Just before the first presidential debates, a speech President Obama made in 2007 is getting much attention and some say it is embarrassing for the Commander-in-Chief. INSIDE EDITION has the details.
Whoopi Goldberg weighed in on the controversy over a just-leaked video of President Obama.
“Sometimes we do change up how we are talking to people, everybody does it,” said Goldberg.
Obama gave an address before an audience of African-American church leaders in 2007 when he was running for president. At one point, he slammed the Bush administration for not doing enough to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Obama said, "The people in New Orleans, they don't care about as much."
Now, as the nation gears up for Wednesday night's big presidential debate, another debate is raging. Is the 2007 speech a major embarrassment for the Obama camp because of what some are calling its racially inflammatory tone? Or is the whole thing a tempest in a teapot.
Some are also drawing attention to the way Obama spoke in what seemed to be a Southern accent.
So is the video as potentially harmful as Mitt Romney’s "47%" speech?
Former Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said there's no comparison.
Gibbs told INSIDE EDITION, "It was a publicly open event. Reporters that covered the campaign covered that speech. It is very different than when you are in secret, telling your campaign contributors that 47% of the country doesn't care enough about their own personal situation, to take responsibilities of themselves in life."
Final preparations are being made for Wednesday's big presidential debate. It is expected to be watched by 50 million viewers.
INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret asked Mitt Romney's campaign adviser, Kevin Madden, "You do not perceive that video showing up in the debates?"
Madden said, "That is something that is up for the questioner. But I don't know if that is something that the moderators will bring up. I know it is not going to be something that the Governor focuses on, because what is more important to voters is President Obama's record."
