Obama Plans Major Speech on Race

In an apparent move to settle this Wright and Ferraro mess once and for all. Barack Obama is planning on a major speech tomorrow on the issue of race in this campaign:

The speech could offer Obama an opportunity to move past the controversy over his pastor, and to turn the conversation to a topic he'd rather focus on: his Christian faith. But the speech also guarantees that the Wright story will continue to dominate political headlines.

Mitt Romney's attempt directly to address his Mormonism last year never decisively put the issue to rest for some voters.

The problem comes as it is more and more apparent that while Hillary Clinton would like a lot more support from minorities for her campaign, Barack is getting way too much support and the resulting fault line is exacerbating racial tensions within the Democratic party.

This makes me extremely curious about what Barack is planning to say, because he doesn't want to give up support of the Black vote, but he also can't really afford to be tagged as "the black candidate" like a Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. it's a difficult line he must dance.

And this is where the Pastor Wright saga comes in and makes a delicate situation even worse. For as Rasmussen reports, Wright is not perceived equally by whites and blacks. While most folks don't think much of Wright and his hyperbole, among the Black community, he's an asset:

However, among African-Americans, 29% said Wright's comments made them more likely to support Obama. Just 18% said the opposite while 50% said Wright's comments would have no impact.

And so this dustup will divide the Democratic primary even more along racial lines. Just what the doctor ordered.

What will Obama do? He could denounce Wright with a sister souljah move, or he could call for a Rodney Kingesque "can't we all get along". That won't mean much. My guess is option number two.