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"A More Perfect Union"〔 is the name of a speech delivered by then Senator and future President Barack Obama on March 18, 2008 in the course of the contest for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Speaking before an audience at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Obama was responding to a spike in the attention paid to controversial remarks made by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor and, until shortly before the speech, a participant in his campaign. Obama framed his response in terms of the broader issue of race in the United States. The speech's title was taken from the Preamble to the United States Constitution. Obama addressed the subjects of racial tensions, white privilege, and race and inequality in the United States, discussing black "anger", white "resentment", and other issues as he sought to explain and contextualize Wright's controversial comments. His speech closed with a plea to move beyond America's "racial stalemate" and address shared social problems. On March 27, 2008, the Pew Research Center called the speech "arguably the biggest political event of the campaign so far", noting that 85 percent of Americans said they had heard at least a little about the speech and that 54 percent said they heard a lot about it. Eventually, ''The New Yorker'' opined that the speech helped elect Obama as the President of the United States.〔 ==Events prior to the speech== Then-Senator Obama—the son of a white American mother and black Kenyan father—launched a campaign in January 2007 to be the Democratic party's 2008 presidential nominee. His election marked the first election of an African American president in American history.〔 〕 In March 2008, ABC News released a story examining the sermons of Obama's long-time pastor, Jeremiah Wright, in which Wright denounced the United States and accused the government of crimes against people of color.〔Andrew Sullivan. (For The Record ) ''The Atlantic: The Daily Dish'', March 16, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-18〕 Wright had said, among other things, "God damn America" for its racism and "for killing innocent people."〔 Obama had begun distancing himself from Wright when he called his pastor the night before the February 2007 announcement of Obama's presidential candidacy to withdraw his request that Wright deliver an invocation at the event. However, Wright did attend the announcement, prayed with Obama beforehand, and was named to the Obama campaign's African American Religious Leadership Committee. When several videos of Wright's Christmas sermon appeared on YouTube in the first week of March 2008, Obama responded by going further than he had before, "vehemently disagree(with ) and strongly condemn()... inflammatory and appalling remarks Wright made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents." On March 14, the campaign announced that "Rev. Wright is no longer serving on the African American Religious Leadership Committee." Feeling that he had failed to sufficiently address and explain the context of his relationship with the Reverend, Obama began writing the speech that became "A More Perfect Union". Obama's usual speechwriting practice during the 2008 campaign was to discuss major themes with speechwriter Jon Favreau, let Favreau write a draft, and then edit the result. However, on Saturday, March 15, Obama dictated a lengthy draft of this speech to Favreau, who edited the speech the next day. Obama stayed up until 3:00 a.m. Sunday night working on the speech, and continued to work on it Monday and in the early hours of Tuesday. He sent his final draft of the speech to Favreau and campaign strategist David Axelrod. After reading Obama's final draft, Axelrod sent him an email saying "This is why you should be president." Obama later said that as he wrote the speech, he tried to ensure that his mother, Ann Dunham, would have trusted its sentiments. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A More Perfect Union (speech)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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