The Most Important Blog In The Country On Obama's Speech

Help! Help! I'm being held hostage! Nilda is making me watch Obama's speech and forcing me to write a blog post about it, and I can't finish watching John Adams until I do:

• The speech did exactly what it had to do. It took the focus away from the Pastor's comments and shifted it to race issues that persist in America.
• No other politician would be able to make this speech. Only a black man who has somehow found a way to connect with white audiences without scaring them (I think it's the white grandparents), would be able to come up with the right chemistry to address race in such a blunt manner. It makes you wonder just how deep an Obama presidency might go to changing the country.
• Instead of trying to distance himself from from the pastor and the church, he connected it to its polar opposite, his white grandmother who held biased feelings, then found herself raising a black grandchild. He used the church to illustrate a side of the country that many don't see.
• He was right to defend the church he's belonged to for so many years. Simply abandoning it, while safe and easy, would have made him look weak. Still, though, he called Jeremiah his "former" Pastor.
• The speech felt important. You can see high school history students reading it 50 years from now. You gotta love an Obama speech.
• Not sure how I feel about the time of day he chose to make the speech. Doing it in the morning gave him the day's headlines, but it also limited the speech's audience to commentary and a few snippets. Then again, he never would have been able to make a 40 minute speech in primetime.
• Obama's speech turned him into the anti-racism candidate, that a vote for him is a vote against racism. He turned the mere fulfillment of his platform (schools, jobs, healthcare), into the remedy for racism.
• This is exactly the kind of speech that I would want a President to give. Doesn't try to hide race, doesn't sugar coat it, but addresses it head on and gives a path to correct it.
• I can't help but see a connection between the sudden interest in Adams and the Obama campaign. John Adams was known for speaking and had a remarkable talent for calling others to action, and despite his inexperience, he made a remarkable contribution. Let's see how this one turns out.
• For those who are interested, here's the full video. It's like a line at Disney. It's long, but it moves quick: