"... 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."

Speak for yourself. Yours is the first post in this thread that fits the description.

I also am an optimist like Obama. This is not 1988, its not even 2004. With Bloggers like you raising the bar on what to expect from our media, with the depth of information most of us can get from reading the many progressive blogs out there, we are at a different place in this country, and we are ready for a leader like Obama. A leader that raises the bar for what it means to be a "citizen", where passivity is no longer the norm, or apathy considered cool, where we are all expected to roll up our sleeves and get on with the business of making this country better. I can see that for our future, just like Barack does

Voting for someone with a different attitude means voting for someone who thinks we're all blathering idiots.

A basic self-esteem and sense of dignity requires that I be considered at least smart enough to know that I'm being condescended to. If Obama gets the Dem nomination, I guess he'll have my vote.

>>>>then you're looking at President John McCain for the next four years -- with all of the disasters that brings with it.

>>If that happens, then we deserve it.

Was it de Tocqueville who said that in a democracy the people get the government they deserve?

I'd love to get an authoritative source for that oft-quoted aphorism.

Who was it who said that in a democracy, people get the kind of government they deserve?

After 20-30 years of wallowing in sleaze and scuzz, I have this glimmer of hope that America is ready to deserve a president like Barak Obama.

Maybe we're even ready to learn a little and grow a little with him.

The Noble Lie once again engraved on the record, to tell future generations The Truth.

...The Rulers, Plato said, must tell the people of the city “The Noble Lie“--that the categories of Rules, Auxiliaries, Farmers, etc. was not due to circumstances within the people's control, upbringing, or education, but because of God's intervention. God, the Lie went, had put gold, silver, and iron into each person’s soul, and those metals determined where a person's station was in life...

Dear Mr. Sinnard,

If you could spell out exactly what it is you're trying to say, it would help enormously.

However, if merely heaping scorn on the rest of us works for you, carry on...

To bad some of the writers on Salon didn't heed this advice when they used the Drudge Report as a source claiming the Hilary team was circulating the picture of Obama in Muslim clothes...

Glenn Said:

"I found the whole Wright "controversy" manufactured and relatively petty from the start..."

I agree, strongly. I failed to see the issue and why it is so timely now. Wright's views and the video in which he espouses them, have been public knowledge for a year or more.

"It was as candid and sophisticated a discussion of the complexities of race in America as any individual could possibly manage in a 45-minute speech, particularly one delivered in the middle of a heated presidential campaign and a shrill political controversy."

I didn't think that the speech was that amazing, to be honest, on its own merits, but when uttered by a presidential candidate, yes truly revolutionary. I especially was moved by his declaration of multi-ethnic identity, which for many of us of mixed race, was a sorely needed intro.

But this...

There were numerous manipulative tactics which the average cynical political strategist would have urged him to employ, and none of those were found in his speech.

...this was a bit of hyperbole. Perhaps you missed, this tulip from Obama...

[rejecting Wright's comments] "A view the sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical islam"

That is a musty and manipulative tactic if I ever heard one, and I am sure, given his evolution on this issue from being pro-Palestinian to viewing Israel as our "stalwart ally" and Palestinians as perverted and hateful, this obviously came from a political strategist.

Just for the record.

“There’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude,” Obama told ABC News in an April 11 interview.

There are just so very many cases where McCain has totally flip-flopped on the issues, and I know I don't need to enumerate for this crowd. Surely that and seeing him hugging up on W would be enough to convince anyone? Will someone please give me a link for that photo? I need to recharge.

If Obama's faith is misplaced then we are doomed, for sure.

I picked that out as a bit of pandering myself (and I'm not half Palestinian). It struck me as the only false note in the speech, but as you know, it is obligatory to refer to Israel as a "stalwart ally". Obama can stave off race-baiters, but not AIPAC.

The Dumb Masses?

[shizzle....bizzle......dizzle....dribble.....]

Stick that in your pipe, Mr. Greenwald!

I meant a quote of what Obama said that belittles our intelligence. For example, did he say that he had never in 20 years heard Wright say anything he didn't agree with?

The reasoned, mature nature of Obama's speech raises what truly is the defining issue for the future of this nation, because its opposite has absolutely led to where we are today. The relentless political infantilization of our citizenry has taken a heavy toll over the last 30 years, and going further down that road will be the ruin of us all. Regardless of whether Obama can or should be the next president, his central message is crucial to our collective future. If voters reject serious straight talk because they prefer to be pandered to by the jerks who will spin it, mock it, and vilify it, then we're one step closer to the edge of the cliff and will have put ourselves there for the paltriest of rewards. Many of the powerful in this country seem content to play out these divisions to their natural end, transforming middle and lower classes to various warring factions who will eventually realize too late that they've been conned out of everything they hold dear, not least of all their dignity. If giving such a speech kills Obama's political future, so be it. We're way, way past the point of needing to face reality in this country, and his willingness to risk his own personal stake in the election by talking to us like adults is a gift of immense proportions.

Be the change you want to see, indeed.