Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards said he didn’t believe there was any evidence to support Carter’s assertion that racial factors had motivated Wilson. “I just don’t want a divisive dialogue on race to become a battering ram of division for our country,” he said. Alabama Democratic Rep. Artur Davis agreed. “It’s not a productive or healthy conversation,” he said. http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/The_race_from_race__Dems_rebut_Carter-59553767.html

Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith, whose district gave Mr. McCain 61% of its vote, called for health-care reform “without expanding government or adding more debt to an already overburdened treasury.” And it’s not only Democrats in red districts who are questioning the president. California Reps. Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa followed the speech by saying it hadn’t swayed them. Mr. Obama carried their districts with 60% of the vote. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri and Artur Davis of Alabama, both African-Americans, voiced similar sentiments.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204518504574416963495232516.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

It’s going to take a lot more than President Barack Obama’s health care reform speech to change the minds of Alabama’s members of Congress about health care legislation, those members said Thursday.  “I don’t know that it changed many minds on the substance of the issue,” U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, said in response to Obama’s televised speech to Congress on Wednesday.  Public option remains the biggest objection to legislation by the four Republican and the three Alabama Democratic members of Congress. “I don’t think there are 218 votes for it today and don’t think there’s 218 votes for it tomorrow,” said Davis, who considers the Waxman bill “a non-starter.” http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20090910/NEWS/909109956/1016/NEWS?Title=Speech-did-not-change-minds-of-Alabama-delegation

Nice move to the center.