I've been trying not to write about The Speech, but since a billion trillion people have asked for my take, I decided to offer it up:
I read the speech transcript because I couldn't bear to watch pundits with as much courage as Obama has in one thumbnail rip it to shreds. I still have no idea how it's being spun, but if he spoke what I read, he showed up for the show down, and won. I mean the man gave a speech.
The good news is that he responded forcefully, compassionately, and with vision. The bad news is that Hillary really wants to win, and so does McCain. They are going to try to string Obama up in many different ways before this is over. I'm pretty sure the plan is to drag him through so much, to demoralize him so completely, that he basically keels over, eviscerated before our very eyes. It will be like an assassination, but he won't be dead.
They've hit him on race and religion, the only place they can go now is sex and family. They will attack his last refuge: Michelle. If he can stay in it (and keep transforming these hideous moments into opportunities for teaching) and not get beat down and depressed and distracted, and pull that team of his together to figure out how to stop this country from going into a major recession, it will all be good. If not? We're looking at Hillary, admittedly not an awful choice. But then there's the possibility of McCain.
I've decided to wait it out. I can't spin it, argue it, rehash it anymore, and certainly not for the next eight months. Obama has proven his mettle as far as I am concerned and if he makes it, I will say so on election day. The rest is just a daily attempt to steal any hope he, or the rest of us, have left.
I continue to be amazed by his speech as it seemly stays on the NY Times most emailed list. My own impressions are, utterly and completely not the point. What I would like to say is simple: pundits and commentators report history, Barack Obama made history with his speech. So, perhaps your blog is fitting--it does not deserve to be commented upon or picked over, it as a Kennedy speech or Martin Luther King speech deserves to be read, and read again to understand ourselves and our nation.
I asked my son how he'd feel if he and a group of friends walked into a restaurant to eat and they took one look at him and refused to serve him; or if after a long day on the road he pulled into a motel and was refused service even tho' the place still had many vacant rooms; or if he could not use the same rest-room or drinking fountain or if he was yelled at just for being present. I also asked him how he would feel if he had a friend of another ethnic group with him who was refused service but HE was allowed to eat, stay in a motel, etc. Ignorance and bias are hurtful but have been a part of our shameful history much toooo long.
In this race, Barack Obama has exhibited to qualities I personally want in my President. He is uniquely qualified to be able to relate to all races and the way he treats his beautiful wife lets us know he cares about women too. I don't want Hillary to represent me as the face of America...someone who can look you in the face and lie with ease. Because of her race she won't have her "whopper" all over the news. She won't have her to answer to her one-time pastor's conviction for sexual abuse on a 7-year-old girl - but had that been Obama, we'd hear it non-stop. We'll never hear any of the pundits discuss her 1975 part in crushing a child who had been raped; by her crushing all the life out of the girl just to WIN. We won't hear about all the embarrassing parts of the Clinton administration - the Moncia Lewinsky scandal, impeachment, the endless Ken Starr investigations. We allow Bill Clinton to say just Hillary and John McCain are patriotic - why not Barack? Is it his ethnicity? Is this what the Clintons are going after now? Are we going to allow Bill to crush all ethnicities just to win?
But now, there are millions of us from all ethnicities who see for the first time a golden opportunity to unify our country, get through the racial divide, have an honest-to-goodness optimistic president that we can respect and trust, and the chance to work together to solve the horrendous problems we face.
One last thing - listen to Rev. Wright's entire speeches before you judge him on those 30 second clips! This is the first time in our history that we're holding a candidate responsible for the words of a pastor. Ask yourself...if Barack were white, would this be an issue?
Power corrupts. Absolute power (and the quest for it) corrupts absolutely.
If it is the line about Obama having 'proved his mettle', and if this means you are firmly in the Obama camp, then I would have hoped for a something other than 'I close my eyes until November' response.
I hope I misunderstood this and that you will be out there helping to counter the entrails of the kitchen sink that the Clinton Machine, McCain and the Rep. 'Hounddogs' will continue to throw at the man.
Surely, with all those people hanging on your words, you can do more than wait, watch and hope that the poor man won't fold under the strain.
Also, you are totally pushing a story that has been debunked over and over. There was NO demagoguery at Trinity. There wasn't even anything hateful in that particular sermon if you bother listening to whole thing instead of the snippet you see on the "news" media. In case you missed it, here is a link to the story that debunks the spin: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lonnee-hamilton/placing-reverend-wrights_b_92738.html.
There is a fundamental flaw in your argument. The American people just aren't at the same place that many progressives are with regards to smacking the US around with words. They aren't. Of course, they can forgive the reverend as they hear his words in context, but they certainly don't want a presidential candidate telling them how fucked up this country is and has been.
Angry guy of any color doesn't get elected in this country. Just ask John Edwards.
Look at Barack's record and the legislation he has championed. It is all designed to fundamentally change the way Washington works. His entire premise of government is the antithesis of the environment that allows all the depredations you listed to take place.
We cannot have secret, black ops in a transparent government. Military contractors can't hide cost overruns behind mountains of FOIA requests. Congressmen and women are finally held accountable for their votes and earmarks and fund-raising as we are able to connect the dots due to legislation that Barack helped pass.
We need to actually get a progressive in the White House before we can address and change anything.
That speech. It sounds like he had an intern write it. Did you not know that we have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and civil rights violations? Did you not know that blacks have a long list of grievances? Did you not know that whites have a list of resentments regarding affirmative action? Did you not already know these things?
Plus, he couldn't resist taking a little swipe at Geraldine Ferraro as part of an 'open discussion' or throwing his grandma into the mix with Rev. Wright.
Did you not know that that United States isn't perfect? Did you not know that? Did you not realize that the United States is a work in progress? That we're not done yet?
Please. Someone tell me something from that 'greatest speech in the history of the world, excuse me, universe' that you didn't already know or have seen or heard or read before. The excessive superlatives regarding everything Obama says is becoming like all those awards shows where every performer is the 'ne plus ultra bestest' on the planet. What if you went to Sears and everything was labelled 'Best' instead of 'Good, Better, Best'? Obama supporters can't distinguish between Burger King and the Four Seasons as everything is 'fabulous'. After a while, your assessments on everything are useless.
The central premise of your stroke is that a "great speech" has to contain new information, a new scientific discovery or other. Most great leaders are NOT the originators of any idea, but have a way of rallying others around an idea and then seeing the idea through its successful execution. The greatness of Obama's speech, as I and others see it, is two fold:
1. He is the only politician I can think of, in the past 50 years, to publicly tackle the issue of race and discrimination head on. Can you name another?
2. When confronted with an opportunity to take the easy way in defense of Rev Wright allegations, by throwing Rev Wright under th bus, he chose instead "nuance", to see both the positive and negative in the situation, and then call ALL of us toward common purpose.
If you do not see the wisdom and greater character of a politician who defies
the pundits and advisors in helping America rise above partisan politics and past practices of politicking to the lowest common denominator in this nation, then nothing anyone can say will help inform you.
..what a botched abortion of a response you gave. I find it amusing that millions of people who Obama is intellectually superior than feel comfortable enough to say that he is unintelligible - its akin to cyber thuggery, no one can call you on your BS when you are behind a computer screen. Psst, we don't believe you.
There were a few sensible comments from both right and left, but they were drowned in the bathos of the most of the pundit class. If you want to read just one thing, I'd recommend the column by normally-right-wing Michael Smerconish in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer...
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/20080323_Head_Strong__Obama_sees_route_to_righteousness.html
If everyone distanced and denounced people who have made racially/culturally hateful comments, this guy would never get a job.
He can't understand that some folks may love the country, but not love its politics, actions and/or leaders.
Was Rev. Wright fiery. Yes. And I believe that contributed to the negative reaction. And if you would think rationally and do some research, you would see that Rev Wright was not incorrect in what he said. There was an historical basis for everything he said even what people think was crazy talk about AIDS. Have you ever heard of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. It began in 1932 and continued for 40 years. Penecillin was discovered as a cure in 1945. It was never offered to the surviving participants - they were left to the ravages of the disease. With that history I, too, would be suspicious of the government.
Evangelical preachers seem to get away with preaching against the country. against gays, against other religions and people sit in those pews Sunday after Sunday. What is their historical basis? They always seem to be calling down the wrath of god upon the country for various reasons. Is that so different form saying "God Damn America."