It was a fine speech... one of the most remarkable in presidential campaign history

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

I have no idea how it will play... which sound-bytes will define it. But it certainly had an admirable level of candor and seriousness.

Unfortunately, the candor and seriousness of Obama 2.0 stood in contrast to what has gone before, so in that sense the speech dropped a retrospective dime on the Obama candidacy; pointing up the vacuity of the post-racial feel-good Obama 1.0.

It was as if Hillary was forced by circumstance to come clean on the IWR vote, as an absolute last resort. I have no doubt she could deliver a moving, candid speech on the IWR if it were politically necessary to do so. Some would receive it with moist and forgiving eyes. Others would note that made a mockery of her previous position.

Zealots see the former, haters see the later, and the great mushy middle eventually weighs in with a reaction that's hard to predict.

It's like the Tribune sit-down about Rezko. You get simultaneous candor, and the admission that Obama has been intentionally deceiving people about Rezko for a year. It's a cognitive dissonance moment... "This guy is so honest he admits to being a liar." We know that sort of contradiction is handy for blowing up malevolent computers on Star Trek, but humans beings are not bound by logic. There's no way to know how John Q. Citizen resolves that contradiction.

Getting away with stuff is one of the most valuable traits in a politician. Some have it, others don't. Barack Obama has some extraordinary qualities, so I wouldn't bet against him.

John Q. Citizen has a history of liking confessionals and of wanting to be fair-minded. (The fact that Nixon's "Checkers speech" worked is a marvel.)

I think today's speech will be universally praised and admired by commentators, and within the Democratic party it's gang-busters. Obama's shot at the nomination is even stronger than it already was pre-speech.

Outside the Democratic core it establishes the Obama movement as a racially charged opportunity to have a dialog on race in America. THat may be a great thing, but if it was a political winner we would have seen it as a first resort, rather than a last resort. Joe Six-pack and Harry Homeowner are neither fully evolved nor completely backward. They are not such terrible folks, but they view a dialog on race as being about as much fun as a colonoscopy. The right thing to do, sure... but it's appointment they find ways to miss.

Conclusion: Obama helped himself a lot in relative terms. He is ahead of where he was yesterday, but behind where he was two weeks ago.

[meow mix]

1. he did a great job, the dems were certainly watching

feeling good about stuff now

[LostinVA]

2. k&r

[MNDemNY]

3. Spot-on Kurt.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. Thanks

:hi:

[JimGinPA]

5. K&R

[grantcart]

6. vacuity of the . . .Obama 1.0 right

Yes that makes sense if you accept that 'style' and 'substance' are mutually exclusive.

The fact is that on substance the remaining candidates are in virtual agreement about the platform of the party with three exceptions. If he is vacuous then so is Clinton and the Democratic Party.

The three major areas that they have disagreed Obama has shown more creativity and leadership;

1) Style of Leadership - more transparent and more inclusive, more collegial and less partisan.

2) A Substantive Change in the use of Diplomacy - using the Presidency as a point man to re-establish an aggressive diplomatic tenet to American Foriegn Policy as opposed to simply a lighter version of Bush sabre rattling.

3) That the understanding or the American political landscape is a much more dynamic reality, and therefore a much more hopeful destination than the cynical leadership over the last two decades has allowed for.


It is not a good speech on a vacuous campaign. It is a speech that reflects the basic themes that have been set from the begining.

It has been as substantive and multilayered call to rethink our basic understanding of the meaning and definition of what it means to be an American that has ever been run.

That the media wants to be cover it at a superficial level is unerstood. And then there are those that want to appoint themselves as the guardians of the middle - or as you put it "great mushy middle". No matter what this man goes through or has done they will hold back careful not to be too partisan so that in the end they can with self appointed puffery nominate themsevles as the honest negotiator in the final inning.

[grantcart]

7. delete duplicate

[PerfectSage]

8. K & R

GObama!
Go Dean's 50 State Strategy!
Go Grassroots!

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

24. .

[ClayZ]

9. K and R

[doyourealize1]

10. good post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5139413

[angie_love]

11. K&R, a voice of reason you are.

[Voice for Peace]

12. Thanks for your post -- here is another speech from 2006

which is well worth watching, in which he addresses the relationship between religion & politics. I think it is brilliant.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid463869411?bctid=416343938

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

13. That's a good one (and the acoustics of that room make his voice even more resonant)

[damntexdem]

14. I wouldn't limit it to presidential-campaign history.

It belongs up there with 'I have a dream.'

[DerekJ]

15. kick

[rucky]

16. K&R

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. yes it was a great speech about race, but, I am miffed at all the free campaign air time

Obama could never buy such great ad or face time.....it was and is very unfair that he gets to clean up his messes in this manner.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

18. I disagree somewhat. Wright clips are mandatory context for speech clips, so it's a mixed blessing

[ElsewheresDaughter]

21. how, can we as democrats reel against the likes of Falwell/Robertson give Wright a free pass?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

23. I'm lovin' it. He deserves the free time for all the Swiftboating that's been going on.

[Armstead]

19. Obama 2.0 is Obama 1.0 with more user instructions

I disagree with you. You are selling Obama short.

IMO this is the exact same message he has had all along. The difference is simply that in this speech, he went into detail.

Nothing he said today contradicts anything he has said before.

You may feel that he was pushed to make this "confession," but compare it to how Hillary handled her own embarrassing supporter, Geraldine Ferraro.

"I'm sorry if some people were offended, but it wasn't meant that way..." was all she would say.

[krkaufman]

25. Agreed. Same message, different day; contrary to OP premise

Like you, I don't see how Obama's speech today was any different from his past message of unity and progress, aside from applying the theme to the Wright issue and other specific examples of racial discord.

[goodgd_yall]

20. It was an excellent speech

But I doubt it will have much effect. It depends somewhat on the MSM's dealing with this "issue" today and in the days to come.

I agree strongly with this: "they view a dialog on race as being about as much fun as a colonoscopy. The right thing to do, sure... but it's appointment they find ways to miss." I think the possibility of having to confront the issue of race in America is enough to turn some people away from voting for Obama because they equate it with bringing divisiveness and tension to their lives.

[Tom Rinaldo]

22. It was indeed a fine speech, and an important one

It was a speech that needed to be spoken, and Obama stepped up and delivered it. I have watched him hold back from this moment. Obama spoke on this theme before of course, but from a lofty rhetorical distance. I too wish we lived in a post racial America but we don't, and trying to sidestep the transition period we are in now was never a real option. At times I felt Obama was trying to kick this down the road a ways, trying to make it through the primaries without confronting race in America head on himself, while some of his supporters expressed outrage at many of those who noted the complex implications of Obama's ground breaking candidacy head on.

It was not healing America to conduct a witch hunt for people to blame for forcing Obama to be seen as "the Black Candidate". Obama IS the Black Candidate, but that never meant Obama could not also be the best President ALL Americans can hope for. Those concepts do not need to be in conflict, in fact the first can support the second. Obama is many important things, being black is only one of them, but partially because he is black he is better positioned to open a door to healing racial divisions in our nation than anyone else who ran for President this year, or possibly even ever.

I was looking for real leadership from Obama on this front, and instead I had been seeing him seek to rise above matters of race in America. Perhaps he felt that was his only real path to becoming President. I hope that is wrong. We all need to rise above race but we still need some guides to get us there from here. I will be deeply saddened if Obama is denied that office due to racial issues in America, and his need to confront them openly.

Obama scored real points for me with this speech because he dealt with race head on, and dealt with it in a manner that provides leadership to all of us. My initial reasons for nor backing Obama were two fold; My own belief about how prepared he is to be President at this stage in his career and concerns over how he will hold up in a political campaign on those days when the whole world appears to go negative on him.

Over time I began to develop another nagging concern. Obama wasn't living up to his potential in my mind to help bring the races in America closer together, in some ways his relative silence on direct racial issues was contributing to the opposite. At times it seemed to me that Obama wanted to run a campaign during which we were obligated to virtually pretend that we all lived in a post racial America. What was settling in by default was a blame game where it seemed at times that anyone who did notice the inevitable racial component of this election was at risk of being accused of racism depending on how appropriately they noted it, with no agreed upon standards.

With this speech Obama moved forward in my esteem on the second of my original concerns about him as our possible Presidential candidate, while turning the tide for me regarding that nagging new concern that I mentioned. I hope he continues on this path. He did a real service to his nation today.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

27. Excellent post, though as a practical matter I expect the Obama candidacy to set

race relations in America back decades. The first step to real connections between people is to be able to talk to each other without caution. If he becomes president it will be like the months after 9/11 when you couldn't criticize the President.

An America where people feel they have to look over their shoulder before saying whatever the hell they feel like saying about the President is not America.

That's not Obama's fault. It's just the nature of things.

[Medusa]

26. It was amazing

easily the best speech I've seen in my life. If you can listen to that and not be moved, then you can't be moved, period.