Comments on: Obama’s Race Speech http://www.tinmanic.com/archives/2008/03/18/obamas-race-speech/ Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:20:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: abstract nixon http://www.tinmanic.com/archives/2008/03/18/obamas-race-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-126086 abstract nixon Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:58:01 +0000 http://www.tinmanic.com/archives/2008/03/18/obamas-speech/#comment-126086 That wasn't liberal white America's favorite black person talking. That was a black American man telling everyone that the racial problems are real and deep and we can't just wish them away and electing him won't wash them away. I hope Americans can handle the truth of what he said. It's not what we're used to hearing. It took balls to say it. That wasn’t liberal white America’s favorite black person talking. That was a black American man telling everyone that the racial problems are real and deep and we can’t just wish them away and electing him won’t wash them away.

I hope Americans can handle the truth of what he said. It’s not what we’re used to hearing.

It took balls to say it.

]]> By: Mike B. http://www.tinmanic.com/archives/2008/03/18/obamas-race-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-126085 Mike B. Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:38:30 +0000 http://www.tinmanic.com/archives/2008/03/18/obamas-speech/#comment-126085 Crisis equals opportunity. The Wright thing briefly had me very nervous, until I realized something: all it boils down to is the fact that everyone suddenly has a chance to say "Oh my God! He's black!" A touchy situation, yeah, but did anyone think we'd actually get all the way through the campaign without something like this happening? Something would have been trumped up in the general election even if it hadn't happened in the primary. The man was damn well prepared--addressing black racism and white racism with understanding as well as rebuke. This won't stop the crazies from running the Wright sermons on an endless loop, but it ends the news cycle with so Obama so firmly back in command of the issue that you wonder whether it might have been planned. (Had it not been planned, maybe the campaign <i>would</i> just have disowned him in a blind panic...which would never in a million years have satisfied the press or the right wing.) I'm probably always going to be skeptical of the guy, but he's got incredible political instincts. Crisis equals opportunity.

The Wright thing briefly had me very nervous, until I realized something: all it boils down to is the fact that everyone suddenly has a chance to say “Oh my God! He’s black!” A touchy situation, yeah, but did anyone think we’d actually get all the way through the campaign without something like this happening? Something would have been trumped up in the general election even if it hadn’t happened in the primary.

The man was damn well prepared–addressing black racism and white racism with understanding as well as rebuke. This won’t stop the crazies from running the Wright sermons on an endless loop, but it ends the news cycle with so Obama so firmly back in command of the issue that you wonder whether it might have been planned. (Had it not been planned, maybe the campaign would just have disowned him in a blind panic…which would never in a million years have satisfied the press or the right wing.)

I’m probably always going to be skeptical of the guy, but he’s got incredible political instincts.

]]> By: Sam Hansard http://www.tinmanic.com/archives/2008/03/18/obamas-race-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-126083 Sam Hansard Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:35:11 +0000 http://www.tinmanic.com/archives/2008/03/18/obamas-speech/#comment-126083 Ace in the hole. This speech should go in the history books. This candidacy should (and will) go in the history books. This was one of the most "presidential" speeches I have ever heard a candidate give in my life, if not THE most. It challenges every American to be better, from top-down and bottom-up. He didn't dance around issues as most politicians and people in the public light do. If you didn't feel challenged to be a better American after listening to this speech, you were not paying attention. Ace in the hole. This speech should go in the history books. This candidacy should (and will) go in the history books. This was one of the most “presidential” speeches I have ever heard a candidate give in my life, if not THE most. It challenges every American to be better, from top-down and bottom-up. He didn’t dance around issues as most politicians and people in the public light do. If you didn’t feel challenged to be a better American after listening to this speech, you were not paying attention.

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