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• Mar 19, 2008 5:20 pm US/Central
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  State Politicians Still Buzzing Over Obama Speech

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State Politicians Still Buzzing Over Obama Speech

CHICAGO (CBS) ― While the presidential candidates have turned their attention to international issues like the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, politicians here in Illinois are still reacting to the speech Sen. Barack Obama gave March 18 on race relations.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports the Illinois co-chair of Republican John McCain's presidential campaign had praise Wednesday for parts of Obama's landmark speech on race relations.

But State Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) argued that Obama's address did not remove as a political issue the anti-American rants of his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"What Rev. Wright said was very damaging and it was very troubling to people of all races and colors," Durkin said. "It's still an issue and it's going to linger on. Whether it's right or wrong, no pun intended, it's going to continue on through the political process."

A very different opinion came from two other suburban politicians, including newly elected Congressman Bill Foster.

"There's no so big a difference between Americans as people like to project," Foster (D-Ill.) said. "I know, as a white male, I responded to what he [Obama] said."

Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill) said, "He clearly inoculated himself to any degree of association, and I think it's always people question when anyone uses other people's comments to associate with a particular politician."

Anti-Obama forces, though, still plan to question his 20-year membership in a church run by a man who claimed the U.S. government was intentionally killing African Americans with HIV/AIDS.

"I think it's absolutely crazy and they're offended by that," Durkin said. "People not only in the suburbs, but in the city, people all over the country. I think people are shaking their heads saying, 'Why is this man involved with the campaign?'"

Earlier this week, Rev. Wright left Obama's advisory panel of African-American ministers.

The Obama campaign's looking forward to other issues: confronting John McCain with the budget-busting costs of the Iraq War and asking Hillary Clinton about skeletons rattling in her closet, including why she and her husband have kept secret their sources of income in recent years and why they refuse to reveal the contributors to Bill Clinton's presidential library?

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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