Nobel Laurate Archbishop Desmond Tutu compares Obama to Nelson Mandela

[Ian David]

University of Michigan to honor Tutu
BY TINA LAM • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • October 29, 2008

Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Tuesday that he sees America as a generous and fantastic country, but also a crazy one -- especially in the wake of the arrest of two alleged white supremacists accused of planning a hate-killing spree.

Despite that, Tutu said Africans and people elsewhere are excited about the possibility that the United States might elect a black president next week. He also compared Barack Obama, a little bit, to former South African President Nelson Mandela during an interview Tuesday with the Free Press.

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Today, Tutu, 77, is to receive the University of Michigan's Raoul Wallenberg Medal, given each year since 1990 to an important humanitarian.

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Raoul Wallenberg, a graduate of U-M's School of Architecture, saved thousands of Jews in Hungary during the Holocaust by handing out Swedish diplomatic passports to protect them and hiding them in buildings he rented.

Tutu is to give a free public lecture at 7:30 p.m. today at Hill Auditorium on U-M's Ann Arbor campus. People can watch a live broadcast feed at U-M's Detroit Center at Orchestra Place, 3663 Woodward Ave.

More:
http://www.freep.com/article/20081029/NEWS05/810290424

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. DUers used to get criticized for similar comparisons.

"Oh look, Desmond Tutu's drinking the Obama cult kool-aid," and so on.

:D