Yes, I will admit this guy has brains. I am certainly not an Obama supporter, but this guy is able to garner a large portion of popular support while not having to defend or talk about his voting record (easily on of the most liberal in the Senate). His talk of uniting (as his is incredibly partisan in voting) is not all that terribly truthful, but the way in which he chooses his words seem uncommonly heartfelt and straightforward.
Obama took the opportunity Tuesday at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia Pennsylvania to discuss his thoughts on race, what his connections to the Reverand Jeremiah Wright mean, whether he will agree to disavow his preacher's stances, and throw in some specifics on what he wants to do with the presidency.
(*full length clip: over 9 minutes long, transcript is here*)
I almost shit my pants when I realized that not only was he expounding on the views of many blacks in America, but he also brought their counterpoint forward as well. He spoke of his connections with the outspoken (and really freakin' crazy) Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and told why he couldn't throw his preacher under the bus (politically). I believe this speech Obama gave will easily be considered historic. I believe that Obama as a man is genuine, but with regards to where he wants to take this country, genuinely wrong. Read the transcript, or watch the speech for yourself, you will certainly gain something from it. My views on race and race relations have not changed one bit, but I am heartened by the fact that someone at the national level understands some of the most difficult nuance on this subject and is willing to talk to the nation about it.
I wish more people were willing to step up to a podium and lay bare their views like this. I wish also that people would judge those thoughts on their merit and not based on some arbitrary and harmful standards which political correctness forces on this debate.
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I was really impressed how he could seamlessly tie a not real bright statement by Ferraro, to the hate filled vitriol of Jeremiah Wright (I refuse to call him Reverand) with this statement, "Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias."
Or even more disturbing is his view on "White People" while trying to clarify some of his statements made in that speech about his Grandmother, "The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know - there’s a reaction in her that’s been bred into our experiences that don’t go away and sometimes come out in the wrong way and that’s just the nature of race in our society."
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