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38 million watch Obama at Invesco Field Friday– making it the most-watched convention night in history.The total beat the Olympics opening ceremony, Academy Awards, and American Idol finale this year.

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See photos from the event here.

^{Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses the crowed on the final night of the Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field in Denver, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)}

VIDEO - Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convetion (AUG. 29 2008)

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VIDEO: Dems choose Obama in thunderous acclamation

VIDEO: Obama To Make History With Acceptance Speech

AP

Barack Obama cast his presidential nomination as proof that no dreams are too high, savoring a historic moment for himself and the nation Thursday before setting out on a difficult struggle to break another barrier for a black American.

Obama’s success in obtaining the Democratic nomination was indeed a remarkable achievement, reached despite the misgivings of some Americans uncomfortable with electing the son of an African immigrant — not “the typical pedigree,” as he put it.

He used his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in part to allay those concerns, to show Americans that he is one of them — not born of wealth or privilege, his gains made of hard work and sacrifice.

“This moment — this election — is our chance to keep, in the 21st Century, the American promise alive,” Obama said. He put himself in the shadow of great leaders like John Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as his humble parents.

His speech was the culminating moment of the Democrats’ four-day convention, the launching point for a difficult fall campaign against McCain.

The stakes could not have been higher — for the future of this campaign and the past of racial politics. It came on the 45th anniversary of one of the greatest speeches in American history, King’s “I Have a Dream” address.

An enthusiastic crowd of 84,000 — unprecedented for a political convention — literally shook the stadium at Invesco Field at Mile High with their stomping feet, every participant equipped by organizers with an American flag. More important was the audience of millions of Americans watching on television, a tougher crowd, as Obama spoke before a backdrop of columns reminiscent of the White House portico.

Looking for validation, Obama gave unknown Americans from battleground states prime-time speaking roles to explain their struggles and how the candidate could help them. And Obama himself highlighted the stories of working class Americans, the kinds of voters who have expressed wariness of his candidacy — the woman about to retire in Ohio worried about health care costs, the Indiana worker who lost his job to competition from China, the veterans living on the streets or in poverty, the military families in the midst of repeat tours of duty.

He wanted them to know he was one of them. He said he sees his World War II veteran grandfather in the faces of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, recognizes his mother in the overworked student yearning to give her children a better life and hears his grandmother in the voice of the businesswoman facing workplace discrimination.

“I get it,” Obama said. “I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don’t fit the typical pedigree, and I haven’t spent my career in the halls of Washington. But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me. It’s been about you.”

For those voters with another concern — that a first-term senator who just turned 47 isn’t experienced enough to lead the country — Obama had an answer, too, in a list of policy proposals that he argued would improve their lives. He promised tax cuts that would benefit workers, an end to dependence on Middle East oil, more funding for education, health care for every American and an end to the war in Iraq.

“America, now is not the time for small plans,” Obama said.

And he tried to raise concerns about his rival, Republican John McCain, by saying he’s too much like the unpopular President Bush.

“John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time,” Obama said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.”

With the nomination in hand, Obama could afford to pause — if only for a moment — to reflect on the path that took him from untested rising star at the Democratic convention just four years ago to the party’s standard-bearer this time and a symbol of hope to millions of Americans yearning for change.

Obama himself took note of the transformation.

“Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story — of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known — but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.”

Then he launched himself into the task at hand, persuading voters that he is the leader for “one of those defining moments — a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.”

Obama didn’t flinch from offering himself as ready not only for the title of president but also of “commander in chief.”

“If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have,” Obama said.

Japanese car manufacturer Honda has begun the first commercial production of a zero-emission, hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicle.

The four-seater, called FCX Clarity, runs on hydrogen and electricity, and emits water vapour.

Honda claims the vehicle offers three times better fuel efficiency than a traditional, petrol-powered car.

Honda plans to produce 200 of the cars, which are initially available only to lease, over the next three years.

One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of wider adoption of fuel-cell vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fuelling stations.

The first five customers are all based in southern California because of the proximity of hydrogen fuelling stations, Honda said.

US actress Jamie Lee Curtis will be among the first to take delivery of the vehicle, the firm added.

‘Monumental step’

The car will initially be available for lease in California starting in July, and then in Japan later this year.

It is being built on the world’s first dedicated production line for fuel-cell vehicles in Japan.

“This is an important day in the history of fuel-cell vehicle technology and a monumental step closer to the day when fuel-cell cars will be part of the mainstream,” said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda.

Honda says it expects to lease a few dozen units in the US and Japan in 2008, and about 200 units within three years.

It said the cost of the car, on a three-year lease, would be $600 (£300) a month.

The FCX Clarity is based on Honda’s previous-generation hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, the FCX concept car. Honda delivered around 34 of these cars, mainly in the US, of which 10 remain in use.

Booming demand

Many car makers are developing cleaner, more economical vehicles because of high fuel prices and as consumers become more concerned with the environment.

Toyota said it was struggling to keep up with booming demand for its hybrid vehicles because it was unable to make enough batteries.

Hybrid vehicles, such as Toyota’s top-selling Prius, switch between a petrol engine and electric motor.

Toyota Motor Corp’s executive vice president, Takeshi Uchiyamada, told the Associated Press that new battery production lines could not be added until next year.

“Hybrids are selling so well we are doing all we can to increase production,” he said. “We need new lines.”

Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest car maker said on Monday it wanted to produce a Golf which consumed three to four litres of petrol per 100 kilometres compared with 4.3 litres currently for the most fuel-efficient model.

“In the next few years, we are not going to do without petrol and diesel motors, but the future belongs to the electric car,” VW chairman Martin Winterkorn told German newspaper Bild-Zeitung.

How the technology works

WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after suffering a heart attack at the bureau. He was 58.

Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” broadcast when he collapsed. He was rushed to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, where resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

Russert’s physician, Michael Newman, said cholesterol plaque ruptured in an artery, causing sudden coronary thrombosis.

Russert had earlier been diagnosed with asymptomatic coronary artery disease, but it was well-controlled with medication and exercise, and he had performed well on a stress test in late April, Newman said. An autopsy revealed that he also had an enlarged heart, Newman said.

Russert’s death left his colleagues devastated.

He was “one of the premier political journalists and analysts of his time,” Tom Brokaw, the former longtime anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” said in announcing Russert’s death Friday afternoon. Brian Williams, managing editor and anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” called his death a “staggering, overpowering and sudden loss.”

“Meet the Press,” which he began hosting in 1991, was considered an essential proving ground in the career of any national politician.

“If you could pass the Tim Russert test, you could do something in this field,” said Howard Fineman, senior Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine and a columnist for msnbc.com.

Tenacity and passion

Russert was best known for his on-air tenacity as a reporter and his consuming passion for politics, which were evident during his nearly round-the-clock appearances on NBC and MSNBC on election nights.

But behind the scenes, Russert was also a senior vice president and head of NBC’s Washington operations, orchestrating all of the network’s coverage of government and political news.

“This is a tragic loss for journalism and for all who were privileged to know him,” said Walter Cronkite, the retired anchor and managing editor of ”The CBS Evening News.”

In a statement, President Bush called Russert “an institution in both news and politics for more than two decades.”

“Tim was a tough and hardworking newsman. He was always well-informed and thorough in his interviews. And he was as gregarious off the set as he was prepared on it,” the president said.

Earlier this year, Time magazine named Russert one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Mayor Byron Brown ordered flags flown at half-staff in Buffalo, N.Y., his hometown. NBC News planned to air a tribute to Russert on “Dateline NBC” on Friday at 10 p.m. ET, and Brokaw was to host a special edition of “Meet the Press” remembering Russert on Sunday morning.

Senate staffer before entering journalism

Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and Washington, D.C.

He had recently returned from Italy, where his family celebrated the graduation of his son, Luke, from Boston College.

After graduating from law school, Russert went into politics as a staff operative. In 1976, he worked on the Senate campaign of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., and in 1982, he worked on Mario Cuomo’s campaign for governor of New York.

Russert joined NBC News in 1984. In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of NBC’s TODAY show from Rome, negotiating and arranging an appearance by Pope John Paul II, a first for American television. In 1986 and 1987, Russert led NBC News’ weeklong broadcasts from South America, Australia and China.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture by Microsoft and NBC Universal, parent of NBC News.)

Of his background as a Democratic political operative, Russert said, “My views are not important.”

“Lawrence Spivak, who founded ‘Meet the Press,’ told me before he died that the job of the host is to learn as much as you can about your guest’s positions and take the other side,” he said in a 2007 interview with Time magazine. “And to do that in a persistent and civil way. And that’s what I try to do every Sunday.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement that Russert “asked the tough questions the right way and was the best in the business at keeping his interview subjects honest.”

Russert wrote two books — “Big Russ and Me” in 2004 and “Wisdom of Our Fathers” in 2006 — both of which were New York Times best-sellers.

Emmy for Reagan funeral coverage
Russert was to have received a lifetime achievement award from the Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University on June 23. The school said the award would be presented posthumously.

In 2005, Russert was awarded an Emmy for his role in the coverage of the funeral of President Ronald Reagan.

His “Meet the Press” interviews with George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000 won the Radio and Television Correspondents’ highest honor, the Joan S. Barone Award, and the Annenberg Center’s Walter Cronkite Award.

Russert, who received 48 honorary doctorates, won countless other awards for excellence during his career, including the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, the John Peter Zenger Freedom of the Press Award, the American Legion Journalism Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Journalism Award, the Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism, the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Communication and the Catholic Academy for Communication’s Gabriel Award.

He was a member of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and a member of the board of directors of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

He was a trustee of the Freedom Forum’s Newseum and a member of the board of directors of the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Club and America’s Promise — Alliance for Youth.

In 1995, the National Father’s Day Committee named him “Father of the Year,” Parents magazine honored him as “Dream Dad” in 1998, and in 2001 the National Fatherhood Initiative also recognized him as Father of the Year.

Survivors include his wife, Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine, whom he met at the 1976 Democratic National Convention; and their son, Luke.

Alex Johnson of msnbc.com and John Yang and Ken Strickland of NBC News contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation’s first black president. A defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket.

Obama’s victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.

McCain was plainly eager for the race to begin, and accused his younger rival of voting “to deny funds to the soldiers who have done a brilliant and brave job” in Iraq.

In remarks prepared for delivery in New Orleans, McCain agreed with Obama that the presidential race would focus on change. “But the choice is between the right change and the wrong change, between going forward and going backward,” he added.

The newly minted Democratic nominee-in-waiting arranged an evening appearance in St. Paul, Minn., sending McCain an unmistakable message by claiming his victory in the very hall where the Arizonan will accept his party’s nomination in early September.

Obama, a first-term senator who was virtually unknown on the national stage four years ago, defeated Clinton, the former first lady and one-time campaign front-runner, in a 17-month marathon for the Democratic nomination.

TIME

After one of the most negative weekends of campaigning so far this election, it’s hard to know if either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will emerge from Tuesday’s long-anticipated Pennsylvania primary looking much like a real winner.

The six weeks since the last Clinton/Obama one-on-one match-up have felt like an eternity to millions of voters and pundits, and not least because the candidates have used most of that time to take potshots at each other over a range of controversies: Obama’s former minister’s controversial comments, Clinton’s exaggerations about landing “under sniper fire” as First Lady in Bosnia, the resignation of Clinton’s top strategist after he consulted with the Colombian government on a free trade deal Clinton opposes, Obama’s indelicate remarks regarding “bitter” rural workers who “cling” to guns and God. All of which culminated in a debate on ABC last week that was the most watched, and the most criticized, candidate encounter so far. Viewers, and presumably voters, may want substance over scandal, but the two campaigns just can’t seem to resist going for the knockout punch.

Dozens of campaign e-mails have crisscrossed journalists’ inboxes in recent days, accusing the other of going “negative.” Obama devoted fully three- fourths of his speeches to outlining all the reasons why he, not Clinton, would make a better President. And Clinton, at a stop in Johnstown, accused Obama of cheering for GOP presumptive nominee John McCain after he said that all three of them would make better Presidents than George Bush. The final day of campaigning saw Obama accuse Clinton of playing the “politics of fear” after she released a new ad featuring an image of Osama bin Laden and the lines “Harry Truman said it best — if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen…Who do you think has what it takes?”

The conventional wisdom is still that Clinton will pull out a victory here; the key question is by how much. With Obama having outspent Clinton by a two to one margin in radio and TV advertising, Clinton’s lead has shrunk from more than 20 percentage points six weeks ago to around 5 now, according to an average of Pennsylvania polls by the non-partisan website Real Clear Politics. A loss would almost certainly put an end to her struggling campaign, proving Obama can win big swing states that are crucial in a general election. But a single-digit win, less than her 10.5% margin of victory in Ohio, could do almost as much damage, showing slipping support among working class white populations and making continued fundraising a real challenge. A convincing, double-digit Clinton victory, by contrast, means she continues on to the next round on May 6, when Indiana and North Carolina get their chance to play their role in the never-ending primary drama.

Both campaigns spent the weekend trying to downplay expectations. On Monday Clinton’s campaign denied a claim on the website the Drudge Report that her own internal polling was predicting an 11 point victory. Neither side would forecast margins of victory or loss, but there is little doubt that Obama enters the primary with an easier goal: he only needs to limit the damage, whereas Clinton needs a decisive win. “He needs to do very well among middle and upper-class voters in the Philadelphia suburbs,” said Donald Kettl, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “Modest gains among white male voters would seal the deal. It’s a tall order. But it’s not impossible. The race has closed significantly in the last few weeks.”

Obama has invested heavily in registering Democratic voters, helping to add 327,000 new Democrats in the Keystone State before registration closed a month ago — more than 65% of those in the 12 urban, Obama-friendly counties. A poll of the new voters found that 62% were planning to vote for Obama, and some analysts believe that the state’s traditional polls may be skewed since they likely don’t include these new Democrats. Following the strategy that helped Governor Ed Rendell (a vocal Clinton supporter) get elected twice, Obama is betting that he can actually win the state if he can snag more than half of the 12 big urban counties. When asked if Obama, who plans to spend “victory” night in Indiana, will win Pennsylvania, his communications director Robert Gibbs responded with a simple “No.” “Look,” he continued, “We came from 20 points behind.” Are they without hope? “No, just realistic,” Gibbs said.

As the primary battle has become increasingly nasty, some Democrats worry that voters are digging in their heels and contemplating staying home (or even voting for John McCain) in November if their first choice doesn’t get the nomination. Obama supporter Janet Grossner, 57, a social services worker in Allentown, is certainly feeling the effect of that: on the morning after the ABC debate last week, she had a falling out with one of her closest friends and colleagues, a Clinton supporter. Grossner, who describes herself as not terribly political, began vehemently defending Obama. “There’s just so much bad blood between them,” said Grossner, in jeans and a lime green sweatshirt, sitting in a waffle shop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania an hour before Obama would arrive to shake hands down Main Street. “I worry about the party coming together after all of this.” In other words, she worries, as many of her fellow Democrats do, that the true winner of the bruising Democratic Pennsylvania primary could already be John McCain.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran has begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, state television quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Tuesday.

Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges operating in Natanz, and the new announcement is seen as a show of defiance of international demands to halt a nuclear program the United States and its allies say is aimed at building nuclear weapons.

“The president announced the start of the phase of installing 6,000 new centrifuges in Natanz,” state television reported.

(…Continue reading)

fertilizer shortages, food costs, higher energy prices equal world crisis
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WASHINGTON – From India to Africa to North Korea to Pakistan and even in New York City, higher grain prices, fertilizer shortages and rising energy costs are combining to spell hunger for millions in what is being characterized as a global “silent famine.”

Global food prices, based on United Nations records, rose 35 percent in the last year, escalating a trend that began in 2002. Since then, prices have risen 65 percent.

Last year, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent.

“This is the new face of hunger,” said Josetta Sheeran, director of the World Food Program, launching an appeal for an extra $500 million so it could continue supplying food aid to 73 million hungry people this year. “People are simply being priced out of food markets. … We have never before had a situation where aggressive rises in food prices keep pricing our operations out of our reach.”

The WFP launched a public appeal weeks ago because the price of the food it buys to feed some of the world’s poorest people had risen by 55 percent since last June. By the time the appeal began last week, prices had risen a further 20 percent. That means WFP needs $700 million to bridge the gap between last year’s budget and this year’s prices. The numbers are expected to continue to rise.

The crisis is widespread and the result of numerous causes – a kind of “perfect storm” leading to panic in many places:

- In Thailand, farmers are sleeping in their fields because thieves are stealing rice, now worth $600 a ton, right out of the paddies.
- Four people were killed in Egypt in riots over subsidized flour that was being sold for profit on the black market.
- There have been food riots in Morocco, Senegal and Cameroon.
- Mexico’s government is considering lifting a ban on genetically modified crops, to allow its farmers to compete with the United States.
- Argentina, Kazakhstan and China have imposed restrictions to limit grain exports and keep more of their food at home.
- Vietnam and India, both major rice exporters, have announced further restrictions on overseas sales.
- Violent food protests hit Burkina Faso in February.
- Protesters rallied in Indonesia recently, and media reported deaths by starvation.
- In the Philippines, fast-food chains were urged to cut rice portions to counter a surge in prices.
- Millions of people in India face starvation after a plague of rats overruns a region, as they do cyclically every 50 years.
- Officials in Bangladesh warn of an emerging “silent famine” that threatens to ravage the region.

According to some experts, the worst damage is being done by government mandates and subsidies for “biofuels” that supposedly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and fight climate change. Thirty percent of this year’s U.S. grain harvest will go to ethanol distilleries. The European Union, meanwhile, has set a goal of 10 percent bio-fuels for all transportation needs by 2010.

“A huge amount of the world’s farmland is being diverted to feed cars, not people,” writes Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist.

He notes that in six of the past seven years the human race has consumed more grain than it grew. World grain reserves last year were only 57 days, down from 180 days a decade ago.

One in four bushels of corn from this year’s U.S. crop will be diverted to make ethanol, according to estimates.

“Turning food into fuel for cars is a major mistake on many fronts,” said Janet Larsen, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental group based in Washington. “One, we’re already seeing higher food prices in the American supermarket. Two, perhaps more serious from a global perspective, we’re seeing higher food prices in developing countries where it’s escalated as far as people rioting in the streets.”

Palm oil is also at record prices because of biofuel demands. This has created shortages in Indonesia and Malaysia, where it is a staple.

Nevertheless, despite the recognition that the biofuels industry is adding to a global food crisis, the ethanol industry is popular in the U.S. where farmers enjoy subsidies for the corn crops.

Another contributing factor to the crisis is the demand for more meat in an increasingly prosperous Asia. More grain is used to feed the livestock than is required to feed humans directly in a traditional grain-based diet.

Bad weather is another problem driving the world’s wheat stocks to a 30-year low – along with regional droughts and a declining dollar.

“This is an additional setback for the world economy, at a time when we are already going through major turbulence,” Angel Gurria, head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, told Reuters. “But the biggest drama is the impact of higher food prices on the poor.”

According to the organization, as well as the U.N., the price of corn could rise 27 percent in the next decade.

John Bruton, the European Union’s ambassador to the U.S., predicts the current trend is the beginning of a 10-15 year rise in food costs worldwide.

The rodent plague in India occurs about every half century following the heavy flowering of a local species of bamboo, providing the rodents with a feast of high-protein foliage. Once the rats have ravaged the bamboo, they turn on the crops, consuming hundreds of tons of rice and corn supplies.

Survivors of the previous mautam, which heralded widespread famine in 1958, say they remember areas of paddy fields the size of four soccer fields being devastated overnight.

In Africa, rats are seen as part of the answer to the food shortage. According to Africa News, Karamojongs have resorted to hunting wild rats for survival as famine strikes the area.

Supplies of fertilizer are extremely tight on the worldwide market, contributing to a potential disaster scenario. The Scotsman reports there are virtually no stocks of ammonium nitrate in the United Kingdom.

Global nitrogen is currently in deficit, a situation that is unlikely to change for at least three years, the paper reports.

South Koreans are speculating, as they do annually, on how many North Koreans will starve to death before the fall harvest. But this year promises to be worse than usual.

Severe crop failure in the North and surging global prices for food will mean millions of hungry Koreans.

Roughly a third of children and mothers are malnourished, according to a recent U.N. study. The average 8-year-old in the North is 7 inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than a South Korean child of the same age.

Floods last August ruined part of the main yearly harvest, creating a 25-percent shortfall in the food supply and putting 6 million people in need, according to the U.N. World Food Program.

Yesterday, the Hong Kong government tried to put a stop to panic-buying of rice in the city of 6.9 million as fears mounted over escalating prices and a global rice shortage. Shop shelves were being cleared of rice stocks as Hong Kong people reacted to news that the price of rice imported from Thailand had shot up by almost a third in the past week, according to agency reports.

Global food prices are even hitting home in New York City, according to a report in the Daily News. Food pantries and soup kitchens in the city are desperately low on staples for the area’s poor and homeless.

The Food Bank for New York City, which supplies food to 1,000 agencies and 1.3 million people, calls it the worst problem since its founding 25 years ago.

Last year, the Food Bank received 17 million pounds of food through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, less than half of the 35 million pounds it received in 2002. And donations from individuals and corporations are also down about 50 percent, according to the report.

High gas prices, increased food production costs and a move to foreign production of American food are contributing to the problem.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militias in the southern oil port of Basra on Tuesday as a security plan to clamp down on violence between rival militia factions in the region began.

With tensions rising, Muqtada al-Sadr’s headquarters in Najaf ordered field commanders with his Mahdi Army militia to go on high alert and prepare “to strike the occupiers” and their Iraqi allies, a militia officer said.

The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t supposed to release the information, also said the movement had ordered its supporters to join a civil disobedience campaign nationwide.

Al-Sadr has imposed a cease-fire on his militia fighters, a move that is one of the key factors in a steep drop in violence over the past several months.

Gunmen also attacked an office and clashed with guards from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council at the entrance of Baghdad’s main Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, police said. SIIC’s armed wing, the Badr Brigade, is the main rival of the Mahdi Army.

The cease-fire has come under severe strains in recent weeks as U.S. and Iraqi forces detained followers they accuse of belonging to breakaway factions from the movement. Elements from the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigade also have frequently clashed in the southern Shiite heartland.

Col. Karim al-Zaidi, spokesman for the Iraq military, said security forces concentrated heavily in Basra’s center encountered stiff resistance from Mahdi Army gunmen.

AP Television News video showed smoke from explosions rising over the city and Iraqi soldiers exchanging gunfire with militia members.

Maj. Abbas Youssef, a police officer in the Basra hospital, said four civilians had been killed and at least 18 injured in the fighting.

The clashes broke out after Iraqi authorities set an indefinite nighttime curfew on the city starting Monday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also traveled to the volatile area to announce a new crackdown aimed at quelling rising violence between rival Shiite factions vying for power.

The U.S. military said Tuesday that five suspected militants were killed in Basra while attempting to place a roadside bomb. Ten others were injured after being spotted conducting suspicious activity, the statement said.

Security in Basra, about 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, had been steadily declining well before the British handed over responsibility for security to the Iraqis on Dec. 16.

British troops remained at their base at the airport outside Basra and were not involved in the ground fighting Tuesday, according to the British Ministry of Defense. Air support was being provided, but a spokesman could not say if it was U.S. or British planes.

“We have a capacity to provide air and other specialist support if needed, but at this time British involvement is minimal,” the spokesman said, declining to be identified in accordance with department policy.

Last month, a British journalist working for CBS and his Iraqi interpreter were kidnapped from a hotel. The Iraqi was released after al-Sadr’s office negotiated a deal, but the Briton remains in custody.

Al-Sadr’s organization threatened that tensions will escalate in Basra if members of al-Sadr’s Shiite Mahdi Army are targeted.

“We are calling for calm, but this new security plan has the wrong timing,” Harith al-Edhari, the director of al-Sadr’s office in Basra, said Tuesday. “This plan is a government scheme to target the Sadrists as they did in Diwaniyah and Muthanna.”

Al-Sadr’s followers also have accused the Shiite-dominated government of exploiting the cease-fire to target the cleric’s supporters in advance of provincial elections expected this fall. They have demanded the release of supporters rounded up in recent weeks.

The cleric recently told his followers that although the truce remains in effect, they were free to defend themselves against attacks.

U.S. officials have insisted they are not going after Sadrists who respect the cease-fire but are targeting renegade elements, known as special groups, that the Americans believe have ties to Iran.

The U.S. military has accused Iran of arming and funding Shiite extremists to fight American forces in Iraq. Iran denies the allegation.

On Monday, al-Maliki relieved the top two security officials in Basra, officials said.

At least one Iraqi battalion has already been sent to Basra, an official in the defense ministry said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t supposed to talk to the media. Other battalions may be called from Iraq’s southern provinces.

The clashes follow recent fighting elsewhere in the country between U.S. and Iraqi forces and factions of the Mahdi Army.

Meanwhile, the FBI said it has recovered the remains of two kidnapped U.S. contractors in Iraq. The agency identified the contractors as Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Missouri.

Withrow worked for JPI Worldwide when he was kidnapped near Basra in January 2007. Young worked for Crescent Security Group when he was kidnapped in November 2006 in a separate incident.

The FBI said the investigation into the kidnappings is ongoing.

Barack Obama’s major speech on race and politics - Video and Full Transcript

VIDEO

Full Transcript

We the people, in order to form a more perfect union

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched Americas improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nations original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Pattons Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. Ive gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the worlds poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

Its a story that hasnt made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either too black or not black enough. We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, weve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that its based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, weve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as Im sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm werent simply controversial. They werent simply a religious leaders effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wrights comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isnt all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing Gods work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverends voice up into the rafters….And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lions den, Ezekiels field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didnt need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild.

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinitys services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that weve never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, The past isnt dead and buried. In fact, it isnt even past. We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still havent fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between todays black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of todays urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for ones family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. Whats remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didnt make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wrights generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politicians own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wrights sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans dont feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as theyre concerned, no ones handed them anything, theyve built it from scratch. Theyve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when theyre told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments arent always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. Its a racial stalemate weve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wrights sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wrights sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. Its that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the worlds great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brothers keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sisters keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wrights sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that shes playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, well be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, Not this time. This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids cant learn; that those kids who dont look like us are somebody elses problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who dont have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesnt look like you might take your job; its that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never shouldve been authorized and never shouldve been waged, and we want to talk about how well show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didnt believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that Id like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. Kings birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and thats when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mothers problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didnt. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why theyre supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man whos been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why hes there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, I am here because of Ashley.

Im here because of Ashley. By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Barack Obama will today make his strongest attempt so far to defuse the race row that has scarred the Democratic presidential race when he tackles the issue head-on with a major speech in Pennsylvania, the scene of next month’s hotly contested primary.

The Obama campaign said the speech in Philadelphia will address major issues including “race, politics and how we bring our country together at this important moment in our history”.

It comes after a week in which he has taken a battering from Hillary Clinton’s campaign team, particularly over incendiary remarks by his pastor about the US and discrimination.

The speech is comparable to one made last year by the former Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, who felt a need to address a whispering campaign about his Mormon religion.

In interviews last night previewing tomorrow’s speech, Obama described as “stupid” remarks about the US and whites by the preacher at his church in Chicago, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and admitted that the focus on race over the last week has been “a distraction”.

America’s claims to be a post-racial society have been undermined by the introduction of race into the Democratic campaign and the fracturing of the party vote in primaries in some states, where an overwhelming majority of African Americans have voted for Obama and a majority of whites for Clinton.

Constant replays on US television of Wright shouting, “God damn America” and railing about discrimination against blacks risk alienating some white voters. A Rasmussen poll published yesterday said Wright’s comments made 56 per cent of the electorate in general less likely to vote for Obama.

The focus on Wright came only days after Clinton was forced to break ties with a longtime supporter, Geraldine Ferraro, over her claim that Obama would not have done as well as he has if he had been white.

In an interview with Jim Lehrer’s Newshour last night, Obama portrayed Wright as a product of the 1960s and 1970s and Ferraro as a similar product of the feminist battles of the same era, but called on America to move on.

“Now, we benefit from that past. We benefit from the difficult battles that were taken place. But I’m not sure that we benefit from continuing to perpetuate the anger and the bitterness that I think, at this point, serves to divide rather than bring us together. And that’s part of what this campaign has been about, is to say, let’s acknowledge a difficult history, but let’s move on,” he said.

Asked if the row has damaged his campaign, he admitted it had diverted attention from his prime message about reconciliation. “And so, to the extent that, you know, the conversation over the last couple of days has been dominated by some stupid statements that were made by Reverend Wright, but also caricatures of Reverend Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ - which, by the way, is part of a denomination that is overwhelmingly white - you know, I think that that has distracted us from the possibilities of moving beyond some of these arguments.”

Obama rarely spoke about race last year as his campaign team tried to present him as a candidate that transcends race. But he has positioned himself as a champion of black rights, an heir to the mantle of the Reverend Martin Luther King.

In a speech last year and again in Atlanta in January on Martin Luther King day, he spoke about the progress that had been made since the 1960s civil rights movement and the need to build on that. But he also criticised those sections of the black community where antisemitism and anti-homosexuality were rife.

The race issue has been festering since Bill Clinton first raised it during the South Carolina primary in January. Clinton over the last 48 hours has given a series of interviews claiming that he was not responsible for introducing race into the contest and blamed the media.