Can America Recognize Greatness When it Sees it?

I don't know whether Senator Obama will prove to be a great politician or a great president. He has made mistakes, like everyone else on the campaign trail. Circumstance sometimes forces him to be a fairly conventional politician. At times, though, the moment leads him to be something more. This morning, Senator Obama needed that something more. Embattled by public outcry over incendiary statements made by his pastor, Reverend Wright, he faced a deadly threat to his candidacy. And he responded.

There have been so many terrific reactions. I can only cite a few, such as those in the New Republic here, here, here and here:

I will just say that in 37 minutes, Obama showed a touch of greatness. Without the usual campaign artiface or spin, with surprisingly little superstar wattage or lofty rhetoric, he said what had to be said. He explained, in sympathetic but critical terms, why views such as Reverend Wright's are so widely held in the African-American community. Angry black men like Reverend Wright are good people. Their life experience provides all-too-many reasons to be embittered about an American society which has so often let them down, neglected or mistreated the people they loved.

I am sad for Reverend Wright today. He is no Louis Farrakhan. Anyone who spends time in embattled African-American communities has heard similar things said countless times. I have met many people like him. Born in a certain time and place, sometimes prone to express dicey opinions that make, say, a visiting Jewish public health researcher nervous, these are often the same people who call after your sick parent and save a kind word for your kid. Their pungent opinions do not capture how they actually treat white people close at hand. Reverend Wright deserves better than to be defined by some incautious outbursts thrown onto YouTube.

At the same time, Senator Obama was right to repudiate Reverend Wright's despair. America has a greater capacity to improve itself than the Reverend credits. Barack Obama has led a very different, far more blessed life that allows him to embrace these capacities more clearly and with less ambivalence than Reverend Wright can. That anger in the African-American community can explode with tragic and ugly consequences. It must be molded into a more universal call for compassion and social justice in America.

Senator Obama said some other things, too: about the anger many white people feel towards the high rates of crime and academic failure in the African-American community, about arguably misplaced but real resentment of affirmative action.

I can't imagine another leading politician making this speech. Robert Kennedy did the awful night Martin Luther King was killed, but that was another time. Bill Clinton can move African-Americans and whites. Yet I never fully escape the sense of political artifice, the sense that a calibrated Sister Souljah moment may intrude.

Senator Obama is no less of a practical and ambitious politician. He wants to lead Americans across boundaries of every color line. He is betting that enough people are out there, on all sides, for this to be a winning bet. He may fall short. He showed a touch of greatness today, but are Americans ready for it? The jury is out. It is possible that Reverend Wright's pessimism about America will prove sadly prescient.

Read more HuffPost coverage and reaction to Obama's speech

Comments

[kcnativnla]

"Can America Recognize Greatness When it Sees it?"

Not when it's wrapped in black skin. Truth hurts...deeply.

[magen]

Americans can only recognize greatness in sports figures.

[nazgul]

Shockingly, Joe Scarborough got it. Joe Scarborough! Yet we have these HRC supporters, presumably Democrats, who didn't. Heck, even Hillary herself hasn't yet.

[nazgul]

Still no word from Hillary on the most significant statement on race since the 60s. And she considers herself a leader of progressives...why?

[spacealien]

exceptional post.

[Nommo]

The American people have to be told what is great, and usually that is done by Europeans.

[CubanPete]

I am still waiting for Michelle Obama to come out and publicly denounce her Reverends mentality. Didn't we want to know ALL about Hillary Clinton when she was the candidate for First Lady back when Bill was running? Shouldn't we hear from our potential First Lady what she thinks about the Reverend and why she felt it was okay to drag her to young children to his sermons? I personally think (like with most familys) one of the spouses chose what paster you are going to listen to or what church you are going to attend, and in the Obama family it is obvious to me that Michelle make all the family decisions. When are we going to examine what she is all about?

[efranklin]

A lot of commenters keep rapping on the idea that Obama should have distanced himself from his church earlier. I wonder though, in what context would such critics be satisfied? If Obama had "fled" to a less controversial church at some point (i.e., perhaps a "whiter" church), critics would say he was opportunistic in his abandonment of the very community he had worked hard to assist as a community organizer and civil rights attorney. If there were footage of him chiding Rev. Wright for this statement or that, it could be seen as contradictory to his message of unity. But it is all moot. Even if he had condemned Rev. Wright's statements more forcefully, folks that have formed their decision based on Wright's offensive sound bites would not be appeased. For close-minded voters, guilt by association is simple and absolute.

[Centaur]

I have this on dvd and I plan to watch it a few more times to get the full dimension of it. It was a multi-layered speech and I think to understand it fully I think you have to revisit it numerous times. This will be one of the great speeches ever given in this country. I just hope this country gets it. I think the majority of America will.

[ChrisS13]

If you think a damage control speech during the Democratic Primary is going to be one of the greatest speeches ever given in this country, then you truly have been failed by our education system. Do some homework on the likes of MLK, Abe, Roosevelt, JFK, Truman, Thomas Jefferson etc. This was a pandered speech for crying out loud, stop acting like it was anything but.

[nazgul]

Don't think history will agree with you anymore than it will agree with Hillary.

[DRHoen]

Did you even listen to the speech? Pandering?!

[bigeking]

It is easy to say that your definition of a moment of greatness and mine are totally different. Mr. Obama did and said what he needed to as a politician, nothing more. A true moment of greatness would have been him standing up and denouncing such rhetoric and walking out. It is not a strectch to assume that the Rev Wright has made similiar comments in past preachings, giving Mr. Obama the chance to not having to deal with this in the first place. A great leader to me is one that is more neutral than any of our canidates, and can bring people together with pride in our country, without selling this country out.

[ljmck]

As I see it, the most effective option is not to denounce and destroy. I rather like have my thoughts and feelings challenged, by you, by Senator Obama, and even by Rev. Wright.

I guess what I was seeing and hearing from him was the neutrality that you speak of, and I was witnessing someone who honestly was trying to give us some understanding of the two sides of the fence he stands on, by virtue of his birth. It looks to me as if everyone else in the campaign has tried to run from the issue. Methinks we've been running from it for a long time now, applying some fixes that don't really work because we don't have the conversations we should.

Look, I have some racist old aunties, in their nineties. I'm not going to confront each and every thing they say and I'm not going to walk away from them unless they go out and start burning crosses. I love them. I even love some of my acquaintances who walk on the edge of racism and hate, although I don't hesitate to express an opposite opinion. I hope they love me in spite of my flat spots. I hope they won't shun me, but will keep me in the fold and gently start me on the right path when I go astray.

So when someone like Senator Obama stands up and responds to the ugliness going around, doesn't run away, and opens the conversation, I'm really, really grateful.

For me, he doesn't have to be perfect. And I don't see how just ostracizing those who say hateful things helps. We don't have to put up with it, but we don't have to destroy them either.

I think what he did today showed courage, love, and leadership. Also intellect. And to me it feels better than the same old political correctness.

So I think a little differently than you do, and I don't know where the common ground might be, but I'm pretty convinced I saw leadership of a presidential caliber today.

But I'm still listening.

[ChrisS13]

Did you choose your aunties? Did you allow your children to be taught the voice of god from a racist anti american hate monger?

[Lazyeye]

If, Barack Obama can rid this nation of Political Correctness, then he will be a hero in my book.