I fear you may be right about it, but nonetheless I found Obama's speech to be excellent. It did not pander to people; it did not dumb down the subject.

It may simply be that Obama is challenging people to try harder to understand matters -- to rise up and meet him half-way. I sense that an Obama presidency would be no different. Unlike Bush, who asks nothing of people in spite of spending more money and more human resources in an unending war, Obama will ask that people who want change actually DO something about it. That's the kind of president the U.S. needs right now. But will the U.S. be smart enough to realize it?

That's a good one. This is the candidate who was virtually produced by the boisterous, screeching, simple-minded, ugly, vapid attack-based freak show found on the World Wide Web in the form of MoveOn, Kos, Salon and FireDogLake.

... and this is why you feel uniquely qualified to contribute here then?

Maybe you'll be heard above the din over at Little Freep Goofballs or ClownHall....

C'ya, and don't let any beer bottles club your sloping skull on the way out....

Cheers,

I think I will end every post with that... kind of like my own "Good night and good luck."

Darn. Then I'll just have to come up with a different one of my own..... What'll it be, what'll it be?...

Cheers,

I'm sure they will push back. I just not sure if it will work.

Well, now that you mention it, the Obama campaign, by and large, has shown itself to be a more agile, resilient, and well-prepared campaign than Hillary Clinton's. I was starting to think things were coming apart at the seams for Obama with the Goolsbee and Powers flaps and the Ohio setbacks. But then Geraldine Ferraro trotted her "it takes a token to recognize a token" talking points out, and the Clinton campaign allowed her to explode like a shit-grenade all over the morning shows in one ill-considered day of hemmorhaging PR. When it comes down to the knife-fighting in the general election, I'm much more confident in Obama's strength as a candidate and the strength of his campaign than I am in the Clinton campaign.

To say nothing of the ultimate effect of the speech, it has diminished the stature of Hillary's campaign by elevating political tone and authenticity to a plane that has not been seen in many years.

Obama is the only candidate of the three capable of reaching this higher rhetorical and thematic place. He made the other two look tiny and pedestrian by comparison, and without even acknowledging either of them.

I think everyone, not just the media and the elites, recognizes this. Even the ones still baring canine teeth at people and things they will never even attempt to understand.

And if he does win, we can collectively bury the Baby Boomers and their tired, selfish squabbling

You had me up till there..

You are no better than those you criticize, you wish to divide us by age cohort.

Remember, the old vote more reliably than the young and the reason we are called "boomers" is because there are one hell of a lot of us.

If you really want to win in November, you might want to stop insulting a huge portion of the electorate.

I listened to Obama's speech, not quite sure what to expect, but knowing it would be a really tough task to maintain his integrity as an African American with ties to his church and his pastor and also as a viable presidential candidate trying to find common ground on race.

I was struck by his bluntness -- especially in regard to the racial stereotypes expressed by his white grandmother -- and felt uncomfortable in the rawness of this exposed side of his grandmother (in part because my parents were extremely bigoted and frequently used the "N" word in my presence).

As beautiful and honest as his remarks were, the damage has already been done by Wright and, in some respect by Obama for not taking his pastor personally to-task when Wright uttered some of his more fiery rhetoric and rage in Obama's presence.

Several analysts have pointed out that Obama is not a known quantity, still, by a good many people out there in Americaland and is still seen as an outsider of the political process, both by his race and by his theme. This speech, in fact, may hurt him more among those people whom he needs to convince, heading into the last primaries, that he offers a new direction for them and the country.

We shall see in the days and weeks to come how effective Obama's words are, were and will be.

The speech will be adored by Obama fans, the political and media elite, and high-information, politically engaged voters.

I think the media reaction will be the key to how this plays out.

While the disparity of coverage between Wright/Hagel remains a big problem, the fact is that Obama called the press on their BS in words specifically designed to shame them.

Highlights:

At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

...

if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

......

We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news