Did Obama's speech on race connect with voters?

Did he succeed?

Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race has been called everything from "brilliant" to "phony."

But will it, in basic political terms, lift his campaign over its latest and perhaps highest hurdle?

Did Obama's speech in Philadelphia ease or erase doubts among voters in the wake of widely circulated videos of his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, delivering inflammatory and racially charged remarks from the pulpit of Obama's South Side church?

More Coverage Video Hear Obama's speech Links Obama confronts nation's legacy of racial division The full text of Obama's speech Pastor forged of another era The unsatisfying but perhaps most candid answer is that it's too soon to tell.Harry Wray, a DePaul University political science professor, said "The question is whether we have moved, as a country, to the point where we can see (Obama) for who he is or whether he will be tied to comments made by his minister. I think that's an open question."The potential political liability, observers agreed, lies primarily not with black or liberal white voters or with conservatives who would not vote for him in any event. The liability resides with white moderates and independents still getting comfortable with the idea of casting their ballots for a black presidential candidate.Said Andra Gillespie, an Emory University political science professor who researches generational transitions in black politics: "One of the strengths of his campaign has been that he transcends race; that's his appeal to nonblack voters. He seems to exude a sort of safeness that contrasts to more militant civil rights leaders who are more likely to play the race card. White voters have thought of him as the antithesis of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, so when they see these videos, it causes a little cognitive dissonance."Jim Wall, senior contributing editor of The Christian Century magazine and a longtime Democratic Party organizer in Chicago's suburbs, objects to "guilt by association" linking Obama to Wright. But he also thinks Obama's speech deftly drew essential distinctions between Wright and himself and did so without denying the importance, tradition or experience of his black church community."He wanted to speak to white voters who are not fully aware yet of who Obama is," Wall said. "He wanted to say: 'This is not me; this is not who I am.' "Ferald Bryan, a Northern Illinois University associate professor of communications, said Obama relied in his speech on an approach that has paid dividends for him before -- personalizing his message."He's trying to broaden his own story now to include with in it the black church, to explain the tradition and to say 'If you accept me, you also have to accept that tradition.' " said Bryan, who studies political communication and rhetoric. "By saying he can't reject Wright any more than he can reject people in his own family, he folded this own story into this larger story, presenting his church as his extended family."That doesn't work for Jim Durkin, a Republican state representative from Western Springs and co-chairman of John McCain's Illinois presidential campaign.Obama, Durkin said, waited until the past week to remove Wright from the campaign's African American Leadership Council even though the campaign admits it knew months ago that Wright's rhetoric could be a problem.Further, Durkin said, Obama's speech did not fully address the nature or scope of Wright's remarks."Some people say these remarks were taken out of context, but I don't know what other explanation you can offer. How you can say that what he said is not what he meant?" Durkin said. "He talks about the U.S. government injecting the AIDS virus into black Americans as a form of genocide. He's suggests that somehow 9/11 was something America brought on itself."Obama's long-standing and ongoing association with Wright, Durkin said, speaks to issues of judgment, which, he said, Obama has placed at the heart of his own campaign when applied to such issues as the Iraq war.Several observers have noted Obama walked a fine line in repudiating Wright's remarks without distancing himself from his church or the black community and its race-related issues.Gillespie said she doubts Obama's speech harmed his standing among blacks. But she said he portrayed a deeper generational divide than actually exists."In some ways he allowed the media to dismiss (Wright) as a crazy old coot," Gillespie said, "when the reality is that some of Jeremiah Wright's comments resonate with a lot of black people, regardless of age."Lorenzo Morris, chairman of the Howard University political science department in Washington, D.C., said Obama put tensions between black Americans and working-class whites into a policy context that both groups understand.Morris said he previously had been disappointed candidates had failed to address issue of jobs, health care and criminal justice in terms of race and race relations. Morris said Obama spoke Tuesday of economic justice issues in ways that should resonate with whites as well as blacks. 512342Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., listens to her husband speak.Associated Press 512363This photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shows the presidential hopeful, Obama, in 1979 during his high school graduation in Hawaii with his maternal grandparents, Stanley Armour Dunham and his wife Madelyn Payne, both natives of Kansas.Associated Press