DENVER — Video of a fiery 2007 speech by then-Sen. Barack Obama containing racially charged rhetoric re-emerged on the eve of tonight’s presidential debate — again bringing up his past association with the militant Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
The speech, which Obama delivered at historically black Hampton University in Virginia, got teased on the Drudge Report yesterday, then appeared on the Daily Caller Web site and aired in part on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show.
“The people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much,” Obama said in one fiery snippet, comparing Hurricane Katrina with other disasters.
“We don’t need to build more highways out in the suburbs. We should be investing in minority-owned businesses, in our neighborhoods,” he said.
But Obama declined to say the failed response was a product of racism.
“This administration was color blind in its incompetence,” he said.
Obama also gave a “special shout out” to Wright, his former pastor, whom he called “a friend and a great leader to everybody.”
The speech has been available on the Internet for years, although several of the excerpts don’t appear to have been aired previously. Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt called it a “transparent” attempt to change the subject.