Touting it as “some unusually direct talk today from Democratic candidate Barack Obama on the issue of race, something he rarely focuses on in his speeches,” NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Tuesday decided to showcase a clip of Obama delivering a standard liberal critique of President Bush for not spending enough federal money on social programs. Williams relayed how “Obama said the Bush administration has done little to address what he called 'a quiet riot' of discontent and despair among blacks in this country, one that erupted in L.A. 15 years ago and has been building again since the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.”
In the clip, NBC viewers heard Obama issue the hardly unusual liberal talking point that “this administration was color blind in its incompetence” before he avoided holding those in question responsible for their own plight: “All the hurricane did was make bare what we ignore each and every day, which is that there are whole sets of communities that are impoverished, whole sets of communities that don't have meaningful opportunity and don't have hope and are forgotten.”
The AP's article on Obama's address to a conference of black clergy.
A transcript of the segment on the June 5 NBC Nightly News, which led into a story on the “candor” about faith expressed by Democratic presidential candidates during Monday night's Sojourner's forum carried by CNN:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: “Now to presidential politics in this country, and we begin with some unusually direct talk today from Democratic candidate Barack Obama on the issue of race, something he rarely focuses on in his speeches. But today, speaking to a primarily black audience at Hampton University in Virginia, Obama said the Bush administration has done little to address what he called 'a quiet riot' of discontent and despair among blacks in this country, one that erupted in L.A. 15 years ago and has been building again since the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.”
BARACK OBAMA, IN HIS SPEECH: “This administration was color blind in its incompetence. But everyone here knows that the disaster and the poverty happened long before the hurricane hit. All the hurricane did was make bare what we ignore each and every day, which is that there are whole sets of communities that are impoverished, whole sets of communities that don't have meaningful opportunity and don't have hope and are forgotten.”
WILLIAMS: “Senator Obama's message on race came a day after an unusual forum that found the Democrats talking about another sometimes touchy subject, faith, and they spoke with what some saw as surprising candor. With that, NBC's Ron Allen...”
