Now THAT'S What I've Been Missing

Amazing speech (4.00 / 2)

It's the best political speech I've heard in my lifetime, at least that I can remember. Some are complaining that it it isn't sound-byte digestable, unfortunately the media does have the power to amplify or dismiss these kinds of things. I hope undecided voters will take the effort to read/watch it in its entirety. But you're right though - agree or disagree, it is a  really well-made argument for reconciliation, borne out of a more authentic kind of patriotism that steps up and challenges those who listen to it.  

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." - Warren Buffet

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by: joesaho @ Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 23:48:56 PM UTC

Yup... (4.00 / 1)

...as I was reading the transcript, I was thinking this was a speech that future high school students would study in the way we studied the speeches of Lincoln, FDR, and JFK (OK, maybe that's a tiny bit hyperbolic...).

Oddly, when I finally got to watch the video, it was a bit less dramatic than I had imagined it... but I suppose that's just because I've gotten used to watching him speak to screaming crowds.

What impressed me so much about the speech was no so much his specific take on race, but his clear willingness to look at problems unflinchingly, without shying away from the uncomfortable facts, but with a sense of optimism intact. Contrast that with the current pResident's habit of either pretending problems don't exist or attributing them to one-dimensional "evildoers" while brushing off root causes with arm-waiving pseudo-patriotism.

Love him or hate him, when Bill Clinton spoke you could at least tell there was a mind at work, and that he was engaging the issues in front of him. I have so desperately missed that during our 40 years (I guess it only seems like 40 years) in the Bush wilderness.

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by: dauphinb @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 03:40:58 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I agree (4.00 / 1)

It was absolutely amazing. This is what "leadership" looks like.  

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by: CaptCT @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 13:33:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Reaction (0.00 / 0)

A funny and trenchant take on the Obama speech by Adam McKay at HuffPo.

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by: dauphinb @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 04:42:47 AM UTC

I watched it before work... (0.00 / 0)

then I listened to some conservative dick on 1080am on the way to work.  I was punching my steering wheel.  This guy thought it was so outrageous that Obama would say "white people are mad at black people" because of affirmative action.  (which he did not say, he sympathized with white middle-class men that don't feel like affirmative action is great for them)  This dickhead then said 'It's good for me, as a white man, to know that black people are apparently mad at me.'  How the fuck does someone get that impression from that speech?  If anything, Barack blatantly demonstrated that he is in no way mad at white people.

This was definitely the best speech of the election so far.  I have a friend and coworker who has been a Hillary supporter and said that because of this speech, he is now neutral.  If anyone knows who that radio host was, please let me know cause I would like to let him hear what I have to say.

"Join the resistance and there will be no resistance." - My Grandmother

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by: Rusty5329 @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 06:31:14 AM UTC

1,000,000 views (0.00 / 0)

In less than 24 hrs. That is remarkable, especially so for something this long (37 min). Did the speech have resonance? Volumes.

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by: Scarce @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 13:56:26 PM UTC

I didn't get it before... (4.00 / 3)

I voted for Obama in the CT primary, but my heart was really with John Edwards, then, perhaps, Chris Dodd.  I was put off by the lack of specificity in Obama's positions, and worried by Paul Krugman's poignant and incisive criticisms of Obama's position on health care.  I voted for him primarily because he had displayed a clear vision of the quagmire facing us well before we invaded Iraq, whilst Hillary Clinton to this day refuses to acknowledge her stupendous blunder in endorsing Bush's senseless war in Iraq.  Despite my reservations about Senator Obama, I suspected that he was the more likely of the two to grow in the job, while fearing that he might not.

But listening to Senator Obama's speech yesterday, I glimpsed his potential for greatness for the first time.  He spoke with a majesty that this writer has not heard since John F. Kennedy.  He rose above the racial hatred in America and pointed the path that we all should trod toward prosperity as a society.  He explained for white Americans the source of the anger felt by African-Americans, yet refused to condone the hatred that it sometimes manifests.  He explained to African-Americans the anxiety felt by white Americans about the uncertainty of their economic existence.

Senator Obama rose above hate, above faction, above our mutual suspicions to point us to the changes that will make us all better people and our country a better nation.

For the first time, he inspired me.

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by: thomashooker @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 15:04:49 PM UTC

Obama (4.00 / 1)

 What a speech..it combined  enough  elements  and ideas  to rank as  the premier political speech  in many amny years...I  am glad I supported  this  wonderful hamn being.

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by: BruceRubenstein1 @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 15:51:27 PM UTC

What a contrast! (4.00 / 3)

After 8 years of spoiled frat boy being unable to speak in complete sentences, Obama's speech was simply jaw-dropping.  With the shrub we got "everything is ok, just go shopping" sound bites and phony photo-op stunts designed by the men behind the curtain trying to make him look presidential.  With Obama we get Faulkner quotes, sophisticated debate, and the comfort of knowing there is no need for any men behind curtains -- simply put, he exudes leadership.  

I have vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals -- Butch Cassidy
Check out www.ctsmartgrowth.com

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by: commonweal @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 16:45:36 PM UTC

I was able to read the transcript of Obama's speech (4.00 / 1)

this morning after reading the story about it in
the CT Post....its JFK all over again in terms of
the "spirit" of the speech...totally amazing!

"Waiting....waiting on the world to change"  --John Mayer

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by: tigergrrl74 @ Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 18:18:16 PM UTC