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Obama Delivers Major Speech on Race and Politics; Discussion of Obama's Speech

Aired March 18, 2008 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Crisis in a far flung corner of the world. China moves to crush independence protesters today, Tuesday, March 18th. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The man who wants to be the country's first African-American president putting race in the room. Barack Obama scheduled to speak about race, politics and unity this hour in Philadelphia. A live shot for you there. Presumably, he is trying to move beyond the controversy over divisive comments by his former pastor. You can watch Obama's speech live on CNN coming up 10:15 Eastern.

Fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton also in Philadelphia today. She appears at City Hall this afternoon and then campaigns in central Pennsylvania. All of this ahead of the state's important April 22nd primary.

Republican John McCain meantime, continues his Mideast swing. Fresh from a visit to Iraq, he met with Jordan's King Abdullah. He's now moving on to Jerusalem.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux standing by for Obama's speech in Philadelphia this morning. So Suzanne, a lot of questions out there this morning about what he's going to talk about and maybe even more specifically, the timing of it all. Why now?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, I've spoken with Obama's closest advisers and they are really quite concerned. They say quite candidly that this is a very important speech for Obama. That this controversy with Reverend Wright has called into question ideas about his faith, about his patriotism, about his racial identity, all of these things.

I spoke with David Axelrod. He is the chief strategist of Obama and asked him point blank are they concerned about the white male vote that has been such a critical block for Obama? And he says, we don't know what's going to happen, this is something that yet to play out. So, there are a lot of questions here.

He wants to present himself in a way that the American people truly know him. It is no mistake, Heidi, that we're in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the Constitution. He's going to be standing in front of no less than eight American flags. Obviously, trying to put forth that he distances himself from these remarks from Reverend Wright, but he also wants the American people to understand his multi- cultural background and the sense that he wants to bring people together.

Let's take a listen to his preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The statements that were the source of controversy from Reverend Wright were wrong and I strongly condemn them. I think the caricature that's being painted of him is not accurate and so, part of what I'll do is to talk a little bit about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church community, for example, which I think views this very differently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, Heidi, there are many different audiences that he is going to be speaking to essentially, yes, he is going to be speaking to mainstream America obviously, voters. The concern there that he does not want to alienate white voters, that he has really put forward, made the center piece of this campaign this message of reconciliation.

But as he's also mentioned as well, there's another group that's frustrated with him and that is black ministers. There was a conference call on Sunday, 90 minutes more than 50 representatives of various black churches around the country really outraged and upset at the way that Wright, his pastor, was what they say was vilified in the media. They believe according to one that this was a lynching in the media, that this was something that they really feel that people do not understand and it was taken out of context.

We're going to hear from Barack Obama addressing those kind of concerns, as well. So, you have various audiences. There are people who essentially are quite angry with him, they're quite upset and they're quite confused by his positions here.

There was one black minister who I spoke with who said that there's a feeling that perhaps he threw his former pastor under the bus, that this is something that people do not understand and they don't understand the context, so you'll hear Barack Obama really trying put this controversy to rest and you'll also hear him trying to bring that message of unity back in the forefront so he can move on to other issues, Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, Suzanne, you bring up a really good point about the riskiness of his speech like this, either people out there sort of on both camps looking at this differently.

One camp saying, look, you know, he didn't make these comments himself. These comments were made by someone else. That person, he condemned after he said, you know, we just heard in the sound bite, these were not the right things to say and this man is also now retired.

The other camp saying, now wait a minute, he had been with this pastor for 20 years, he had married him and also baptized his two daughters, so it would be important to explain the relationship.

MALVEAUX: And with Barack Obama, he is going to explain the relationship and what Barack Obama really has to do here is he has to explain what his beliefs are. We have heard him over the last 48 hours simply say to the American people, take me for my words, for my actions, for my deeds. Judge me not who I'm associated with or affiliated with.

But as you mentioned, Heidi, it is a strong relationship between these two. They've had a relationship for nearly 20 years. This is someone who was his spiritual guide. This is somebody who he knew very well, and so obviously, there are some questions about whether or not it really reflects his true feelings and I think that's what people want to know.

They don't know Barack Obama. They want to know more about this, and the campaign is very realistic about this. They say that these questions are not going to be answered today. He's going to talk about his multi-racial background. He's going to talk about some of the difficulties with racism, with inequality, the importance to move on and to deal with this because they say this has not been in the national debate, so he wants to take that on.

But at the same time they know these questions are going to continue. This is not kind of a one-speech deal where we're going to put this to bed, put this to rest ...

COLLINS: No.

MALVEAUX: ...and the issue of race is going to continue to be a forum here for this campaign.

COLLINS: All right, well we will be watching. That speech headed our way in about ten minutes or so, 10:15 Eastern time.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is there in Philadelphia. Suzanne, we'll check in with you after the speech, I'm sure. Thanks.

HARRIS: Boy, talking race, a smart strategy for Barack Obama and what's next for his campaign. Melissa Harris Lacewell is an associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton. She is also an Obama supporter.

Melissa, good to see you.

MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Good to see you this morning.

HARRIS: Well, you know, let's take this apart, and I'm going to try as best I can to sort of moderate this discussion, but what are your thoughts? Go beyond the comments from Geraldine Ferraro, go beyond the comments by Pastor Wright. Why is Barack Obama giving this speech today in your view?

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well, I mean, certainly the comments by Geraldine Ferraro and the sort of reintroduction of the comments by Pastor Wright are part of it. But I think more broadly, there's been a way ever since South Carolina in which race has been permeating ...

HARRIS: I think you're right about that.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: ...and kind of bubbling underneath this campaign. And so, the question is, can Barack Obama do what he says is his greatest strength, which is it OK for him to in fact have conversations with people who he disagreed with?

HARRIS: Will he be allowed to do what he says he wants to do? Will he be allowed to do it? Will -- you know what I'm asking you.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well, I mean the question is whether or not he can, in fact, build a multi-racial coalition. Here's the deal, we live in a country where blacks and whites do not share the same vocabulary for talking about race. It's not just that we disagree on a lot of topics of race, we don't even have the same words to talking about it.

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: So, he's got to somehow build a bridge and actually develop a new vocabulary in the middle of a presidential election. That's a pretty hard task.

HARRIS: Well, and, Melissa, he seems -- well, he seemed to have been doing just fine with that. Let me bring in Marc Lamont Hill. Marc, as you know, he's a frequent guest on our program. He's an assistant professor of urban American and American studies at Temple University.

Hey, Marc, good to see you. What -- Barack Obama seemed to be doing pretty well at sort of building a coalition, so I'm just sort of curious why is the one candidate in this race who is gaining more support from more groups than anyone else, why is he the one that has to hold a major address on race?

MARC LAMONT HILL, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: Well, that's interesting. See, the thing about Barack is the way he's been able to build a multi-racial coalition is to initially reach out to white people. He understood that black people would eventually come on board once they understood that he was viable.

And so, now what's happening is people are beginning to wonder whether or not his allegiance isn't to that white coalition but to actual black voters. When Jeremiah Wright makes the comment, when Michelle Obama makes her comment about being ...

HARRIS: Yes.

HILL: ...proud of America for the first time, now all of a sudden, the strategy of gesturing to white people and winking to black people is falling short. And now, he has to prove and reaffirm his ties to white voters.

HARRIS: Does he -- Marc, in your view, does he ...

HARRIS-LACEWELL: No, I think Marc's ...

HARRIS: No, go ahead.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: ...got that wrong.

HARRIS: Well, why is that, Melissa?

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Yes, I think Marc's got that wrong. I mean, yes, I mean, Marc wants to -- he and I write together on theroot.com and we have this argument on "The Root" all the time.

HARRIS: Oh, let me hear it then.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: And I think -- yes, right, and I think, in fact, that Marc sort of -- perspective that Barack Obama is mostly interested in gaining white voters misses fundamentally that African- American voters don't just support Barack Obama because he's a viable black candidate, African-Americans were against the war in Iraq early, vehemently and consistently and so too has Barack Obama been.

Barack Obama represents a set of policies around environmental issues, around economic issues, around a new kind of politics, all of which black Americans resonate with, so I think this notion that somehow if he doesn't embrace every single African-American political leader, he's somehow not doing what is right ...

HARRIS: Yes.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: ...by African-Americans is missing it.

HILL: But it's not that, it's that -- you know, when we look initially -- first of all, Barack Obama's policies, yes, they are in line with many mainstream black political ideologies, but so were Hillary so were John Edwards. And you saw early on that Hillary and Barack were essentially splitting the black vote. But as time went on --

HARRIS-LACEWELL: No, Hillary voted for the war. African- Americans have been against the war since before its inception. I absolutely disagree with you.

HILL: There's no doubt about that but they were still split in terms of -- black people were supporting Hillary and they were supporting Barack. As we move further down --

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Not when they actually got a chance to vote. That was just ...

HARRIS: Let him speak. Let him speak, Melissa.

HILL: This is how we do though. But as we move down the line we saw black people closing ranks around race as the race became more racialized. Black people began to protect Barack Obama as it appeared that he was being assaulted along lines of race, which I'm OK with but that's what was happening. Barack now securely has black people in his pocket; he understands that 90 to 95 percent of black people are going to support him. He no longer has to make gestures to them, he just keeps winking to them saying, I got your back. Now, all of a sudden, when Jeremiah Wright comes out of the gate, now all of a sudden white people are beginning to identifying that strategy and they are uncomfortable by it.

So now what you'll see him do is again say, look, I'm above this petty politics of race. I'm above talking about racial -- I'm going to come here and assure you that I have nothing to do with Jeremiah Wright. And that's the type of dangerous politics I think Barack has always engaged in.

HARRIS: Hey Marc, I think he's anxious to make this speech. Am I naive here? I think it's a speech that at some point he had to, in his own strategic mind, figure he would have to make at some point; a major speech about race, politics and unity in this country.

Do you believe that or am I naive?

HILL: No, I think he was backed into a corner. I think Barack's campaign hinges upon not talking about race and making white people feel very comfortable about that. Now he's been painted into a corner by Jeremiah Wright and by some -- by Geraldine Ferraro and other people.

So I don't think he's been anxious to make this speech. I think he has to make the speech to secure that base.

HARRIS: Melissa, what do you think? I think that perhaps the broad outline of this speech had been worked on and set months and months ago. I don't know that Barack Obama could be the first African-American viably running for president of the United States and not at some point figure he would have to make a speech about race. Just my thought.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Right, again, with all due respect to Professor Hill, he'd like to put us in a coalition with Ralph Nader or Dennis Kucinich so that we could lose again. African-Americans are interested in being in a winning political coalition, but one that takes very seriously the issues of race in America.

And so part of what Barack Obama is doing here, by actually addressing race is, again, doing what he claims makes his campaign different. That he is going to fundamentally address this central question in American politics, which is race.

HILL: But he hasn't done that. When we look coming out of the gate, when --

HARRIS-LACEWELL: He's doing it in about 15 minutes.

HARRIS: Right, right, right.

HILL: But what I'm saying is when we look -- HARRIS: Marc, Marc, can you hold your fire? Can we listen to the speech in a couple of minutes and then we can do this again?

HILL: Fair enough.

HARRIS: You are outstanding.

Melissa, good to see you, as well.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Good to see you.

HARRIS: And both of our guests are going to be with us, they're going to listen to the speech and we'll do this again on the back side of Barack Obama's address.

And, again, we are waiting to hear from Senator Barack Obama. Again, he is making what is billed as a speech on race, politics and unifying the country. We will carry his comments live from Philadelphia scheduled for just a couple of minutes from now, at 10:15 a.m. Eastern, but some of the guidance suggests that it might get started a little later that.

COLLINS: Of interest to us all, the economy and, of course, our money. At the Federal Reserve, the nation's top bankers are considering a massive rate cut today. The cut could be as much as a full percentage point. But will it be enough to ease the nation's credit crisis or even calm a jittery Wall Street?

Another part of the sour economy, the housing crunch. More dismal news earlier this morning. Fewer homes are being built in the United States and fewer homes are being planned. In fact, building permits have dropped to their lowest levels in 16 years. The latest painful reminder, few believe a turnaround is just around the corner.

And sacrificing your schools, the economic crunch could lead to an education crisis.

CNN's Chris Lawrence has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It may be a very tough summer for tens of thousands of students and teachers.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Save our teachers.

LAWRENCE: California is facing a multi-billion dollar budget shortage.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: That's all we have so therefore I cannot promise the schools full funding --

LAWRENCE: Some arts, athletics, seen summer school may get canceled -- 14,000 teachers received notice of possible layoffs and many could lose their jobs.

GINNY ZEPPA, RECEIVED LAYOFF NOTICE: Who is the sheriff who runs the jail?

LAWRENCE: English teacher Ginny Zeppa was devastated at her possible layoff.

ZEPPA: I feel like I'm good at what I do and I care about what I'm doing a lot.

LAWRENCE: Out of only ten English teachers at her school, seven got this notice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have about $8 billion less to spend because the economy is doing poorly rather than very well.

LAWRENCE: Economist Steven Levy says it's simple subtraction. Californians are selling fewer homes, so the state gets less capital gains tax. Fewer homes are being built and furnished, which reduces sales tax. The remaining homes are being reassessed at lower values, so there's less property tax. It all adds up to one harsh lesson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are out of tooth fairy solutions.

LAWRENCE: And like the federal budget, California was running a deficit even before this happened.

(on-camera): Say we don't cut these teachers, how much does each Californian have to pay in taxes to make up that difference?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably families would pay about $400 more --

LAWRENCE: Per family?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Per family --

LAWRENCE: And per person?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One hundred and twenty or so.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Zeppa says even families facing tough times put their kids first.

ZEPPA: And so it would be like a parent saying you're not important enough. Even though I'm strapped, I can't figure out a way to make it work for you. I think that's irresponsible parenting and it's irresponsible leadership.

LAWRENCE: And unless the economy improves, it's a problem parents, politicians and pupils will have to deal with in the future.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Keep watching CNN all this week. Our money team has a special report on your money. It's called "ISSUE NUMBER ONE: THE ECONOMY" -- will be coming your way noon Eastern, only on CNN. HARRIS: A landmark second amendment case -- Supreme Court justices are hearing arguments this hour. For the first time the high court is considering whether individuals, and not just the state, have the right to bear arms.

Spectators showed up before dawn for a chance to get into the court. The case involves a challenge to Washington's 32-year-old ban on handguns. Last year, an appeals court ruled the ban unconstitutional. The court's decision could have an impact elsewhere.

Chicago has a similar ban on the books. Our Kelli Arena is inside the court right now for arguments. Her live report, next hour.

COLLINS: High level response to Tibet's anti-Chinese riots. The Dalai Lama has urged Tibetans to show restraint. He says he will step down as leader of Tibet's government in exile if the violence spirals out of control.

His comments were in response to claims by China's Premier that the Dalai Lama's supporters instigated the violence. The recent protests over Chinese rule in Tibet erupted last week.

A spokesman for the Tibetan Exile Government says at least 80 have died. But Tibet's Chinese appointed leader says the death toll is much less.

HARRIS: Barack Obama talks about race in America. His speech and the controversy that prompted it, 10:15 Eastern, live in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: And we are waiting to hear from Senator Barack Obama. He's making what's billed as a speech on race, politics and unifying the country. We're going to be carrying those comments live from Philadelphia, Constitution Center, coming your way around -- well, it's already past so it could be any minute now. We, of course, are looking at that live shot and we will bring up the Senator just as soon as he gets to the podium.

HARRIS: Nice morning, so far, for the Dow. Take a look at this -- 222.

COLLINS: I'm going to clap now. It's just a golf clap.

HARRIS: OK. Nice, nice, nice.

HARRIS: Up above 12,000, that's a number that we've been watching, as Heidi mentions often.

COLLINS: I'm actually still looking for 15 --

HARRIS: That's too high.

COLLINS: -- But I realize we need patience. HARRIS: Take what we can get, right?

COLLINS: Right.

HARRIS: And the Nasdaq up 40 points. So, I've done the math. That's about -- for the Dow and the Nasdaq -- that's about 1.82 percent. Hey now. Following markets with Stephanie Elam all morning long, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Our severe weather expert and CNN meteorologist, Rob Marciano joining us now.

Above your head there, it says widespread floods. Maybe we should begin there, yes? Well not that -- the big banner thing.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That thing.

COLLINS: Yes.

HARRIS: The ticker.

MARCIANO: Yes, any time you want to see what's going on, actually this is what I do to check on the forecast. It helps me kind of focus.

HARRIS: Oh, man.

MARCIANO: Flood warnings.

COLLINS: It helps you focus, really? It's not working.

MARCIANO: No, it's not.

HARRIS: Cha-ching, she got you back. You knew it was coming.

MARCIANO: You know, it's the day after St. Patrick's day so --

COLLINS: Indeed it is.

MARCIANO: We're all a little bit foggy right now.

Extreme weather -- yes, we've got all the stuff that's going on up there and then some. The good news is that right now we're a little bit quiet, but as this system presses to the East, there's some energy in the atmosphere -- going to hit some of that Gulf moisture.

Large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes all a possibility, I think, beginning in the next few hours. So, we'll wait for things to kind of percolate, you know, the sun goes to work in Atlanta out ahead of the system and things do get -- start to get a little bit turbulent with that strong, well, now March, almost end of March sunshine and, boy, spring just a couple days away.

All right. Have this tornado watch -- has been allowed to expire across south Texas. Most of the action has moved towards the Dallas area northward. Most of this is just heavy rain in an area that's already seen a ton of heavy rain from Oklahoma City East and Northeast towards Springfield and heading up towards St. Louis, as well.

Got a live picture for you from our St. Louis affiliate, I believe. There it is, oh, you can barely see -- just the bottom of the arch there. KSDK, our affiliate out that way. Thanks very much.

Temps right now in the mid-50's. Obviously a little bit of fog, some low visibility and you are seeing some rain. Most of the heavier rain is down to your South.

Here's what's going on across parts of the state of Ohio and parts of Kentucky. We've got a really slow computer. Get the green up. Come one. Bring me some green. Day after St. Patrick's day. Let's go to this video -- Texas.

COLLINS: Focus.

MARCIANO: Look at that. Straight line winds in El Paso. That's all that was. Looked like a twister, didn't it? But it just -- just some winds out of El Paso. Hope things are well there. Still waiting on the green. Never got it.

COLLINS: The video is actually much better.

HARRIS: Yes.

MARCIANO: It's cool.

COLLINS: And thankful that no one was standing below that, obviously.

MARCIANO: Got to be light on your feet.

COLLINS: Got to be light on your feet.

HARRIS: Get the gremlins out of the system, doc, all right.

COLLINS: We're not going to come back to you anymore.

MARCIANO: I'll work on it.

COLLINS: Thank you, Rob.

HARRIS: Once again, we are waiting to hear from Senator Barack Obama. He is making what's billed as a major speech on race, politics and unifying the country. We will carry it when it begins. We expect momentarily from Philadelphia right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. But first, a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Quickly want to show you these pictures that we're getting in from our affiliate, WCNC, there in Charlotte, North Carolina. Looking at some of the Hazmat crews that have gone into an aircraft there at the Charlotte Douglass International Airport.

All we know is that there's parentally a hazardous materials situation at the airport. Now, as we have been looking at these live pictures, I can tell you what we've seen and that is that a couple of people have gone underneath the airplane here. And now, actually we're going to show you what we saw during the break anyway -- and they have taken off, you see that gentleman there carrying two black garbage bags.

Of course, we have no idea what's inside. They seem to be of interest obviously, although, Tony, as you mentioned, we don't see any masks on the Hazmat team's faces, or these actually look like straight fireman. I don't see a Hazmat crew written on their backs of their uniforms there.

But anyway, we will continue to watch the situation. Again, all we're being told is that there is some sort of hazardous materials situation at the Charlotte Douglass International Airport. We'll watch those pictures and bring you any more information that we get. Very interesting there.

HARRIS: And we're also standing by, a shot from Philadelphia right now -- for Barack Obama, scheduled any moment now to deliver what is billed as a major address on race, politics and unifying the country. When the senator from Illinois steps to that podium, we will bring his comments to you live right here in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Florida's Democrats decide. No primary do-over. Now the national party has a pretty tough decision to make.

Here's CNN's Joe Johns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's like a walk through a minefield. One wrong step could be devastating. Hanging in the balance, the will of the record 1.7 million Florida Democrats who voted in the state's primary. You know, the one that didn't count.

After exhausting various options including a mail-in primary, the Florida Democratic Party threw up the white flag and surrendered.

KAREN THURMAN, FLA. DEMOCRATIC CHAIRWOMAN: What we did was put it on the table and said, look, you know, here is the last party option that we have. Anything after this, I don't know what it is.

JOHNS: Indeed, several voters we spoke with in Tallahassee last week said they had little appetite for a re-do.

JORGE LOPEZ, FLORIDA VOTER: We have voted already. The energy and time and money has been invested. This is a great lesson for the national Democratic Party to learn.

JOHNS: The Clinton campaign sounded unhappy with the decision not to hold a do-over.

"Today's announcement brings us no closer to counting the votes cast in the Democratic primary."

The Obama campaign said it hoped the decision would lead to "a fair seating of the Florida delegates" at the convention.

Though what's fair for Obama might not be viewed that way by the Clinton campaign. Clinton won the January primary, though neither candidate really campaigned in the state.

(on-camera): It's the Democratic National Committee, of course, that took away Florida's delegates in the first place, punishing the state for moving up it's primary date and now Florida is telling the DNC to figure a way out of this mess.

(Voice over): For Floridians like writer Dianne Roberts, this whole drama is more like a recurring nightmare.

DIANNE ROBERTS, FLORIDA WRITER: Now we're looking at yet another set of disenfranchised Florida voters and, you know, that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. We don't want to go back there. 2000 might seem like a long time ago to some people but it isn't around here.

JOHNS (on camera): So now what? It's back to the original problem. Either the party accepts the results of the botched primary and Hillary Clinton picks up valuable delegates, or it sticks with the punishment and the nominee is chosen without any input from the 1.7 million Democrats who turned out in January.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Tony Harris and Heidi Collins.

COLLINS: Good Tuesday morning to you, everybody. 10:30 Eastern Time now. I'm Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: Hey, Heidi. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM.

We want to get back, as we give you a look at the hall in Philadelphia where moments from now Barack Obama will deliver what is being billed as a major speech on race, politics and unifying the country. We want to get back for a couple of moments to our conversation with our guests, Melissa Harris-Lacewell of Princeton University and Mark Lamont-Hill, Temple University.

What percentage, Mark, of this speech will, on a percentage basis, be about addressing the controversies that sprung up recently and particularly the comments from Pastor Wright? And what percentage of this speech will, in your view, be a passionate articulation from this man of his unity message?

HILL: I think about 25 percent of the message will be responding directly to Pastor Wright. There's no way he can avoid it but he can't linger there. He has to insist that he distances himself from the man and he's to reinforce the idea the message from the campaign stump to his book to every stop along the way has been divergent from what Pastor Wright said.

Once he does that he's going to launch into his more -- some ordinary routine of talking about hope and possibility and the future of American unity.

HARRIS: Hey, Melissa, does he have to, in any way, reshape the articulation of that hope, of that unity message? I've heard folks who are beginning to say to me, it's beginning to sound a little cliche. It's beginning to sound a little worn.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: I suspect that at the end of this speech, we are going to remember this as a key turning point in American history around race. And the fact is I think that although Barack Obama...

HARRIS: American history?

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Yes, although Barack Obama is clearly going to make some distance between himself and Jeremiah Wright, I think he's going to do it in the context of saying, look, I have always made a claim that I am able to work with and be in relationships with people with whom I disagree, whether those are white conservatives on the right, whether those are African-American progressive ministers.

The part of what makes Barack Obama's campaign interesting and unique and different is his ability to be in conversation with people with whom he may disagree and to gain from those relationships something valuable. And I am hoping that that is -- that's exactly where he'll go with this speech.

HARRIS: OK. Melissa and Mark, stand by. We're going to come back to you in just a couple of moments. Thanks.

COLLINS: And CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is standing by right there as you can tell in the room where the speech will be made there in Philadelphia.

So, Suzanne, looking at some of the notes you actually sent out to us, he is really going to be hitting on a variety of topics today. But according to his campaign, some of this could be, you know, a little risky.

MALVEAUX: Oh absolutely, I mean, discussing the whole issue of race can be controversial and risky. This is something that they felt that he needed to address. There is nothing that is being taken for granted here per chance. You can see behind me that they're tinkering at the podium here. They've got the microphones set up. Obviously they've got teleprompter. He usually doesn't use a teleprompter.

There's no less than eight American flags that are going to be behind him while he's delivering the speech. Everything is very, very deliberate here. What they are trying to convey is not only big picture, the personal picture with his background, but they're trying to move the discussion forward.

He is going to talk about his own personal story, the fact that he comes from a Kenyan father and a white mother, from Kansas, the fact that he was raised predominantly by his white grandparents in Hawaii, that he has a very unique life story and he wants to bring that forward.

Now he's also going to broaden it out a bit and talk about the fact that there is a history of slavery and inequality and he wants to address the expression of that, particularly in his own church so he is going to be defending Jeremiah Wright in terms of his role, his personal role with his family, with his religious community.

But at the same time, he is going to distance himself and repudiate the remarks that he made before, specifically, the idea, the notion that the U.S. government, the United States was responsible in some way for the September 11th attacks, that it was, according to his former pastor, the chickens coming home to roost. That type of thing.

So you're going to hear him really make this broad appeal to American voters saying that he has the kind of unique perspective, the unique background that it is innately in him. It's in his genetics that he is able or he feels capable of bringing people together because he is multicultural, multiracial, that he is uniquely suited for this job -- Heidi.

COLLINS: I don't mean to put you on the spot here but as we continue to look at this live shot coming in, you know, just directly behind you, I see a number of people going up to the podium. It looks like maybe there might be some sort of audio problem or something, because the speech obviously was supposed to begin almost 30 minutes ago now.

MALVEAUX: They are actually working on this audio problem, yes.

COLLINS: OK.

MALVEAUX: We've seen them back there for about 15 or 20 minutes or so.

COLLINS: Yes.

MALVEAUX: But I do also, Heidi, want to address one of the things that you had asked, and that really is kind of the politics of all of this. There are a lot of audiences that he is going to be addressing, obviously, the black community, African-Americans who have grown to get to know him and to support him.

Obviously, there is a lot of frustration among some in the black ministry who feel that he essentially distanced himself from his own pastor and they want to -- they want some sort of really expression of support here, of understanding to give white America a larger context, a greater understanding about what takes place in black churches, particularly black liberation theology.

So we don't know what the fallout is going to be when it comes to African-American support or that particular group but that is what they're looking for. There also is a great deal of concern, even his aides will say they don't know how this is going to play out...

COLLINS: Sure.

MALVEAUX: ...among white voters. He has really gotten a lot of support from white men, how does this play out? There are a lot of unanswered questions, and they believe that there may be, who knows, you know, tapes that are going to resurface, new tapes with Reverend Wright, who knows if there'll be tapes that will surface of Barack Obama in his own church? There are cameras everywhere in that church.

COLLINS: That's right.

MALVEAUX: And, you know, what are they going to see? They realize that there's a real potential in the general election if he makes it that far that those are the kinds of things that are going to be used that could resurface to criticize him and criticize his campaign. So there's so many things here that are unknown that you're going to hear him almost in a pre-emptive way address all of that when he talks about his own experience in the church, his own relationship with Dr. Wright. We'll see how it goes over with voters, though.

COLLINS: Yes, and that could take some time to assess, as well. All right, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux standing by for us at her post there in the room of Constitution Center in Philadelphia as we wait for them to sort out what appears to be and what Suzanne has told us some audio trouble. You see several people at the microphone there trying to make sure that once the senator gets to the podium people will actually be able to hear what he has to say.

HARRIS: Let's bring Melissa and Mark back in for maybe a couple more questions here as we get ready for this speech. And Suzanne did a great job of sort of framing some of the questions.

Mark, one of the audiences listening to this speech will be white folks across the country. And I'm wondering if they've heard some of the comments from Pastor Wright. I'm wondering if they're wondering how is it, in fact, that black pastors talk about race to their largely black congregants? Take a moment here and then, Melissa, you do the same.

HILL: Yes, I mean I think this is exactly the point. And this is an opportunity that I think Barack squandered when he initially responded in those series of interviews to Jeremiah Wright's comments. Instead of sort of explaining the context and nuance and texture that happens in black churches, Jeremiah Wright is not a hatemonger. Jeremiah Wright was not really asking God to damn America as much as he was trying to insist that -- that America remain morally consistent, that America own up and acknowledge the blood that's on its own hands.

That's what Jeremiah Wright was trying to do. I think Barack actually understands that. Unfortunately, as Melissa bravely pointed out, white America speaks with very different vocabulary. It doesn't have access to these black traditions. And so what Barack has to do is find a way to articulate that in a responsible and progressive fashion.

I'm not so sure he's going to do it because America doesn't -- isn't necessarily prepared for that type of conversation. It's a fitting irony that a conversation on race is 45 minutes late partly because of audio because people won't be able to hear it. You know, so...

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

HILL: ...that's the tension here.

HARRIS: Hey, Melissa, did you want to comment on that before I ask you another question?

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well, no. I certainly agree with Mark that we do have to do is focus on sort of how can we build a vocabulary. I mean I'm here in New Orleans this week. I'm down here with a group of students that I've brought, and I am once again struck in this city by just how much of a racial gap there is between how African-Americans experience their government, how they think about sort of their own citizenship, and how white Americans do.

And Katrina was such a clear example of this huge racial gap and we have missed an opportunity, not so much Barack Obama, but we as a country, as a media, as political pundits, we missed the opportunity to do the kind of critical political work discussing race over the past three years.

HARRIS: Why -- OK, all right, so can we, at least, no one else is listening at this moment, can we, at least, the three of us take the varnish off of this for just a moment and can you explain to us, Mark and Melissa -- whoever wants to go first, go first -- why we have such a difficult time talking about race in this country, blacks, whites, if you want to toss Hispanics into the conversation, as well, why do we have such a difficult time honestly having a conversation about race?

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well, we have a very fraught racial history. We have enslavement, Jim Crow, lynch mob rule, continuing racial inequality in this country and then on top of all of that, we don't live near each other. We don't go to school together.

HARRIS: Church?

HARRIS-LACEWELL: African-Americans still -- we rarely ever worship together and so we don't have shared experiences to build the shared vocabulary. When we do try to get together, it is often in a situation where African-Americans have to play the junior partner, so we come in to a joint coalition but we come in on the terms that are already set by more powerful white Americans, so the question is, can we be in a coalition where we are actually equal partners rather than where black and brown people have to take on a junior partner role?

HARRIS: Wow. Mark?

HILL: I agree with everything Melissa has said and I think that part of the problem we're talking about racism, a necessary adjunct to a conversation about race is a conversation about racism and white supremacy and power, and that inevitably evokes feelings of guilt and anger among many white Americans and so part of the issue is when we talk about racism, people say, well, that's not me. I'm not individually prejudiced.

All these types of conversations have to be expanded and more complicated so that people understand that even if they have good intentions they still benefit from a system that privileges whiteness.

That's something that many white Americans aren't willing to have and that's why someone like Jeremiah Wright is so profound and so important.

HARRIS: Yes. Boy, your comments really speak to the risk involved in this speech that Barack Obama is about to make. Let me have you hold your thought there, Mark, Melissa, stand by, and we'll come back to you in just a couple of minutes. Thanks.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Sure.

COLLINS: Want to take a moment to bring in CNN's Candy Crowley. She's been covering this whole story and the Obama campaign for quite some time now and, Candy, as we continue to talk a little bit more about the possible risks associated with a speech like this, tell me what you're hearing.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I'm hearing, first of all, that many around Obama, certainly those supporting him think that this may be the most important, in fact, is the most important speech of his candidacy. That it took this long to me is interesting.

As you know, he has run this sort of transcendent campaign saying, you know, I want to be above partisanship, I want to be above gender, I want to be above racial divides. This is about what we can do as a country and it's really what has -- you know, brought so many in particular young people to his candidacy is that whole message.

And now, of course, the subject of race threatens to kind of undo all of that, so this is a time that he needs to put the brakes on what may be a tumbling down or at least a lowering of expectations about who he is, about who he -- what he really believes so I think it's really hard to overestimate how incredibly important this speech is.

COLLINS: Yes, and obviously the $64,000 question, how is it going to play? How is it going to play to voters? How is it going to play to peers? How is it going to play to the other people who are trying to become president, as well?

CROWLEY: Well, we will know voterwise fairly soon, at least by April 22nd. I mean, look at the states that are ahead in the primaries. Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Indiana, West Virginia, these are states where the white vote is particularly important, where in Pennsylvania coming up on the 22nd, the first one, working class white voters, particularly males.

So this speech while directed in so many places and he has to literally sort of breach the racial divide here, kind of not do anything that seems like he's distancing himself from what is really a part of the African-American community, African-American culture and at the same time try to hang on to a number of white voters, obviously.

Look at Iowa, look at all of these states that he's won in these primaries, Wyoming. These are white votes. So this is a huge task. I mean, it's Herculean and as your guests have said, it is over such a history of a racial divide here, that this is, I think, going to be sort of an amazing attempt within the arena of politics. I mean, it is hard to get much more electric than all of those things...

COLLINS: Sure.

CROWLEY: ...put together in a single speech.

COLLINS: Yes, no question about it. I wonder, just your best guess here, do you think that there will be some sort of response or other speeches that are done because as we have mentioned, you know, this isn't going to be just one speech and then race relations are magically perfectly fine. Do you think we're going to hear something from other candidates on the heels of this speech today?

CROWLEY: Absolutely. I mean if only because we'll be asking, but, yes, I think, I mean, it's too important an issue. Let's face it, particularly among the Democratic Party with Hillary Clinton, the African-American community is core to the Democratic vote. She obviously has to address this in some way and certainly will be asked about it.

COLLINS: All right, very good. We will be watching all of it. I'm hearing that we're getting a little bit closer, Candy, so appreciate your insights, as usual.

Candy Crowley this morning.

HARRIS: Let's get back to Mark and Melissa for just a couple more questions as we await the start of the speech.

Melissa, this -- boy, there are a couple of things that occur to me. You know, this is a moment in time for Barack Obama when he is being truly tested, and I've always felt that this moment had to come for him, that in order for him to attain the high office that he seeks, that this primary process plays perfectly. He had to win all of the battles that were placed in front of him.

Do you agree with that in that this being a pivotal moment and that in some way, shape or form, he has to relish this, he has to relish the challenge that is set out in front of him and, in some way, shape or form be, anxious about this opportunity?

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well, I certainly agree that we were not going to elect the first African-American president of the United States and not have a sustained conversation about race. That was not going to happen. I also absolutely agree that Barack Obama is a competitive guy who probably relishes...

HARRIS: OK.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: ...all, you know, all challenges and opportunities. You know, that said going right to this heart of what is about race, though, the fact that, for example, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, both of whom have electoral coalitions that are almost entirely white, the fact that they don't have to address race, that no one calls them to the stage and says, you know, John McCain, please explain to me why your electoral coalition, the group of people supporting you is almost entirely white? What does that mean given that we live in an interracial, multiracial...

HARRIS: Melissa, it is...

HARRIS-LACEWELL: ...multi-linguistic country?

HARRIS: Yes. Absolutely. So Melissa, it is part of his challenge. It is part of the burden that he must carry. It is part of the high hurdle that he must leap over if he is to win this office and I think -- no one is asking me -- but, Mark, that's exactly as it should be. He should face this challenge. He should step up and passionately articulate. He can't appear defensive today. Can he?

HILL: No, he absolutely can't. This is a challenge that he must face. As an African-American candidate, he needs to come to terms with what that means in...

HARRIS: Absolutely.

HILL: ...in light of all these issues. However, as Melissa points out, this is something that white folks should have to take seriously, as well. Geraldine Ferraro's comment that, you know, Barack is only where he is because he is black would be much more interesting than we thought where the other 43 presidents in history would have been if they were not white.

So we have to play it on both sides. We cannot just talk about blackness, we need to out whiteness. And that's something that Barack Obama can't say today and win an election. But that's something that I'm willing to say right here, is that, you know, we have to place these other candidates under the same level of scrutiny that we're about to place Barack Obama.

HARRIS: Melissa, I'm a bit surprised that, in the face of all of this, the coalition that he has built through Utah and Wyoming and Iowa, I'm a bit surprised that that coalition, the folks who helped bring that vote together for him haven't stood up in more vocal support of this man who they believe, certainly through their votes, is the person who can unify this party. Why do you think that hasn't happened?

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well, I mean, it has happened for some folks, but I think there's a kind of timidity around race. We are really scared of it. White Americans are very, very worried about being called racists and black Americans are very, very worried about being kicked out of America for being called not patriots and say that we don't love our country. So, you know, when black Americans want to bring a critique about the country, when white Americans want to talk about race, there is so much fear and so much stress, and so part of it is we're actually burdening Barack Obama with some burdens that we need to be carrying, right? We as citizens should be carrying the question of how do we put together a multiracial coalition? How do we live in a country together?

HARRIS: Isn't that part of what we ask a leader -- isn't that part of what we ask...

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Absolutely.

HARRIS: You're making my point -- of what we ask a leader to do.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Yes. No, we do, but I just want to suggest that this notion of being sort of burdened by having to explain blackness, by having to speak across this divide, many African- Americans understand this. Hey, kids who are like sixth graders in interracial schools understand just how difficult it is to have to explain to their white colleagues, sort of, you know, how it is that they do their hair and...

HARRIS: Yes.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: ...you know, how their church is different on Sunday. I mean these are very, very real burdens carried by African- Americans throughout this country.

HARRIS: Mark, doesn't he have a bit of a buffer here if we look practically at the politics of the situation. Everyone is crunching these numbers of the delegates, the -- pledge delegates and superdelegates, and there doesn't appear to be a way that Hillary Clinton can beat him in the delegate count.

Is there a way to see this moment in terms of the broader picture of -- maybe that's how it's being defined.

HILL: Yes.

HARRIS: Maybe this does cut to the question of electability.

HILL: And that might be an issue. Remember, Barack is not running for the nomination. He's running for the presidency and so.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

HILL: He will beat Hillary Clinton most likely, superdelegates notwithstanding but the question becomes, how does his stance today play out in the general elections? The Republicans will ring this bell from -- if he says something problematic to them, the Republicans are going to ring that bell until November. So this is something he needs to think about in a more broad context. .

He doesn't have as much as a buffer as we think. As reckless as Hillary Clinton has been in the general election, destroying the Democratic Party with the infighting, you know, she still has some level of restraint. John McCain will have no restraint. The special interest groups, the Republicans, the media, they will have no restraint if Barack Obama makes another misstep.

HARRIS: What do you think of that, Melissa? I sort of see this as, you know, maybe it does cut to electability in some respect in the general electric. I just don't see from the numbers that we're crunching how she wins the delegate race.

HARRIS-LACEWELL: Yes. Well, Hillary Clinton can't win the delegate race. That's why she has nothing to lose by going hard negative. I mean this is a simple strategy. All she has to do is sit there and wait for something really bad to happen so that the superdelegates can then say, well, we're now supporting Hillary Clinton over and above the interest of our voters and we're doing so because we assume that the voters would have chosen differently had they known this information x, y, z.

It's a very simple strategy and it's a very painful one to watch if you're a Democratic supporter because you know that it will have long-term implications for the Democratic Party.

You know, there is no question that electability is important here but we've got to get to the general election and Democrats have to stop running against one another in a brutal ugly, bloody campaign if we could run against John McCain.

HARRIS: Melissa, Mark -- Melissa, Mark, thank you for your comments.

Barack Obama in Philadelphia:

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank.

Let me begin by thanking Harris Wofford for his contributions to this country in so many different ways. He exemplifies what we mean by the word "citizen." And so we are very grateful to him for all the work he has done, and I'm thankful for the gracious and thoughtful introduction.

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy.

Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across the ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States.

What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part -- through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience, and always at great risk -- to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this presidential campaign -- to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.

I chose to run for president at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction: toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

And this belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own story. I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas.

I've gone to some of the best schools in America and I've lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners, an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.

I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins of every race and every hue scattered across three continents. And for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible. It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional of candidates. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts -- that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in this campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every single exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it's only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wild- and wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.

On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation and that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy, and in some cases, pain.

For some, nagging questions remain: Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in the church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely, just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagree.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country, a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems -- two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change, problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough.

Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television sets and YouTube, if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor.

He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine, and who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who over 30 years has led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth -- by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, "Dreams From My Father," I described the experience of my first service at Trinity, and it goes as follows: "People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters.

"And in that single note -- hope -- I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones."

"Those stories of survival and freedom and hope became our story, my story. The blood that spilled was our blood; the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world.

"Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black. In chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a meaning to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about -- memories that all people might study and cherish and with which we could start to rebuild." That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety -- the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger.

Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing and clapping and screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear.

The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and, yes, the bitterness and biases that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding and baptized my children.

Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.

He contains within him the contradictions -- the good and the bad -- of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are part of America, this country that I love.

Now, some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not.

And I suppose the politically safe thing to do would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro in the aftermath of her recent statements as harboring some deep-seated bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America: to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through, a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding...

(APPLAUSE)

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past."

We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country.

But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist between the African-American community and the larger American community today can be traced directly to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools. We still haven't fixed them, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education.

(APPLAUSE)

And the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination, where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire department meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations.

That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between blacks and whites and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persist in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family contributed to the erosion of black families, a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened.

And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods -- parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up, building code enforcement -- all help create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continues to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African- Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late '50s and early '60s, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it -- those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations -- those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future.

Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their world view in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.

That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co- workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians to gin up votes along racial lines or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews.

That anger is not always productive. Indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems. It keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our condition, it prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

But the anger is real, it is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race.

Their experience is the immigrant experience. As far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything, they built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and they feel their dreams slipping away. And in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.

So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town, when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed, when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudice, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.

Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends.

Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

(APPLAUSE)

And just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze: a corporate culture rife with inside dealing and questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.

And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns, this, too, widens the racial divide and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. And contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle or with a single candidate, particularly...

(APPLAUSE)

... particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

(LAUGHTER)

But I have asserted a firm conviction, a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people, that, working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that, in fact, we have no choice -- we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life.

But it also means binding our particular grievances, for better health care and better schools and better jobs, to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means also taking full responsibility for own lives -- by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe...

(APPLAUSE)

They must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American -- and, yes, conservative -- notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress had been made; as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black...

(APPLAUSE)

... Latino, Asian, rich, poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

(APPLAUSE)

What we know -- what we have seen -- is that America can change.

(APPLAUSE)

America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope -- the audacity to hope -- for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

Now, in the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- that these things are real and must be addressed.

Not just with words, but with deeds -- by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.

It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams, that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

(APPLAUSE)

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more and nothing less than what all the world's great religions demand: that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle, as we did in the OJ trial; or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina; or as fodder for the nightly news.

We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.

We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction, and then another one, and then another one. And nothing will change.

(APPLAUSE)

That is one option.

Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time."

This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native-American children.

(APPLAUSE)

This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem.

(APPLAUSE)

The children of America are not those kids; they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st-century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the emergency room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care, who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life.

This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time...

(APPLAUSE)

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that should've never been authorized and should've never been waged.

(APPLAUSE)

And we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits that they have earned.

(APPLAUSE)

I would not be running for president if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.

And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation -- the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

(APPLAUSE)

There's one story in particular that I'd like to leave you with today, a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, 23-year-old woman, a white woman named Ashley Baia, who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina.

She'd been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was 9 years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat. That's the mind of a 9 year old.

She did this for a year until her mom got better. And so Ashley told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she had joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now, Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign.

They all have different stories and different reasons. Many bring up a specific issue.

And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there.

And he doesn't bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama.

He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

(APPLAUSE)

"I'm here because of Ashley."

Now, by itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger.

And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the 221 years since a band of patriots signed that document right here in Philadelphia, that is where perfection begins.

Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

COLLINS: You've been watching Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama talking about race and unity in this country. Here to break down his speech CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Candy Crowley coming to us from Washington, Suzanne Malveaux in Philadelphia, and CNN contributor Roland Martin from Chicago.

Wolf, you know what, I want to start with you. What did you think the speech was about?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I thought it was a preemptive strike designed to rebut all the criticism, not only he's faced over the past few weeks as a result of these comments from the Reverend Jeremiah Wright coming to light, Heidi, but going down the road in terms of his continuing struggle to get the Democratic presidential nomination, the struggle against Hillary Clinton.

And then if he does get the Democratic presidential nomination, a preemptive strike against what he could expect down the road in his battle against John McCain in the general election in the fall.

And he took virtually every one of the potential criticisms out there, and he directly addressed them in a way that try -- I think he tried to speak from his heart and to say, you know what, I strongly condemn, I strongly repudiate the remarks that have been -- that have come to light of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

On the other hand, let me explain the 20-year relationship I have with this man and why I simply can't abandon him at this time, despite some of the outrageous things that he said. And I think he went through by point by point and he delivered an excellent speech in terms of that regard.

It's not going to end the criticism by any means. People are now going to dissect word by word, sentence by sentence this speech, and his critics, whether critics on the Democratic side or critics down the road, Republicans and conservatives and others, they'll find plenty to disagree with in the speech, but I think he addressed it head on,and it's an excellent start in trying to move on beyond the issue.

COLLINS: Well, Wolf, were you surprised by how much time he did dedicate to the comments made by Reverend Wright?

BLITZER: No, I wasn't surprised, because in conversations I've had over the past few days, even his strongest supporters, people who have been with him from day one, people who have raised tons and tons of money for him have been deeply involved in virtually every aspect of his campaign, they've come to the conclusion he needed to do this, because his presidential ambition was on the line if he didn't do this, if he didn't come out directly and forcefully and respond to the criticism.

His campaign against Hillary Clinton, forget about John McCain down the road, could have collapsed in the aftermath of an issue like this. It's that explosive. He realized it, and as a result, they worked really hard to prepare this speech, and he went out and delivered it, as we just saw. It's going to be a really important moment in his presidential campaign.

COLLINS: All right, CNN's Wolf Blitzer for us there from Washington. "THE SITUATION ROOM," obviously, coming up a little bit later on today.

Thank you, Wolf.

HARRIS: Wow. What comments from Wolf. Let's bring in Candy Crowley from Washington, D.C. Candy, boy, a lot to chew on there.

Give me your thoughts on the speech, tone, temperament and then to the substance.

CROWLEY: Tone and temperament, I think, really reflective of Barack Obama the man. He is cool, he is calm. This is what everybody around him says. You know, when we're running around saying what about this, what about this, he is the cool, calm guy in the room.

I was, and you alluded to this, struck by the sweeping nature of this speech. It was history. It was present. It was future as he sees it. It took the problems with Pastor Wright and put them in a context, and then said, understand where he's coming from, understand how he grew up, understand my relationship with him. I'm the next generation. I believe we can evolve. And then he sort of made it like the micro picture, and then the macro picture.

HARRIS: I think you're absolutely right about that, sorry.

CROWLEY: Yes, I mean, and said, listen, also, let's understand where whites are coming from here. I mean, he took kind of his entire campaign and wrapped this around it, around the issue of the day, which, of course, is Pastor Wright.

HARRIS: Yes.

CROWLEY: But he took the whole thing and said, here's what my whole campaign is about. I mean, he took an incident that had huge potential to derail him and put it in a much larger picture, and said, we can choose here. We can go down this road or we can take the high road, and that's what his campaign has been about. In fact, there were large chunks taken directly from his campaign speech.

So this was history. This was politics. This was a lot of different things that he put into that speech, and spoke with great detail, I think, about the differing and what have been seen as conflicting needs of a country, and said, wait a minute, these are all the same needs. Let's move on.

HARRIS: Boy, I'm biting my pen because I just want to ask you another question. All right, here we go: Did he in your mind effectively squash the reverend wright controversy? And the follow-up to that, is did he paint those who will continue to look for these kinds of comments from Reverend Wright and run them as he mentioned on a loop, did he effectively paint them as being perhaps race baiters?

CROWLEY: I think he painted them as being beside the point. I think that's what he was going for, so that when we see -- and there are going to be more clips. You know that. I know that. And so he tried to kind of draw the sting, and say, listen, you know, you're going to hear this, so I think this was not at those who are going to be against him, who are going to look at those clips and go, holy cow. It wasn't for those people, it was for the people kind of looking at that and saying, what's this about?

I think he tried to get them to look at what may come out in the future and say, we've been there, we've done that, I've heard him. Let's move on. This isn't what's important. I think he tried to put it in the much broader context. What do you want out of this race? What do you want out of your president? You want to talk about Jeremiah Wright, have at it. Otherwise, let's move forward.

HARRIS: Terrific, terrific, terrific, terrific. Wow. All right, Candy, stay close. We'll come back to you for more thoughts in a couple of minutes. Thank you.

COLLINS: CNN contributor and radio talk show host Roland Martin is joining us from Chicago this morning.

Hey, Roland, let me ask you how you think this whole speech played. Will people see politics here? Will they see sincerity of heart?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Heidi, in the history of the black church, let me just say, I need to unpack this thing so -- and make it plain. We all thought coming in that this was going to be a speech, an apology, some would say a sermon to address the issue of Reverend Wright. In fact, I think listen -- after listening to this speech the Reverend Wright controversy is now secondary.

What Obama did was challenge America at its core. All throughout the campaign I talked about how he has been channeling Lincoln's "A House Divided" speech which he gave in Springfield, Illinois, and he's been channeling Dr. Martin Luther King's "Why We Can't Wait" book, "Letters From a Birmingham Jail," a black pastor writing to white pastors in Birmingham.

In this speech what he said is, America, the issue is not just reverend Jeremiah Wright, it's also those of you who live in rural America, in inner city America, those of you who are black, white, Hispanic, Asian. Those of you who are conservative talk show hosts and liberal talk show hosts.

The thing that we've always been afraid of in America is taking that mirror and putting it in front of our own face. It's very easy for us to condemn a Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but it's more difficult for us to look at ourselves and say, wait a minute, what is inside me? And so for him to say, here are the words my own grandmother used and the thoughts that she had, so he took that, and he took it to the whole issue of not just social injustice, but schools and health care.

The reality is, a more perfect union comes out of the tradition of Lincoln. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. has a book of that title, "A More Perfect Union." And so I would hope that when we examine this speech we see that it is beyond just comments by Reverend Jeremiah Wright; it really speaks to America. W.E.B. Dubois said the problem in the 20th century for America is a race problem. What Obama just said is we need to make sure the problem of the 21st century is not a race problem, and that's the road we should be on.

COLLINS: Roland, I want to sure that we go ahead and play some of this sound, particularly in reference to Reverend Wright, and get your comment. Let's go ahead and listen for just a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in the church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely. Just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: He didn't disagree strong enough to go to a different church, though. He stayed for many, many years. How do you think...

MARTIN: But, frankly, I think that is irrelevant because I don't -- look, I was born and raised Catholic. The first 25 years of my life, I was Catholic. To found, my Catholic Church took place in my grandparents' living room. And there are a number of people out there who are still Catholic today even though the church dropped the ball when it came to whole issue of sex offenders.

COLLINS: And there are a number of people who are not.

MARTIN: And some who left. But fine, that's fine, but the reality is a person's faith is a personal decision. But what he also said in this speech, Heidi, he also broke down the good the church has done and what they have been able to accomplish. And so, I think when we measure a man, when we measure a woman, we take in the words of Anderson Cooper's show, a 360-degree view of a person as opposed to a 90 degree view of a person.

And so if there's anybody out there who says, well, why didn't you leave Trinity Church of Christ? Well, I would say the same thing to anybody who goes to Pat Robertson's church, Jerry Falwell's church, John Hagen's (ph) church, to Rod Paulsey's (ph) church, the any number of other pastors who have made critical comments that we have condemned.

So, I don't necessarily believe that anyone should say well, you should have left the church. And I think what he did in this speech was speak to the good of Trinity, the bad of Trinity, the good of America, the bad of America and say, we all, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, male, female gained strength, Christian, non-Christian, should be focused on a more perfect union for the United States of America.

COLLINS: All right, Roland Martin, thank you.

HARRIS: Gloria Borger is our senior political analyst and she joins us. Gloria, where are you? Are you in Washington?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I am in Washington.

HARRIS: Gloria, good to talk to you. The same question I teed it up with Candy: tone, temperament and substance of this speech. It's all yours. What do you think?

BORGER: Well, I think Barack Obama tried to tell the American people just who he is, and where he is come from and what he is a product of, and it seems to me in listening to this speech that he told us that he has spent his entire life trying to overcome this kind of racial anger and resentment even from his own grandmother, someone he points out who loves ...

HARRIS: Yes.

BORGER: ...him more than anything in the world. He personalized his relationship with Reverend Wright. He didn't shy away from saying, look, I disagree with him, but let me tell you what I also learned from him.

You know, this is a country that's kind of unsettled in its opinion about Barack Obama. He's new on the scene. They don't know much about him and I think what he's saying is, look, we have to get past this kind of racial resentment and anger and that's what I've been spending my life trying to do because I believe that you as Americans and the America that I know and that I've campaigned and I've seen is actually better than that.

HARRIS: Yes.

BORGER: So, you know, I think he hit every question really head on, and then tried to move beyond it and tried to really give the rationale, one of the major reasons he is actually running for the presidency, and I think he did it quite well.

HARRIS: Yes, well, how much do you believe was on the line? How much pressure ...

BORGER: A lot.

HARRIS: ...was he under to make this speech, and to do it well, perform well with this speech?

BORGER: Well, he was under a great deal of pressure. Not only from people who support him in the white community, but also people in the African-American community, some of whom believe he didn't treat Reverend Wright very well.

So, I think this is a man who has always had those cross-racial pressures, starting from when he was born, of course, and this is someone under a great deal of pressure to perform, but I think what we saw today was somebody who really hit that mark and ...

HARRIS: Yes.

BORGER: ...again, did not shy away from answering all the questions we've been asking. Yes, I heard the ... HARRIS: Did -- yes.

BORGER: ...Reverend Wright preach that and, yes, I disagreed with it.

HARRIS: Hey Gloria, did you believe he was going to be able to get through this campaign without delivering something like this ...

BORGER: No.

HARRIS: ...in the order of a speech on race, come on?

BORGER: No, no, I did not. I did not. And I think, in fact ...

HARRIS: So, do you think he saw it as an opportunity today? All right, the Reverend Wright controversy is out there. This is the moment. I have the shell of a speech on race that's been prepared for months. Here's the moment, let me deliver it now.

BORGER: I think this is something he's been thinking about and writing about for a very long time. And politically, I believe that he had to do it now because he has to sort of move beyond this or continue the race discussion, but he had to answer these questions directly, and from his heart and I think he did that. Sure, he had to have a race speech, yes.

HARRIS: OK.

BORGER: You cannot be an African-American candidate for the presidency and not talk about race.

HARRIS: And is there an opportunity, you believe, through this speech to have the broader discussion about race in this country, take points A through Z that he makes about ...

BORGER: Well ...

HARRIS: ...race in this country, do you think that there is an opportunity now? He is saying, let's not dismiss it, let's take ...

BORGER: Right.

HARRIS: ...the moment. Let's do this and let's do it now.

BORGER: Yes, but let's not have the discussion throwing charges at each other as he ...

HARRIS: Yes.

BORGER: ...pointed out with Gerry Ferraro. You know, Barack Obama did not say, gee, Gerry Ferraro is a racist.

HARRIS: Yes.

BORGER: He didn't go there.

HARRIS: Good point.

BORGER: He said, you know, don't criticize her for what she thinks either. You know, we have to have this discussion and I think he thinks it's, you know, what do they call it a teachable moment here?

HARRIS: Teachable moment, yes.

BORGER: Yes.

HARRIS: Gloria, great to talk to you. Stand by, if you would, please. Thanks.

COLLINS: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux was actually inside the room where Senator Barack Obama gave this speech, Constitution Center there in Philadelphia.

So Suzanne, before the speech, we were asking all of these questions about why now and that certainly is part of the discussion to be had. Any answers now that we have actually heard the speech?

MALVEAUX: Well, we certainly know that this is something the campaign, that they felt that he had to address. They also feel too, Heidi, that this is something that they're going to continue to have to address, this issue of race, but they wanted to put it in a broader context here.

It was a very, very ambitious speech. They tried to accomplish a lot. Obviously, a pre-emptive strike to try to answer some of the questions, perhaps even tapes that will surface when it comes to Reverend Wright to address the controversy there. It was interesting because his delivery in covering him and seeing him up close and personal, he's emotional, he's passionate when he's on stage in front of big crowds here. What we saw was him with a teleprompter on.

From time to time, it looked like he was reading his notes, that there were some problems there that perhaps some of those very powerful words didn't actually kind of jump out as you read them on the page in the delivery here because of the very formal and setting here, the very deliberate setting here.

But what really changed in this room, I think, was when he turned the corner and he became personal, specifically when he talked about his own family background, his own experience and the reason why it is that he felt he cannot reject Reverend Wright as his pastor just as he cannot reject his own white grandmother who said some things that he felt were offensive.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are part of me, and they are part of America, this country that I love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And, Heidi, you could really feel the sense in the room that people responded to that, that they were drawn to that. There were a couple of times when there was applause, interestingly enough, when he talked about providing jobs for folks and also a very big applause when he talked about Reverend Wright's profound mistake that this was that society was stagnant, that there wasn't this possibility of change, that, yes, it was OK to criticize the U.S. government, race relations, white Americans.

But that there was this sense that you couldn't move beyond that and that really is his message of this campaign and also, Heidi, we know that he was talking to many different audiences, obviously, white voters, very much a sense of concern inside of the campaign that he needed to answer these questions, and also black voters, as well.

And I wanted to clarify a point that I made earlier, a group of black ministers who had a conference call yesterday were on with Barack Obama's campaign trying to figure out a way to make this a moment of clarity and education. There have been some other ministers outside of that call who have been angry with Barack Obama, addressing their anger towards him.

But that meeting really about how do we use this as a point to talk about the broader context of race, Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, and you know, asking all of those questions, I am certain it will come up when he makes that comparison between his own grandmother and his pastor that, you know, you can't choose your own grandmother. You can choose your pastor.

MALVEAUX: Well, yes, and that was actually a line that he was using in the last 48 hours that was kind of falling flat for a lot of people, the fact that, well, this comparison like he was an uncle or something and people thought, well, you know, this is somebody who you've chosen as your spiritual leader, somebody who has been an integral part of your faith and your life that clearly, this is somebody who you know and you know well, so, therefore, you're familiar with the kinds of statements, including the incendiary statements that were made.

A lot of people have felt that it was hard to believe his explanation within the last couple of days. He really fleshed that out a little bit, and he also kind of in a preemptive way, addressed the notion, the idea, that there may be other comments, there may be other tapes that obviously people are going to use. He's looking forward to the general election, that these kinds of things are perhaps going to come back and that he's got to be prepared to answer to those things say, yes, I did disagree. Yes, I was sitting there, but this is what I believe.

COLLINS: All right, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux for us inside Constitution Center there in Philadelphia. Thank you so much, Suzanne.

HARRIS: Well, let's get you back to Wolf Blitzer, the host of "THE SITUATION ROOM." Wolf, boy, I was curious and struck by something you said in terms of talking to the people who support Barack Obama, how unnerved they were by some of the comments from Pastor Wright.

And I'm sort of curious, was there a sense that you received out of those conversations that this was a moment where white folks, for lack of a clear understanding of who you talk to, were surprised to hear that this kind of discourse went on in the black church and then wondered how could Barack Obama then be linked so closely to a man who could even say these things?

BLITZER: Precisely, Tony. These were white supporters of Barack Obama, very ardent supporters of his who had heard all the murmurings about the Reverend Wright and what was going on, what he was saying.

But when you see those little clips and you see him screaming in the pulpit as he has been making those comments about the United States, that the U.S. could blame itself for 9/11, its policies leading up to 9/11 or for the racism of whites in America that is endemic and it was just a shock that knowing that there probably would be a whole lot more of these tapes coming out and as a result, they really counseled the presidential candidate.

HARRIS: Yes.

BLITZER: You have to address this. You have to go out and deal with it. You have to explain what you heard in the church, what you didn't hear and you have to give it some context. Otherwise, your campaign could be in such deep trouble.

HARRIS: Wow.

BLITZER: It could derail what everything you have done for the past year plus in trying to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. It got to that point and as a result, they figure they better go out and do this.

HARRIS: OK -- oh, shoot, I had another question, but we're up against the -- yes, go ahead, go ahead, Wolf.

BLITZER: I just want to point out, he did address that directly and I underlined it in the advance text that they released ...

HARRIS: OK.

BLITZER: ...that he pretty much stuck to that advanced text, Tony, as you know. He said at one point, "not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains with him the contradictions, the good and the bad of the community that he has served diligently for so many years."

But he did seem to sort of contradict himself at one point when he said, "I condemn -- I've already condemned in unequivocal terms the statements of Reverend Wright that caused such controversy," and then he went on to say, "These comments of the Reverend Wright expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country, a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America, a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted ..."

HARRIS: Yes.

BLITZER: ..."primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel ..."

HARRIS: Yes.

BLITZER: ..."instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam." Those were strong powerful words from him.

HARRIS: And Wolf, let me just jump in. You know this business as well as anyone. Got to get to a quick break up against the Q-tone (ph) window. We will be back with more of this analysis in just a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Welcome back, everybody, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris.

Just moments ago, you heard a major address, what was billed by his campaign as a "major address on race, politics and unity in this country." We're talking about the Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

We want to get to our guests. Of course, we've got Gloria Borger, Candy Crowley. There, you see Roland Martin and Wolf Blitzer, host of "THE SITUATION ROOM" and, Wolf, let me start with you, if I could.

Boy, you know, you were talking about some of the moments in the speech, and I'm wondering if at the end of the day, there is still a question as to whether or not Barack Obama, knowing this man as he has for 20 years and by his own admission being in the church when Reverend Wright has expressed political views with which he didn't agree, if he had a responsibility given his aspirations to leave that church?

BLITZER: You know, he addressed that, Tony, and he said, you know, I rejected the very, very extreme kind of comments that I heard from the pulpit, but at the same time, he sort of balanced that off, and he said, you know, the good that came to me, the good that came to other members of that congregation as a result of the positive things that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright did, he concluded in the end outweighed the bad, and just as he couldn't disown his white grandmother ...

HARRIS: Yes.

BLITZER: ...for some racist comments she might have made, he couldn't disown his pastor given the history of the 20-year history. He said it was almost like a member of his family and as a result, he stayed there.

HARRIS: OK, so how effectively did he, in your opinion, squash this controversy with Reverend Wright?

BLITZER: He didn't completely end it, but I think he made a long, long stride toward ending it and preemptively striking out against the critics who are going to come in. There'll be more criticism of him for some of the details and problems of African- Americans in the country, the education system, the welfare system ...

HARRIS: Yes.

BLITZER: ...the jobs, the -- all the other aspects, there will be criticism, but I think he made an important step forward. He had to do it, and he did it well.

HARRIS: Wolf, appreciate it. If you would stand by, we'd appreciate that, as well. Thank you.

COLLINS: All right, quickly, we are just a few minutes away from the top of the hour here on CNN and I know many of you are standing by for our special that we are going to be having all week long here called "ISSUE #1," talking at great length about different elements of the economy and how to fix them. That show will be coming up shortly.

Just want to take a moment here to talk a little bit longer about some of the things that were said by Senator Barack Obama in what many are calling a very, very important speech today on race relations and unity in the country.

Want to get now to CNN correspondent Candy Crowley to talk a little bit more about this. I guess, Candy, I really am fascinated as to what could happen next here by way of the other candidates. If I had to put you on the spot, what would Hillary Rodham Clinton say next, what does John McCain say next regarding this issue of race?

CROWLEY: I think in the -- you know, if you set Pastor Wright aside, what can they say but I agree. I haven't had the experience Barack Obama's had, but I agree that race and gender should not be a factor in this race. There's not a lot of room for them to kind of differ in terms of this speech.

COLLINS: Yes, because it becomes very, very delicate.

CROWLEY: Absolutely.

COLLINS: I mean, they can't just say, boy, if it were me, I would have quit the church.

CROWLEY: Well, absolutely. So, of you're down to -- I mean, I think all of these candidates have had the experience, perhaps not with someone as close to them as Pastor Wright was to Barack Obama and is to Barack Obama.

But all of them have the experience -- John McCain recently with a pastor that endorsed him who'd said a lot of controversial, hugely controversial things and you get linked to them. None of them really want that to happen. Geraldine Ferraro with Hillary Clinton.

So, they kind of all understand. This is a common experience. Unless it is brought up within the confines of a news conference, I don't see any of these candidates going there.

COLLINS: All right, we will certainly be watching for all of that as a response, if there is one from the other candidates running for president of course. Thank you, Candy.

HARRIS: Let's get to our CNN contributor, Roland Martin, in Chicago.

And Roland, I know you weren't very happy with the suggestion that perhaps Barack Obama could have done himself a lot of good if he had simply distanced himself from the Reverend Wright years and years ago. Did you want to add anything to that?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think the point I want to make is that I think that we are making a profound mistake if we somehow believe that this speech was just about the controversy surrounding Reverend Jeremiah Wright. There is no doubt that these tapes -- that the snippets -- let me make that perfectly clear -- my wife is an ordained minister of 20 years, and so a snippet of a sermon that typically is 45 minutes to an hour, that's what they represent.

We make a profound mistake if we think that this speech was just a response to what Reverend Wright had to say. Clearly, Obama had to focus on his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, with Trinity United Church of Christ, which happens to be the largest church in the UCC denomination, which is predominantly white denomination. And so he had to focus on that.

But when you really listen to what he had to say, he really gave us a timeline of race in America. And it is the one topic, Tony, that many of us, African-Americans, whites, Hispanics, male, female, we don't want to necessarily deal with. And so when we began to look at our own prejudices, yes, African-Americans who have hate, whites who have hate, Hispanics and Asians and Native-Americans who have hate, what Obama did was effectively challenge us on the issue of race.

I don't necessarily believe that coming out of this, that all the conversation is going to be just about Reverend Jeremiah Wright. I believe what he did was, he effectively said, America, we must all look at ourselves. It's very easy to sit here and say, let's all comment and castigate and denigrate right, but then also, let's see what our pastors are saying, let's see what our mothers and fathers are saying.

The challenge going forth, I think, for all the other candidates, and for all of the surrogates, and for those of who watch this is say, how do we examine what is in the DNA of America? That is the issue of race.

As a student of history, when I studied the Constitution, how the Constitution was created, when you read the book "Dark Bargain," when you see how race was such a significant part of the creation of this amazing document, then I think you understand why this speech given in Philadelphia, the cradle of democracy, but also the same city where the African Methodist Episcopal Church was created out of segregation of slavery, then you get a better sense of where we're going as America.

HARRIS: Yes.

MARTIN: The key challenge to us, the question is, are we going to accept the challenge, or are we simply going to focus on a significant but still relatively small part of the overall speech?

HARRIS: A couple of questions -- oh, we're done? OK. All right.

Roland, appreciate it. Stand by if you would.

MARTIN: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: Maybe I'll get an opportunity to follow up with you. Thanks.

MARTIN: Sure.

COLLINS: Want to take a moment to bring in Donna Brazile now. She is a CNN contributor and Democratic strategist -- to talk a little bit more about the impact, potential impact here, of the speech that Senator Barack Obama gave.

Donna, your thoughts?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: First of all, I thought it was a brilliantly done and delivered speech. I thought he set the right tone.

Senator Obama had to explain his relationship with his pastor and his faith community. And I thought he did so.

He also had to put the issue of race -- and I'm not talking about the presidential race -- but his own race into context. And Obama, who over the weekend said that he represented pieces of America, today put together a puzzle that I think all Americans, regardless of our background, should understand.

And I think third, and most importantly, he had to talk about his own presidential campaign and what he is seeking to do as president of the United States. And he -- I heard him talk about, if we come together, if the country comes together, we may solve our problems in health care, jobs and the economy.

So I think on all three scores he put the campaign back on the road to victory, if that's where he's heading. And perhaps this detour that has been painful for his campaign, I'm sure, and his supporters, but a very necessary detour to explain his relationship, to put race in context, as well as to move beyond race and talk about the presidency of the United States and why it's important that we all come together to fight terrorism and solve our economic problems. I think Senator Obama did well on all three scores.

COLLINS: All right, Donna.

Speaking of the economy, just a quick reminder -- I'd love to talk to you further, but unfortunately we are trying to get our special that we've prepared all week long here at CNN, "ISSUE #1," definitely coming up. And there's going to be a lot more discussion about the economy, certainly.

Donna Brazile, Democratic strategist and CNN contributor.

Thanks so much, Donna.

HARRIS: And perhaps some final thoughts from Gloria Borger, our senior political analyst.

And Gloria, later today, cable television, 24/7, the machine, the machine. What are we talking more about? Are we talking about Jeremiah Wright, or are we talking about race in America?

BORGER: I think we're talking more about Barack Obama and race in America. I think what Obama did, you know, just to sort of piggyback on what Donna was saying, was essentially give us the rationale for his campaign.

He tied this knot not only into black-white race relations, but spoke to the feeling that immigrants -- the feelings of resentment that immigrants might have in this country, Latinos might have in this country. And I think he tried to say to Americans, we're bigger and better than a couple of speeches from Reverend Wright, without completely distancing himself from Reverend Wright, trying to let us know what this man meant to him in terms of his own personal life.

And I think for the first time really in his race we saw Barack Obama put his heart out there...

HARRIS: Yes.

BORGER: ... as he's done in his books, but personally tell us who he is. And the American public can decide whether they like it or they don't.

HARRIS: Gloria, good to talk to you.

Boy, what a morning with the best political team on television.

COLLINS: CNN NEWSROOM continues just one hour from now. HARRIS: "ISSUE #1" is next with Gerri Willis and Ali Velshi.

I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: I'm Heidi Collins.

Have a good day, everybody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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