Politics

Video of 2007 Obama Speech Has Red Media Seeing Red

More shock over pandering by political candidates

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Do newly released clips of a 2007 speech by then-Sen. Barack Obama show him using racially divisive language? That's what conservatives are charging Wednesday after the right-leaning Daily Caller posted online the tape of the address, which Mr. Obama made to black clergy at Hampton University in Virginia.

n the speech Obama suggests that the Bush administration discriminated against hurricane Katrina victims by, among other things, not providing as generous terms for federal aid as Washington did to New York after 9/11 and to Florida after hurricane Andrew, because they were disproportionately minorities. That, he says, led to a "quiet riot" among US blacks in the storm's aftermath. He gives a shout-out of welcome to his then-pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (The Rev. Mr. Wright's racially tinged rhetoric caused Obama to later renounce their association.)