Judging by your handle, at least part of your income is due to the drug war.

I would expect that you would be a drug warrior since part of your income and ability to lord it over others is dependent upon it.

I think a lot of people haven't given up trying to legislate morality and have a hard time believing that the cure is worse than the disease. A lot of the Spitzer posts illustrate that perspective.

Still I'm not entirely sure where to draw the line.

Shoud have the founding fathers cut the deal for the constitution with the 3/5ths compromise, etc. or should have they walked away into a less certain future? We're facing a similar choice today. Do we pick from the best avaiable (in our not humble opinions) and work with that, knowing that a lot is left on the table?

This is a people's movement, not something that Obama started. Barack Obama has found himself at the right place, in the right time. The times we live in, are informing the man that Barack Obama is. He could not have been half as effective if he were running in say 2000 or even 2004. The country had to come to this dismal state of an illegal war, a bad economy and everything else, to stand up and demand change. Obama has taken that opportunity to be an agent for that kind of change. Hillary represents that which is the same old, same old, the politics of status quo, the politics of the few to rule over the many, the politics of lobbyists and special interests that have squeezed this country dry.

Is this a movement? Hell yes. But it is not a movement that Obama generated. He just happens to be caught right in the middle of it. Look what movements generated? The feminist movement got Hillary to where she is, the anti-war movement put an end to the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement ensured that someone as gifted and talented as Obama could also run for the President of the United States of America. The Reagan and Bush years were all about rolling th clock back and returning the country to an elitist brand of governance.

I am hoping that this movement, whatever we want to call it, will bridge the gaps between rich and power, between women and men, between black and white and brown, between all Americans.

i guess we'll have to agree to disagree. i didn't think hillary had portrayed herself as a "wheeler and dealer" - the tenor of her campaign has been more that she's a fighter, who's gonna fight, fight, fight the republicans on everything. and given the fact that half of the country actively despises her, i find it hard to believe that she's going to be the agent of compromise. in fact, it's been obama who has been conceding that in order to make progress, we can't automatically assume everything the GOP says and does is evil and wrong, and we actually have to find new ideas that solve our problems instead of the trench warfare-style politics to which we've all become accustomed. hillary is more trench warfare. obama is a negotiator who gets to the root of problems instead of just telling people what they want to hear.

but i very much appreciate the points you've made, and i especially appreciate the calm manner in which you've made them.

Why are so many people getting hung up about the part where Obama truthfully admitted that his white grandmother (who grew up in a very, VERY different world than must of us younger people have) often expressed some racist attitudes?

He was making the rather intelligent point that his pastor grew up with experiences (like segregation) that have deeply affected him and his attitudes, probably in ways he was not consciously aware of (thought Obama was clear that was not an acceptable excuse). He then pointed out that this expereince was not limited to black people as white people (his grandmother) also grew up and tended to believe things that aren't true. The time they were raised in is not the same time they live in now -- yet sometimes those attitudes people were raised in during the freaking 1940's stay with you. Sometimes the overt over-the-top racism people expereinced in the 1950's and 60's stays with them even though it's not really like that nowadays in 2008. That seems pretty understandable to me.

He could have very easily gotten up there and simply said that being black in America sucks, all white people are evil and white people will never "get" what it's like to be discriminated against....or something to that affect. In fact, I kind of expected it since that's what all politicans do all the time. I figured it would be a 5min speech saying that his pastor is evil or something and that would be it. You know, a typical Hillary-sized sound bite. More of a formality than an actual dialogue.

I am stunned that he was so even-handed and kept repeating that it's not "us against them" but rather that these issues are universal and extend across all races and genders: white, black, female, male. We all have a story and a point of view shaped by our experiences and they are all equally legitimate in the sense that none of us are really monsters.

I loved the part where explained that talking heads and politicans often explain away job losses or raising healthcare costs by blaming it all on lazy blacks or illegal immigrants. I can't believe he actually said that. I mean, wow, that is exactly what they do when the real culprits are the big corporations firing 100,000 workers in one day so they can replace allt he American workers with Chinese child labor.

"Oh! Don't blame us," say the talking heads and corporate CEO's. "It's those illegal Mexicans and those lazy blacks. They are, uh, somehow forcing us to move to China to use child labor and pay those kids only 5 cents a month. We're just as much the victims as you! This isn't about profits. Honest!"

He exposed how the elite have been playing the race card to distract us from the real culprits. While the blacks are blaming the whites and the white are blaming the Mexicans -- the CEO's sneak off and fire everyone and no one really holds them accountable.

That was the most honest speech from a politican I've ever heard.

Has Hillary got anything to compare to that speech?