Did you see it?
I really want you to watch this. I've liked Obama from the outset -- the things he says are important to him, how he's handled campaign conflict, how he reportedly is running the internal parts of his campaign. I've picked up his books at the bookstore and the random pages I flipped to were interesting enough that I finally bought the first one this Sunday and am plowing through it. It's really interesting. It's thoughtful, honest, and clearly the product of a younger mind than the mind he has now, which is not a bad thing at all.
So when CNN yesterday was running around with its hair on fire because of Wright, I was pretty bummed about how the whole story seemed to be on auto-repeat a la "the scream" of 2004. Footage of Obama under his black pastor's inflammatory quotes. A still photo of Obama next to printed excerpts of his black pastor's inflammatory quotes. A scroll on the bottom of the screen endlessly repeating inflammatory quotes from Obama's black pastor. The general impression I suppose I should have formed that Obama hates white people. Wait, what?
I took a little bit of solace that if we're all going to hate Obama because he's got a crazy black priest, at least that throws some cold water on the Obama's-a-Muslim theory. Perhaps he could still be a secret Muslim, I don't know.
But anyway, to my point: this speech is incredible. He said things I didn't even know I wanted to hear, and there's a lot that I'm listening for when I listen to politicians. Now I know what he means when he says "hope." Now I know what he means when he says "change." Even I, an Obama supporter and (small) donor, kind of shrugged at the words, as if they hit some kind of wrong chord - yes, yes, change, the change we've been searching for since John Freaking Adams was president, chuck out the old guy get someone else in here, etc. That's not what he means at all.
The speech is 37-something minutes long. It's important. Not important relative to this campaign, although it is that, but it's important in lots of other ways. Please watch it.
So when CNN yesterday was running around with its hair on fire because of Wright, I was pretty bummed about how the whole story seemed to be on auto-repeat a la "the scream" of 2004. Footage of Obama under his black pastor's inflammatory quotes. A still photo of Obama next to printed excerpts of his black pastor's inflammatory quotes. A scroll on the bottom of the screen endlessly repeating inflammatory quotes from Obama's black pastor. The general impression I suppose I should have formed that Obama hates white people. Wait, what?
I took a little bit of solace that if we're all going to hate Obama because he's got a crazy black priest, at least that throws some cold water on the Obama's-a-Muslim theory. Perhaps he could still be a secret Muslim, I don't know.
But anyway, to my point: this speech is incredible. He said things I didn't even know I wanted to hear, and there's a lot that I'm listening for when I listen to politicians. Now I know what he means when he says "hope." Now I know what he means when he says "change." Even I, an Obama supporter and (small) donor, kind of shrugged at the words, as if they hit some kind of wrong chord - yes, yes, change, the change we've been searching for since John Freaking Adams was president, chuck out the old guy get someone else in here, etc. That's not what he means at all.
The speech is 37-something minutes long. It's important. Not important relative to this campaign, although it is that, but it's important in lots of other ways. Please watch it.
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