Barack Obama on MLK Day

Obama on MLK Day

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
COLUMBIA, SC -- Obama began Martin Luther King Jr. Day by greeting supporters at Zion Baptist church before marching to the state capitol -- arm in arm with NAACP leaders and throngs of South Carolinians.

As the only candidate in the march, he got the spotlight to himself. Clinton's plane didn't land on time and Edwards was nowhere to be found.

Obama and Edwards sat for a while in the bitter cold on the steps of the capitol while the president and other leaders of the NAACP spoke about the problem of racism in America and the apathy of the black community when it came to voting. "You are free right now," NAACP president Dennis Hayes said.

Obama took the stage to much applause and delivered a brief version of the speech he gave in Atlanta the day before. "Unity is the great need of the hour." was his message, using King's words to underscore the theme of his campaign. "South Carolina unity is the great need of this hour," Obama told the crowd to oversome the country's "moral deficit."

Obama said at the start of his speech that he wanted "to honor his outstanding competitors and partners in this race, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards," but he also didn't refrain from taking a mild swat at his rivals in the race by talking about how he had been accused of talking about hope too much.

But on this day, Edwards and Clinton had nothing but praise for Obama, saying they were proud that "this young man," as Edwards put it ,was running. By stressing Obama's age in comparison to the other candidates however, one has to wonder if the question was a subtle dig.

Normally a long speaker, Obama gave up the podium in a little more than ten minutes, as the South Carolina president of the NAACP, Lonny Randolph, gestured for him to stop speaking. But that was a time constraint that Randolph had trouble keeping himself when he promised the crowd that he would speak for 12 minutes before going on for more than 30.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/21/595929.aspx

Not criticizing Edwards, I just thought that was an odd thing to call him, considering I'm 25 and feel pretty damn old sometimes...