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MONTHLY ARCHIVES
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Obama Sings Motown Then Cuts Rally Short Because of Gustav
September 01, 2008 12:52 PM
DETROIT, MICH -- With Aretha Franklin in the audience, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, took a moment to sing.
"Chain, chain, chain," sang the Democratic presidential nominee, making a nod to Franklin's 1969 Motown classic. "Chain of fools." It was a rather awful rendition, flat and pitchy, though Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass insisted it was "on key."
But then, citing Hurricane Gustav, Obama told the crowd that as much as he wanted to talk to them -- particularly about "the contributions of the American worker" -- "I have to change my plans a little bit."
"Our neighbors and our fellow citizens in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast are once again under siege from a terrible storm," Obama said. "I just got off the phone with the Department of Homeland Security and I will be monitoring it all day.
"Although we are prayerful that this will not be the same kind of situation that we saw three years ago, today is not a day for political speeches," Obama continued. "I hope you’ll forgive me – I hope you don’t mind. Today is a day for all of us to come together as Americans and send our thoughts and prayers to our brothers and sisters who are worrying at this very hour about their homes and their loved ones.
"Some of them may be huddled in shelters, some of them are far away from home," said the Democrat. "Their children had started school and now they’re not in school anymore. Some of them may have spent the last three years rebuilding after devastation and now they’re rethinking may be its gonna start all over again except they have even less of a safety net. They’ve got even fewer savings to rely on. We don’t know yet what the impact of Hurricane Gustav will be. We hope and pray that the damage will not be as great as it was three years ago.
"But we know that there will be damage and help will be needed so my main goal today is to ask you to help," he said. I’d like to ask all of you to give what you can to the Red Cross and other organizations that are aiding in the relief effort. Our campaign will be monitoring the situation all day.
Obama called this "a time for us to come together as Americans. I know John McCain wants whats best for the people who have been evacuated, I know George Bush wants whats best for them and so do I. And so I want all of us to come together, I appreciate all of you coming here today and gathering- I know you’ve heard some great speeches and I apologize for the change of plans but instead of a speech what I’d like to do is ask all of us to join in some silent prayer for all those Americans who are spending this labor day in a shelter waiting for another storm to pass."
After the silent prayer and only about nine minutes on stage, Obama cut the rally short.
He asked the crowd to "please remember that the spirit that we just expressed, that that’s the spirit that we have to have each and every day in America, ‘cause there are a lot of people out there suffering silent storms. The quiet storms of joblessness, the quiet storms of underfunded schools, the quiet storms of a lost pension, or a lost job, the quiet storms of not having enough to eat, the quiet storms of not having medical care. All of us have to remember on this day, that we come together as Americans – Republicans, Democrats, independents – black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, young and old – all of us come together in a spirit of unity to make this country better.
"God bless you and God bless the United States of America," he said as he left the stage.
The Obama campaign announced that after his rally in Milwaukee, Wisc., this evening, he will head back to his home town of Chicago to "monitor the hurricane." Campaign stops in battleground states such as Ohio and Indiana are on hold.
- Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller
September 1, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (14)
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For a moment there, I thought he was singing "Change of fools."
Oh well...
Posted by: TJ | Sep 3, 2008 3:33:31 PM
Obama is embarrassing but the media doesn't go there.......
Obama has split and embarrassed the Democratic Party because of his own self centered personality. He’s running for Obama Rule, not democracy.
Obama is a poor example of moral values, religious beliefs, experience and patriotism. He can’t criticize much about experience and God forbid he gets vetted. He’s a disgrace
Obama never won the primary. Obama stole it from Hillary.The world watched as the DNC handed the nomination to Obama by silencing voters.
The media can say what they want about Obama winning the primary but voters know the truth, especially Clinton supporters. Obama ignored voters. Florida and Michigan will never forget it.
Obama and Michelle were given a second chance to put Hillary on his ticket, but instead chose to hog the glory and embarrass the Democratic Party.
Obama could have won these women over. He should have taken advantage of the Clinton’s popularity and the love still felt for them throughout the world. Instead, he lost more respect from women across America. McCain is winning the Hillary women with his VP pick.
Obama is risky, radical and not a great patriot. Remember: Rezko, (the criminal), Reverend Wright (the anti Semitic racist) and William Ayers ( Obama’s coworker = domestic terrorist)
The list of his ugly friends with radical beliefs are endless.
God is watching and the world is laughing at our unfair voting process in the Democratic Party.
Obama should step down.
Posted by: Al from NJ | Sep 2, 2008 8:08:19 AM
IOObama. Truly presidential. He has my vote.
Posted by: jerry | Sep 1, 2008 11:08:53 PM
Some of you can't find dignity in anything. Obama's remarks were from the heart. More than I can say about McCain's. He went to Mississippi for a photo opt so he could remain in the media because he knew Obama was speaking before a crowd of 17,000 in Battle Creek Michigan. Talk about partisan.
Posted by: william | Sep 1, 2008 10:14:55 PM
I, for one, am glad he's keeping his day job as president(ial candidate). We really don't need another bad singer out there ... ;).
This kinda seals the deal, I'll vote for Obama, since we have to do every thing we can to stop him from singing in public again! ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
Posted by: IndependentBluecollarMom | Sep 1, 2008 8:06:41 PM
He asked the crowd to "please remember that the spirit that we just expressed, that that’s the spirit that we have to have each and every day in America, ‘cause there are a lot of people out there suffering silent storms. The quiet storms of joblessness, the quiet storms of underfunded schools, the quiet storms of a lost pension, or a lost job, the quiet storms of not having enough to eat, the quiet storms of not having medical care. All of us have to remember on this day, that we come together as Americans – Republicans, Democrats, independents – black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, young and old – all of us come together in a spirit of unity to make this country better.
"God bless you and God bless the United States of America," he said as he left the stag
Obama is a good man. Very classy.
Posted by: Salvatore | Sep 1, 2008 5:14:29 PM
The speech today was apropriate and necessary. Who cares if a president sings badly? We have a president who leads badly, speaks badly, and treats foreign diplomats badly. Let's hope our "pitchy" new president is on key with what really matters.
Posted by: Dee | Sep 1, 2008 3:56:00 PM
blip
Yeah, sure!
Posted by: Aston | Sep 1, 2008 2:00:42 PM
Where are people getting the idea that McCain is above partisan attacks?
This morning his campaign manager was out hitting Obama!
The real lesson is this: If you plan on having a natural disaster, try to do it during an election year.
Posted by: blip | Sep 1, 2008 1:59:39 PM
I think it's great that Obama asked his supports to think of the Hurriccane beaten areas and citizens as well as donate to support them directly. GObama!!
Posted by: mo | Sep 1, 2008 1:38:09 PM
Guess he is putting on his American hat like McCain suggested.
Posted by: Babs | Sep 1, 2008 1:22:27 PM
freida, they weren't talking about palin on here
Posted by: anonymous | Sep 1, 2008 1:17:04 PM
Obama continued. "I hope you’ll forgive me – I hope you don’t mind. Today is a day for all of us to come together as Americans
====
Sounds so familiar. Have I heard it from someone on Sunday's talkshow?
Who said an old dog cannot learn new tricks? He certainly can follow.
Posted by: d0 | Sep 1, 2008 1:04:45 PM
"Chain of fools."
----
How fitting it is!
Posted by: d0 | Sep 1, 2008 1:01:56 PM
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