Obama certain of his appeal to black voters
Obama certain of his appeal to black voters
By Christi ParsonsWashington BureauPublished January 25, 2007, 8:08 PM CST
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday that he's not worried about how he will fare with fellow African Americans should he launch a bid for the presidency, as he is expected to do in February.
"If you look at my black vote in my U.S. Senate race or my approval ratings back in Illinois," Obama (D-Ill.) said, "I feel pretty confident that, once folks know who I am, we'll do just fine."
The remarks came as some detractors have been quietly asking whether Obama, a biracial Harvard-educated lawyer, will prove "black enough" to black voters in a national election. The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama represented a mostly black district in the Illinois state Senate and won with a healthy African American vote when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004.
The remarks came after a meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton, the African American activist and one-time presidential candidate from New York, in which the two talked about civil rights concerns and other issues they'd like to see debated in the 2008 campaign.
Demonstrating his flair for drawing a media crowd, Sharpton circulated a schedule of Democratic presidential hopefuls he planned to visit on Capitol Hill early in the day, with the guaranteed media draw, Obama, last on the list.
"We talked about issues and policy, about 21st Century civil rights concerns that we both share," Sharpton said after meeting with Obama. "We're trying to get the process beyond just the surface stuff."
Sharpton hasn't announced his own intentions for 2008 and, after the meeting, said he hasn't chosen a candidate among Democrats now seeking the office.
"I'm not making any endorsements today," Sharpton said.
Standing with Sharpton after their meeting, Obama gestured to a portrait of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall on the wall of his office, saying he and Sharpton are both beneficiaries of Marshall's legacy.
"Rev. Sharpton emphasized his hope that any presidential candidate is speaking to the issues of the dispossessed, and that his number one priority is making sure that we get those on the agenda," Obama said.
"I think he's right to do that and I assured him that I not only want to hear his views, … but that publicly any of us who step into this fight for the nomination have to be held accountable and speak to these issues. "
cparsons@tribune.com
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070125blacks,1,6259129.story?coll=chi-news-hed
By Christi ParsonsWashington BureauPublished January 25, 2007, 8:08 PM CST
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday that he's not worried about how he will fare with fellow African Americans should he launch a bid for the presidency, as he is expected to do in February.
"If you look at my black vote in my U.S. Senate race or my approval ratings back in Illinois," Obama (D-Ill.) said, "I feel pretty confident that, once folks know who I am, we'll do just fine."
The remarks came as some detractors have been quietly asking whether Obama, a biracial Harvard-educated lawyer, will prove "black enough" to black voters in a national election. The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama represented a mostly black district in the Illinois state Senate and won with a healthy African American vote when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004.
The remarks came after a meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton, the African American activist and one-time presidential candidate from New York, in which the two talked about civil rights concerns and other issues they'd like to see debated in the 2008 campaign.
Demonstrating his flair for drawing a media crowd, Sharpton circulated a schedule of Democratic presidential hopefuls he planned to visit on Capitol Hill early in the day, with the guaranteed media draw, Obama, last on the list.
"We talked about issues and policy, about 21st Century civil rights concerns that we both share," Sharpton said after meeting with Obama. "We're trying to get the process beyond just the surface stuff."
Sharpton hasn't announced his own intentions for 2008 and, after the meeting, said he hasn't chosen a candidate among Democrats now seeking the office.
"I'm not making any endorsements today," Sharpton said.
Standing with Sharpton after their meeting, Obama gestured to a portrait of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall on the wall of his office, saying he and Sharpton are both beneficiaries of Marshall's legacy.
"Rev. Sharpton emphasized his hope that any presidential candidate is speaking to the issues of the dispossessed, and that his number one priority is making sure that we get those on the agenda," Obama said.
"I think he's right to do that and I assured him that I not only want to hear his views, … but that publicly any of us who step into this fight for the nomination have to be held accountable and speak to these issues. "
cparsons@tribune.com
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070125blacks,1,6259129.story?coll=chi-news-hed
posted by presgore19 at 5:58 AM
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