Obama Preaches in Harvey, IL

Barack Obama spoke passionately about Dr. King's legacy, weaving in themes of war, poverty, and justice, at the St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Harvey, IL this morning.  He received a rapturous, raucous reception, as you can hear for yourself in this rough MP3 audio.  Listen to him with this audience, and you hear his humor, charisma, and intelligence all shining through.

Allison Hantschel of the Daily Southtown reviewed the speech, and her comments would probably be of interest to the Obama skeptics on this blog.

The Obama who took to the pulpit at 10:45 a.m. to thunderous applause sounded more like the man who called the Iraq war "dumb" and "rash" than the one who has been speaking in measured terms about phased troop redeployments and foreign policy seriousness.

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"There are a lot of things Harvey needs," he shouted. "We can send ten billion dollars to Iraq; we should send a billion dollars here to Harvey. We love our troops, and we should send them back here to be doctors and lawyers and teachers and rebuild Harvey like they want to rebuild Baghdad."

He railed against the president for failing to live up to his promise to eradicate poverty after Hurricane Katrina, and pointed out that victims of flooding in New Orleans were still living in trailers with no hope of coming home.

Over and over, Obama called out, "What are we doing for others?"

"Come on, senator!" a woman yelled. "Come on, come on, preach it!"

"Bring it, Obama!" another man shouted.

The audiences, of course, were different: A group of sedate policy wonks looking for discussion versus a riled-up church crowd calling for sermons. But even accounting for that, there was a marked change in his words, in his attitude: a man prepared to lead himself, instead of telling others how to do so.

Give the speech a listen.  Do you hear a triangulator, pandering to his audience?  Or do you hear the voice of Martin Luther King, Jr, preaching justice and peace?

I hear a little of both... the same winning mix most recently heard in the voice of William Jefferson Clinton.