Barack Obama encountered an aggressive photo-seeker at a market in Philadelphia today, and the candidate was none too pleased about it. The unidentified man tried on multiple occasions to snap a photo with the senator - on the fourth try, Obama finally obliged, but scolded the man for being rude.

But for those thinking that the senator himself was being rude for not taking the time to pose with the man, be advised this was not your typical fan/supporter/onlooker - according to the Obama campaign. In a statement to reporters, the campaign described the man in question as one of a group of guys who “were seeking autographs on books and magazines to sell on eBay.  They wanted a picture to authenticate the signatures.  They were first at the Senator’s hotel and tried to get in front of third graders who were lined up to see Senator Obama. After being disruptive the police moved them to the sidewalk.  They then followed the motorcade to the second stop at the market and continued to push for a picture to authenticate whatever they could get signed.”

While no press witnessed the group’s first attempt at a photo at the hotel, all of the other encounters occurred in front of the senator’s press pool, which accompanied the candidate as he dropped by a market area of Philadelphia’s Little Italy.

On the way into the first shop, the man asked Obama to stop for a photo, but Obama did not stop.  The man exclaimed, “It will take you two seconds.” When jostled by the scrum surrounding Obama, the man exclaimed, “Don’t cram me, I’m not doing anything to anybody.”

The man waited for Obama to exit the shop and then tried again. Walking at a brisk clip, Obama said, “You are wearing me out, brother.” The man informed Obama that he got a photo with both Clinton and McCain and said, “Come on Senator, that’s not right.” Again, Obama did not stop to pose with the man.
As Obama walked back towards his waiting SUV to leave the market, the man asked once more. “Senator, can I please, a quick one?” This time Obama responded, “No, you know what? No.” The man then pleaded with Obama.  “Why won’t you just take a picture with me? I’m not asking you for a autograph - it’s for my family.”

“Yeah, well whatever. Just take it. I won’t be smiling. Because you’re wearing me out,” Obama said, visibly annoyed. “You’ve been really rude about it. Just take a shot,” he scolded. Obama then hesitated, standing next to the man for a brief moment on his way to the car.

It’s unclear if the man actually got the photo, but according to the pooler, the Secret Service then stepped in  and said, “That’s it.” The man then replied, “No, I’m good. All I want is a picture - that’s it.”

Check eBay soon!

Barack Obama addressed an AFL-CIO conference this morning in Philadelphia, just one day after Senator Clinton spoke at the same forum. Yesterday Senator Clinton was introduced to the theme song from the 1976 movie Rocky (Obama opted for his usual “City of Blinding Lights” by U2) and used the Rocky analogy in her speech.

“Well, could you imagine if Rocky Balboa had gotten half way up those Art Museum steps and said, ‘Well, I guess that’s about far enough?’ Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people,” Clinton told the union members.

Today in response, Senator Obama said to those same union members, “I know there’s been some talk about Rocky Balboa over the last couple days. And you know, we all love Rocky.” The audience laughed. “The last time I checked, I was the underdog in this state,” he continued. Obama has consistently polled behind Senator Clinton here in the Keystone State, sometimes by as much as double digits.

And giving Clinton a reality check, Obama added, “We’ve got to remember that Rocky was a movie.”

It is just a movie, of course, but it should be noted that in the work of fiction, Rocky ends up losing the final bout in a split decision to his rival, Apollo Creed.

Pundits and journalists labeled Obama’s Philadelphia speech “a test,” a defining moment in Barack Obama’s candidacy, where he would address the issue that could sink his chances of becoming the nation’s first black president – his relationship with his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Over the past week, Wright has been the focus of much scrutiny over his anti-white and controversial statements about the United States of America made at the pulpit in the Chicago church where Obama attends. Which explains all the media attention Obama’s 37-minute-long speech received. Much of his remarks were carried live on the cable television networks, while the campaign had to accommodate press in an overflow room, something usually reserved for the hundreds of supporters who can’t fit into a gymnasium or auditorium.

The speech was written by the senator himself, and described by staffers as very personal in nature. As he has since the story broke last week, Obama distanced himself from Reverend Wright’s “incendiary” remarks, which he called “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.”

He acknowledging there were still “nagging questions,” and attempted to explain why he hasn’t further distanced himself from someone who could utter such controversial words.

“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 isn’t all that I know of the man,” he said, reading evenly from a teleprompter.

Obama described his 20-year relationship with his former pastor; how Wright introduced him to the Christian faith and some of the good Wright has done in the community. He also attempted to explain the complexities that often go hand-in-hand with African American churches.

“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, Trinity’s 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,” Obama explained. “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.”

Obama assured his audience that this speech was not meant to “justify or excuse” Wright’s comments. “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,” he said. But to do so “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.”

What followed was a lengthy and personal assessment of race in America.

Keep reading below the jump….Watch Obama’s speech here:

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Barack Obama today took questions from the media following a town hall meeting in Monaca, Pennsylvania. The purpose was for Obama to talk about the economy and respond to Senator Clinton’s speech today on the Iraq war.

When faced with multiple questions about his relationship with his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama assured the assembled press corps that he would address our questions at a speech tomorrow in Philadelphia.

“I am going to be talking about, not just Rev. Wright, but just the larger issue of race in this campaign, which has ramped up over the last couple of weeks. So I don’t want to give a full preview – you might not come to the speech,” he told reporters.

The speech, billed as a “major address on race, politics, and unifying our country,” is still being written by speechwriters and the senator himself, who considers this speech to be very personal, per a senior staffer. While he will discuss Wright, the speech was not scheduled in direct response to the storyline per se, but because the issue of race has come up so prominently in the past few weeks, and during the course of the campaign.

At today’s media avail, the senator deferred several questions on Wright to the speech, at one point noting tomorrow’s event will be “a lot more fulsome than a press conference.” He added, “Does that make sense?”

But Obama did allow a small glimpse into his thoughts, saying, “I think the caricature that’s been painted of [Wright] is not accurate. And so part of what I’ll do tomorrow is just to talk a little bit about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church community, for example, which I think views this very differently,” he said. Trinity Church issued a statement yesterday saying Wright’s character was being “assassinated” by the media.

The only other question he fielded on the subject was when asked how the story has impacted his campaign. “You guys are in a better position to assess that than I am,” he replied.

Watch the exchange with reporters here:

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