinton and my policy positions that the only thing that the press can write about are gaffes and slips and who said what at any given time because what else is there to write about," he said. "There's only so long that you can debate health-care mandates."
