The Political Universe  

I wrote this for www.politicususa.com today. Here are some highlights:

- Obama chose to speak about economic justice, which is the reason why Dr. King was in Memphis 40 years ago to support a sanitation workers strike. Speaking about the strike Obama said, "It was a struggle for economic justice, for the opportunity that should be available to people of all races and all walks of life. Because Dr. King understood that the struggle for economic justice and the struggle for racial justice were really one - that each was part of a larger struggle "for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity." So long as Americans were trapped in poverty, so long as they were being denied the wages, benefits, and fair treatment they deserved - so long as opportunity was being opened to some but not all - the dream that he spoke of would remain out of reach."

- Obama said that the struggle for economic justice that is continuing today, "But while those sanitation workers eventually got their union contract, the struggle for economic justice remains an unfinished part of the King legacy. Because the dream is still out of reach for too many Americans. Just this morning, it was announced that more Americans are unemployed now than at any time in years. And all across this country, families are facing rising costs, stagnant wages, and the terrible burden of losing a home."

- He continued, "Part of the problem is that for a long time, we’ve had a politics that’s been too small for the scale of the challenges we face. This is something I spoke about a few weeks ago in a speech I gave in Philadelphia. And what I said was that instead of having a politics that lives up to Dr. King’s call for unity, we’ve had a politics that’s used race to drive us apart, when all this does is feed the forces of division and distraction, and stop us from solving our problems."

- One gets the sense that Obama understands the leadership role that his position has thrust him into on the issue of race, but he doesn’t want to become labeled as the black candidate, so he is aware that he has to maintain a balance between holding a racial discussion while being above labels.