Obama: Great Speech, Won't Matter

[sueragingroz]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/stumped/2008/03/obama_great_speech_wont_matter_1.html

excerpt:

With every passing contest, his ability to be all things to all voters frays a little more, and of course the recent controversy over his close ties to preacher Jeremiah Wright has come close to accomplishing what Bill Clinton so clumsily tried to do before the South Carolina primary: For the first time, Obama risks being identified with that strain of grievance-nursing, embittered African-American political tradition that many white blue-collar Democratic voters find so off-putting.

It's been a great week, in other words, for Hillary Clinton. No matter how many superlatives pundits and intellectuals deploy in describing Obama's nuanced discourse on race, it's never a good week for Obama when he is forced to define himself as a candidate who is all about race.

He was eloquent and thoughtful in talking about race relations in America, but the entire exercise still ended up feeling a bit evasive. What prompted the speech, after all, were pointed questions about why Obama would befriend a pastor who preached a message of bitter division and anti-Americanism. Obama didn't squarely address that issue. It was the equivalent of responding to a missed date with your girlfriend with a sweeping disquisition on the history of the relations between the sexes.

Obama's speech got a big thumbs up from the intelligentsia. (I never know if I am one of them ... but a columnist can aspire!) I suspect, however, that it will get a big thumbs down from blue-collar white voters in Pennsylvania. College students may well be reading Obama's speech years from now in U.S. history textbooks, and discussing its structure and nuance in class. But I don't think the speech will do Obama much good with voters in 2008.

[Kittycat]

1. Psst... Richardson is giving his endorsement right now, tying

Directly to the speech and race relations/coming together :)

It's already spreading, and it's viral. Hope. Change. Unity. This is what Progressives have been screaming for, if only you (general you) could open your eyes and recognize it.

[blonndee]

THIS speech...wow. Following Obama's, this could indeed be a movement

of epic proportions.

[2rth2pwr]

6. The question is, would Obama's grandmother be scared

if she saw Richardson walking down the street.

[Tellurian]

16. Obama is blowing the perfect setup given him by Richardson..

He's back on the race thing again. MSM cutting away before he shoots the rest of his toes off on Nat'l tv..

[Kittycat]

19. Grapes are really sour for you this week, aren't they?

Why don't you go back to Hillis44 & their infected site?

[Tellurian]

20. Theres no sour grapes..

Or is that your perception of what is IS?

[xultar]

38. Richardson thinks being Gay is a choice. The Logo Channel interviewer asked him TWICE

and he gave that wrong ass answer 2 times.

His campaign folks corrected it for him like a day later.

Richardson's light dimmed a significant amount for me after that.

[islandmkl]

2. are you saying this is a matter of 'talking to people who won't listen'?...

One and out is not a path for change....

I imagine Barack will continue to attempt to advance discussion...and who knows...

maybe, even just one at a time, some deaf ears will start to hear...

also, it is at best presumptive to assume the speech was only appreciated by the 'intelligentsia'...sound like freeper analysis from here...

[sueragingroz]

40. actually it's political analysis....

we forget sometimes that this is a POLITICAL race... filled with POLITICS and POLITICAL ANALYSIS...

[babylonsister]

3. Read the comments: "you've got it wrong regarding Obama's speech"

Stumped,

I'm generally a fan of your work, but you've got it wrong regarding Obama's speech.

You claim that Obama didn't "squarely address the issue", but in fact he did. It's just that his answer can't be easily shrink-wrapped into a sound-bite or a headline. Listen to the speech, read the transcript. His argument is essentially that the issue is too complex to have, pardon the pun, a black and white answer that can be easily digested. He embraced the good in Rev. Wright without vilifying the bad. To me, this is exactly the kind of carefully considered, honest position that I want to see my leaders take on all complicated issues.

Consider for example, the WaPo editorial proclaiming that the Democratic candidates 'just don't get it' regarding Iraq. You want nuance and profound understanding regarding Iraq, but not race? What about health care? The economy?

Instead of filtering the complex and difficult issues facing the nation down to their most divisive and diametrically opposed parts, the role of the media should be to inform the electorate and challenge them to understand their world in more than single sentences, factiods and yes/no answers. Instead, you're encouraging the candidates give us all the easy way out, the Cliff Notes version, which does a great disservice to the democratic process and the nation at large.

[sueragingroz]

41. link?

even if you are referring to the OP, you should specify...

[DemGa]

4. It was evasive and slick -- like Obama

Turning out poor grandma, slyly equating Ferraro with his mentor pastor Wright. The whole speech was a design in saving Obama's ass -- disguised with the usual Obama fluff.

[JackORoses]

5. will you ever get over the ass-kicking that Obama has given Hillary?

[DemGa]

9. We'll see who gets what -- I happen to be able to see through the charlatan Obama

Will you ever develop insight to see?

[barb162]

11. Will you be able to get over the ass-kicking she'll give to Obama in PA?

[Tarheel_Dem]

13. Will you be able to get over the fact that it won't matter?

Basic math is your friend.

[barb162]

23. Haha, superdelegates will be Hillary's friends; redo your math.

[JackORoses]

25. is that why they're all rallying to her side now?

oh...you mean they aren't?
Damn the luck!

[barb162]

32. Just sit back and watch; Clinton has the moementum now. n/t

[JackORoses]

34. I think you mean Joementum.

[barb162]

35. Take a good look at the last five days of that Reuters graph... really.

It's on a current thread; Hillary reading Obama by a few points 3-16-08/ 3-20-08.

[thoughtcrime1984]

48. Yeah, let's put the nomination on polls

How about the nom goes to the candidate that has more votes and pledged delegates. The smarter candidate, the better candidate. The one that has risen despite 350 years of experience and name recognition for his opponent, and an unbelievably huge political machine, replete with thousands of max donors, and an adoring media, at least since the Wisconsin blowout. But, yeah, we'll just call this race for Hil based on Reuters and Gallup small sample polls that fluctuate daily. I'm all for hearing with the remaining 8 states and PR and Guam have to say- I just am tired of all the petty, typical Clinton kitchen sink campaigning that has daily garbage to fling at Obama. It is for that reason that I would like to see this thing end ASAP. Obama will win, and it will be legal and backed by the majority of the people.

[JackORoses]

24. I have news for you, this will be over before PA.

Enjoy those polls, though.

[Two Americas]

31. which is it to be?

Ass kicking?

Or unity?

[JackORoses]

33. after Hillary has had enough ass-kicking, she will withdraw

and the Democratic Party will unite around its Nominee

[Two Americas]

39. hmmmm

So we achieve "unity" by kicking the asses of those who don't agree with us.

This sounds more like "enforced conformity" than "unity" to me.

"Unite or else."

[JackORoses]

46. we kick the asses of those who threaten Party Unity

Hillary has betrayed the Democratic Party.
She will get what she deserves.

[Two Americas]

47. the problem with "hope"

It is not very well spelled out just what it is we are supposed to be hoping for.

Apparently, we are to hope for the destruction of those who disagree with us.

We will dash the hopes of all who refuse to hope along with us.

Those who disagree with us are hurting our unity, so they will be de-unitized.

All who refuse to be unitized, will be excluded from the unity.

[JackORoses]

49. No, just Hillary. Anyone else is welcome to join the Party.

C'mon in the water's warm!
and this time it's not not from Hillary pissing on our Parade

[Two Americas]

50. disingenous and hostile

All are welcome on your terms. That is the opposite of "all are welcome" and the opposite of "unity."

"Our" parade? Am I pissing on "our" parade? "Our" really means "your," and it is disingenuous, just as your "all are welcome" message is.

In would love to hear just what this parade is about. Obama supporters are claiming that it is the ultimate opposition to the DLC, to corporate Dems, to spineless Dems, to triangulating Dems. If that were true, should not leftists and radicals and Edwards and Kucinich supporters, and anti-capitalist and anti-corporate people such as myself be able to detect that? Shouldn't you be able to communicate that to us?

[cali]

15. sad for you that your ears are so stopped up by hate

it's like a perverse alchemy. And tough shit that the speeh has mattered and that Richardson is endorsing him. Stick a fork in hilly she's so done. She's so last century.

[DemGa]

17. You are the one talking about sticking forks in people

and I am affected by hate?

It seems you've transmuted your own hate into projection.

[riskpeace]

36. It's not hate to

have an opinion about someone that is different than yours.

"I might be skinny, but I'm tough." -- Barack Obama.

[Two Americas]

37. yeah

I just HATE people whose ears are stopped up by hate. Stick a fork in them!!!

Tough shit to them! We are building unity, and if they won't get on the program we will throw them out! People who don't "get" unity don't deserve to share our "unity." Purge the unity movement of all who dare question it!

[sueragingroz]

42. oh and here's your pony...

[Two Americas]

45. right

And I have a damned good idea that we are slated to shovel up all of that manure, too, before this thing is over with.

[ChicagoRonin]

18. What's with the poor Grandma stuff?

I don't understand this whole "throwing Grandma under the bus thing". Nothing in Obama's words felt disrespectful towards his grandmother, in my opinion. He seem to acknowledge that she was a human being with some flawed notions.

Let me guess, you apparently have no friends or relatives who ever say anything you find repugnant or hold beliefs you disagree with, huh? You must walk on water.

[SoCalDem]

7. Wow..I have lain awake nights..worried about what "stumped" thought..

whew!! Thanks for the fish, stumped :)

your opinion is one of millions out here on the internet(s)..

[TomClash]

8. Stumped is pretty accurate

Another word for the blog is "clueless."

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[barb162]

12. It's not a great speech and it will matter as a failed attempt to stem Obama's losses.

It was an attempt to deflect Obama's campaign trainwreck over his relationship with Wright.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. In other words, a lofty cover your ass speech that is seen as such.

[grantcart]

21. The speech won't have an impact but the piling on by the media will

My neighbors who are mostly middle of the road uncommitted are getting pissed off on picking on a guy for what his pastor says.

[backscatter712]

22. If Hillary was running against Martin Luther King Jr...

her shills (or Freepers stirring the shit) would be calling the I Have A Dream speech "pie-in-the-sky fantasy", they'd be attacking him with guilt-by-association smears and accusing him of being buddies with Malcolm X, and bashing him because he's "demanding that negroes get special rights."

Seriously! Look at yourselves!

[TahitiNut]

26. "Andrés Martinez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation"

DLC... "centrist" ... Third Way stink-tank. Other fellows include Christine Todd Whitman (GOP, former Governor of New Jersey, EPA head under Cheney/Bush, and Nixon/Rumsfeld protege in the 70s) and Francis Fukuyama (conservative 'philosopher' and historian).

Just more stench from the anchovies of the American Pie.

[krawhitham]

27. This says different

[Yes We Did]

28. Those must be some really sour grapes. You might want to take them back.

In case you missed it, his speech already is working, and the whole passport-gate thing... that's just gonna move pastor wright right along.

[sueragingroz]

43. passportgate is a non story. It's SOP it seems for all three candidates...

[wowimthere]

29. Is the Washington Post still credible? Youtube, at this point has more credibility.

[wowimthere]

30. If you think the Piling on will work, guess again... Huffingtonpost has a McCain endorsed pastor...

on it's front page. The media doesn't know what can of worms they've opened. These stories will start to paint all pastors in a kind of light that will minimize the damage to Obama. It's starting now.

Stop paying attention to the MSM. They are three steps behind the blogs. Wright won't last for another month. Why? Because the sermons of many pastors will start to creep out. Even Hillary's faith with her "Fellowship" will be fodder for the media pretty soon.

The media is the arm of the right wing. Piling on Obama will spray a light on every pastor who ever preached to the candidates. It's starting already.

[sueragingroz]

44. I'm just showing you some political analysis

take it for what you believe that it is worth.