Here at Innermost Parts, we try to stay away from commenting on purely national politics. For this, however, I’m willing to make an exception.
Obama just gave an amazing “JFK-esque” speech on race and politics in America.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrp-v2tHaDo&feature=user[/youtube]
Honest. Authentic. Longer than half and hour.
Still, this is a really amazing speech. Marc Ambinder says:
This wasn’t a speech by committee… Obama wrote the speech himself, working on it for two days and nights…. and showed it to only a few of his top advisers.
First time I’ve actually learned something, really learned something from a political speech.
I knew you’d like it. I really felt that Obama was speaking to me – I liked the bit where he said something to the effect of “…personal responsibility. Yes – A conservative value.” He knows my framing objections already and counters them with an extended riff on such progressive topics as “I am my brothers keeper.” “They are all AMERICAN children” etc. For all the talk about conversations on the campaign trail, this felt the most like a friendly chat of anything I’ve seen. A friendly chat where I didn’t have much to say, but that’s OK. I learned a lot from the experience.
I’m very impressed, especially by the boldness of his statements about the racist roots of the Reagan coalition and the xenophobic/bigoted subtext of conservative radio commentators. Even from an Obama skeptic, this was fantastic.