Obama’s racial speech

I try not to persuade too many people as to how to vote. I’d have made a terrible politician, I think.

However, I’ve always been fascinated with the political process from the bleacher seats, as it were. Admiriing the political process is like that adage about making sausage — you may like it, but that’s because you’ve never seen it being made.

I’ve waited a few days to see the repercussions of Senator Obama’s speech on race. I’ll provide a few thoughts and at least one link below.

First, if you merely caught the highlights of the speech, you’ve been cheated. This is one of those things where you should read the entire thing, or listen to the entire thing before making judgments.

Here’s the text and video [RealClearPolitics.com] —

Senator Obama’s has always had a talent for giving great speeches, and this was no exception. Though I read the speech first, I had to go back and listen to him speak it, so as to perhaps pick up on any inflection that might make what he was saying more memorable or important. I’m sure you can find that on YouTube and other locations.

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Overall, I thought it was an amazing speech. Not perfect, as I’ll point out in a bit, but certainly one of the better speeches I’ve heard on a such a topic in quite a long time. Race in America is a sensitive topic, and discussing it can be like walking around a minefield. Separating out “race” from “culture” is one step in clarifying things — because if you are discussing race, and then start assuming a cultural bias, chances are you’ve quit talking about race altogether. They are often matched up, true, but the whole concept of “All Men Are Created Equal” revolves around an active disregard for race — or sex, for that matter, unless you’re a definition-tard…

The concept of America as a union of like minded individuals struggling for freedom is key to who we are. It’s the freedom to be whomever we choose to be, but also to be a part of this country with whatever heritage we happen to be born with. This has taken a long time and more than a few laws to get that to sink in for much of America.

And still there is prejudice.

Obama is in a struggle for the Democratic nomination for President, and perhaps without making this speech could have won the nomination after a bitter struggle at the Democratic national convention. The disinclusion of Florida and Michigan delegates would certainly play a role in the process, should Obama have lost.

(and by the way, Howard Dean should be crucified by the rank and file Democrats for allowing the Michigan/Florida debacle to take place at all, showing us how lame of a President he would have been, and also illustrating to all that being the head of the Democratic Party is no place to put an incompetent fool like Howard Dean)

But I think Senator Obama gets the nod and beats out Senator Clinton based on this speech alone. It truly is a killer speech. Obama is in a truly unique position, and comes from a fairly unique background. I wasn’t ready to back him based on that, however. While I knew that Barack was talented, smart and sharp, I also knew that Obama’s career was fasttracked by Illinois politicians, and had dealt with a corrupt slumlord that had perhaps helped Obama’s career along with… raising campaign funds… The fact that the corrupt slumlord hadn’t bribed Obama was a simple point of order — the corrupt slumlord hadn’t gotten around to it as yet. Obama looks to be getting a pass on the corruption charges so far, and even though Obama is on track to lose the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, his speech on race still looks to carry him to the Democratic nomination later this summer.

Mickey Kaus at Slate puts together a decent analysis of some points I also found troubling
Kaus basically says that Obama said: “We Can’t Ignore Race, So Let’s Ignore Race”. If that really is what history digests from this speech, then it will be quickly forgotten. Obama certainly ends the speech with a quick dodge out, away from what we all should do about race to noticing the starving children… er, he didn’t say staving children, more like crumbling schools and lines at the emergency room, but the point is nearly the same.

But by that point in the speech, Obama has made his point, and made it well. Obama’s history stems from two upbringings, one white and the other not so white.

Obama has succeeded in America as being part of those two cultures, and the one inference I get is that Obama believes America itself can be better because of the mix in cultures than it would be if all America did was to embrace just one cultural view. I know, there’s a lot of bullshit there, and it’s certainly flawed, but you can see his selling point.

Obama certainly is a great bridge between cultural issues.

But if so, then so what?

Well, first off… contrary to what Mickey Kaus posits in his link I’ve given above, this neuters the Republican attack machine’s take on how Obama is nowhere close to being “mainstream” (i.e.: white) — I loved the bit in Obama’s speech about his racist white grandmother. Overall, I think that while race was starting to ramp up as a real issue, with the media playing on the exit polls suggesting that blacks were voting for the black guy, and everyone beginning speculation about how whites won’t vote for him… because.. you know… (“shhh… he’s black”). Because in the end, being President of the United States of America isn’t about making decisions on race. Religion, however… that’s probably a different matter.

Secondly, this speech was to meant to separate Obama from his pastor of so many years. It didn’t. However, it did give Obama’s supporters the opportunity to point out that we don’t always pay attention when attending church, and that you are not your pastor. In theory, you’re supposed to only take the good things away from your pastor’s sermons. It’s still a legitmate slap against Obama, however, and politically speaking associating himself with this pastor was a double edged sword. Being part of that church probably aided Obama’s career in a social sense, but only up until this year, where it’s obviously hindered it. One wonders how many other husband/wife couples in that particular congregation were educated at Ivy League schools. Certainly, if the entire congregation was all Ivy League school graduates, would those fiery sermons about racist America really even work? No, not so much…

More so than any other thing, the speech was designed to illustrate Barack Obama’s break with his past at the same time honoring it. It’s a risky move, because it still leaves him vulnerable to the charge of racial bias — because he didn’t separate himself from his old pastor enough. But at the same time, the speech has had another effect — it showed that Obama does care, and care in a real way. When Bill Clinton gave that type of speech, he was mocked incessantly for it. Remember “I Feel Your Pain”? That’s Bill Clinton’s caring speech, in a nutshell.

Obama’s speech transcended that of petty racism and has vaulted him into the stratosphere of modern orators. Because you might criticize this speech, you’ll have to come up with another political speech of recent memory to illustrate one as strong.

No, being a president isn’t about making speeches… but then again, if you can’t make a good speech, you end up sounding like the current doofus in charge, President Bush. It was thought, before Bush was elected president, he could use his folksy charm to get people from different sides of the issue to see the value of compromise. Events transpired that pretty much negated any of Bush’s so-called charm. It turned out that when George Bush didn’t have someone telling him what to say, he was pretty much clueless in public. Not so persuasive.

Obama’s speech, reportedly written by the man himself, by the way, shows the level of persuasion Obama is ready to bring to bear.

I’ve backed Hillary Clinton on many things up to this point, because of my firm belief that she’s a policy wonk, ready to dive in and come up with well thought out decisions that will work. I haven’t lowered my perception of Senator Clinton based on Obama’s speech on race, but I have surmised that she’s probably better off staying as senator.

I wouldn’t want Hillary to become vice-president. That would cut off her balls, and we can’t do that.