Throughout the Democratic race for president, one candidate or another  has been accused of playing the so-called “race card.” Yesterday, Illinois U.S. Senator Barack Obama seemed to lay all his cards right on the table. His expansive, 38-minute speech responded to ongoing controversy about Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Obama condemned Wright’s recent remarks, calling them “distorted.” But he also refused to turn his back on a pastor and a church that he says are deeply rooted in the American black experience. 

Analysts say Obama was trying to get back in control of a campaign that had swerved into dangerous territory. Whether or not it succeeds, the speech was Obama’s most direct engagement with racial issues to date during this campaign. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. represents Illinois’s second district on the South Side of Chicago, and he is Barack Obama’s national campaign co-chair. He joins with his perspective.