The Race Speech

Full disclosure: while I have a lot of respect for Obama, I'm a Hillary supporter.

Watched Obama's now-famous "race speech" on YouTube. It's an incredibly well-written speech. I didn't find anything about it particularly profound; the notion that blacks harbor resentment against the lingering effects of slavery and segregation, and that whites are sick of being pegged as privileged and racist because of "an injustice they did not perpetrate" is not exactly earth-shattering. What was novel was that a politician could address the issue in a balanced way without pandering to anyone.

That said, we can call it brave, but in the end it was simply wonderfully written damage control. It would have been truly "brave" if it had been delivered with no prompting, if nobody's awful racist remarks had necessitated it for political survival.

And Obama had to be the one to deliver it; it would not have been accepted from Hillary. If you disagree, ask yourself: if a white pastor from Hillary's church had made similarly inflammatory comments about blacks from the pulpit of his church, would Hillary's campaign have lasted even long enough for her to respond?

I'm not saying it wasn't en eloquent and precise speech, it was. It was marvelously written and delivered. I'd be curious to see how far he can take it.