I find this portion particularly troublesome:

"Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students."

A friend of my daughter teaches in the Chicago Public School system. He worked his butt off and did without in order to obtain his Master's Degree. He teaches a class of 38 8th graders. He has had things thrown at him, been threatened with retaliation when he accidentally bumped into a female student, and is regularly disrespected by the language and attitude of his students. This young man was willing to forego a high salary because he thought he could make a difference in the lives of those who do not have the benefits of the stable family and environment that he had growing up. After his first year of teaching he's planning on finding other work. Seems to me that it isn't the school system that needs to be fixed.

The achievement gap is a direct result of the sort of attitude espoused by the likes of Rev. Wrong.

I am Queen Mum and I approved this message.

Noel, you should have been Obama's speech writer!

The problem with Obama is dispite his education and wealth, he has bought into the liberal line that only two types of people exist in the world today: Victims and Abusers.  If you are not the Victim, you must be the Abuser, hence Obama's own subconscious guilt, he got where he is today because he beat someone else to it.  Liberals only believe in the Zero Sum game, anyone who has anything did so by taking it from someone else, hence liberal guilt.

Obama's speech reflected the failure of liberalism to move beyond guilt and the pandering to victimization.  The feel good programs and redistribution of wealth schemes are all reflective of this failure to come to grips with their own faulty view of the world.  The world is not a Mercantilistic Zero-Sum game where the wealthy become so at the expense of others.  The world is not billions of dollars poorer because Bill Gates of Microsoft, it is richer because of people like him.  Wealth is created in the modern Capitalist system not confiscated or stolen like in the Socialist and Mercantilist economic systems.  Just compare the US to Mexico and you immediately see the point.

 Lord Sidious / Darth Vader 2008  Long Live the Empire!  Come to the Dark Side, it is your Destiny.

you said

"Why waste such a marvelous opportunity with the same monotonous, racist
trivialities the country has been exposed to by the likes of Jackson
and Sharpton for so many decades?"

The only difference between Jackson/Sharpton/Wright and Obama was that Obama was completely boring. I found it hard to listen to the whole speech. I'm surprised that people praise his speeches.

The only thing different with Obama is that he has put a tiny bit of responsibility on the Black community for their racism but he then turns around and blames conservatives without putting the blame squarely where it belongs on the Democrats.

Republicans have been responsible for the biggest gain to African Americans (ending slavery) and were equal partners in ending Jim Crow type laws. The biggest losses have come from the democrats through their racist welfare and affirmative action laws that have held black people down and stopped many from joining the middle class. The cost of getting off government programs is too risky for them. It's not because they are black. Any person who can get a government check and work in the underground economy can't compete with a regular job. They have to take a huge pay cut and so they don't take the risk that will lead to a better future. It's not their fault it's the government's for keeping them down.

I find myself thinking it's about the last thing I need to read about Mr Obama. Never mind his socialist leanings, he's just not smart enough for the job.

Barack is playing off those who are guilty because their skin color is white. Those that get only 15 to 30 minutes of news from dinosaur liberal news anchors. I am sick and tired of being told by society that I should be ashamed of my skin color. I am sick an tired of being lied to that only "whites" can be racist. Above all else I am fracking sick of being told how evil this country is. If this is such an evil and racist country why hasn't the black community got up and left this country? What is keeping the black community here if the white people are so evil and racist? Would any sane person stay in a country where they believed another segment of the population was trying to do the things Rev. Wright makes accusations of?

After watching Obama's speech I can now fully understand why he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin, doesn't hold his hand over his heart during the National Anthem, his wife isn't proud to be an American, and why he is so adored by the Democrats.

If he becomes president, and especially if the Dem's gain a super-majority in the Senate, I see 4-8 years of super-duper affirmative action, increased hostility between racial groups and an irreversable movement towards the Socialist States of America. But, on the positive side, we will prevent Bill Clinton from assuming his third term as president.

Hey.. I walked into a Star & Stripes Flag Store and an Obama speech broke out.

Vote 4 change. Vote 4 anything. See Jack & Mr Shy's first campaign ad for the ONLY viable 3rd party candidate.

If you had the transcript of Obama being interviewed on the Imus tempest in a teapot, it would show the level of hypocrisy in this man. 

I think you stated what was obvious to most honest and thoughtful people. Obama made a calulated mistake by converting this to a 1980's race relations issue.

The truth about Obama is that he is expecting us to believe that he is the product of the typical african american experience, when in fact he was brought up by a white mother, white grandparents, had white friends and lived in essentially white neighborhoods. He went to very fine schools and did not have any attachment to that black experience until he decided to emmerse himself in it for political reasons in Chicago.

This was an issue of anti-american and anti-israel rantings. He did not address either and for me that is extremely disturbing.

I have no doubt that if the Democratic Party is dumb enough to hand this guy the nomination, and I have some doubts about that, he will be trounced in the general election.

I had to wait until some sanity from a few talking heads came on towards evening here to finally have some adult conversation with the reality of the so-called pathetic speech Obama gave yesterday morning...

Glen Beck was the starting point for me...BOR disappointed me but I wasn't surprised, H&C finally presented the truth about the race filled rhetoric Obama spewed...

The msm are really living in a different world....one that is not set in any reality whatsoever...of course this is the guy they have decided on, they have set their goals on him and come hell or high water he is going to be Prez...

NOT!

What Obama did yesterday was absolutely outrageous in so many ways...mainly he just covered his arse, still stood beside Wright and his hate preach..blamed the white race for all ...attempted to deflect what he was supposed to be addressing concerning Wright and his partnership with him and the Trinity Church, when he was or wasn't present during the hate-filled preach of Wright's....threw his own blood under the bus...

Unbelievable...all of this....including the pathetic talking heads and supporters of this guy.

I'm going to say this straight up, I thought the speech was incredible. I was inspired, I was excited to have a politician talk to me like I was an intelligent adult capable of understanding complicated issues. I was amazed to hear a candidate for national office talk about racial resentment from the perspective of both the black and white community.

I don't think there's anything unpatriotic about referring to discussion of slavery in the constitution as a stain. Conservatives especially practically hold that document as a sacred text, and yet there are parts of it that no one suggests we interpret strictly, that no one brags about or feels proud of. I don't think that the founding fathers should have done better. The document they created was an amazing feat. But we were a country that owned slaves at the time, that's a stain in our history and it is reflected in our most important document. Acknowledging that does not disrespect the document or the people who crafted it.

As for Obama talknig about the disadvantages faced by a community despite the fact that he didn't personally suffer them, so what? I am sick and tired of this conservative idea that rich people can't care about poor people without being hypocrites. The concept of sympathy, feeling for people despite not having shared the same experiences, doesn't work for you? Only poor people can care about poor people? Only people who worked their way up from the bottom can recognize the problems of people at the bottom and want to change them? Well, I'm sorry, but if only the people who have personally felt all of the most tragic realities of life are allowed to demand change then we won't have enough people to change anything. We need people with privilege to care about people without it.

I recognize that his discussion of white resentment isn't going to play well with this audience, because his explanation is a very liberal one. But after months of complaining that it's okay for blacks to be racist but not whites, it's okay for Obama's pastor to say something inflammatory but not an evangelical preacher, after all of the whining I've heard on this site about a double standard of acceptability, can't one of you at least come forward and say "Hey, at least he acknowledged that this isn't just a black issue, that there are plenty of whites in this country with just as much reason to resent the system as any person of any other color." I've NEVER heard a politician talk about this issue, and damnit it's refreshing!

Noel....You are a wise and eloquent proponent of conservative views, and your analyses of political--not to mention, economic--issues are consistently well-reasoned and compelling.  But I must respectfully dissent from your central thesis set forth in this particular blog/essay--and, by extension, with various observations made by other posters in this and related threads. 

I say this as one who--expressly, at this website--has been critical of Obama regarding the Reverend Wright controversy; critical of the black community for its pervasive victimization obsession; and critical of the Democratic party for its all-too-frequent penchant for playing the "race card".  I have listened closely to Obama's address in its entirety, and have subsequently read and reread the full transcript of his words.  It is not a "perfect" speech.  Reasonable minds may differ as to whether or not it is a "great" speech.  But it is at the very least a "good" speech...and an important one--positive and inclusive in tone, and really quite remarkable in the degree to which the odious statements of Reverend Wright are thoroughly and emphatically repudiated; and for its admissions of culpability and complicity within the African-American community for perpetuating the racial chasm which exists in, and continues to divide, this nation.

Issue:  Did Obama appropriately and effectively denounce and distance himself from the words of Reverend Wright?

That he did so should not even be the subject of debate.   He did so--not once or twice--but repeatedly, throughout the course of his remarks [Italicized words below are my emphasis]:

1.)  "Reverend Wright used incendiary language to express views which have the potential to widen the racial divide, [and]...denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike."

2.)  "I have already condemned, in uneqivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright..."

3.)  "...the remarks that have caused the recent firestorm weren't simply controversial.  They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice.  Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country--a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America...."

4.)  "As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together...."

5.)  "[to ignore race would be] making the same mistake Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America--to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality."

6.)  "The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society.  It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made...as if this country...is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past....What we...have seen is that America can change.  That is the true genius of this nation."

Not in my lifetime have I witnessed a more comprehensive repudiation by a politician of statements made by an associate or sympathizer.

Issue:  Should Obama have completely severed his relationship with Reverend Wright?

Maybe.  It is certainly a fair question.  But, remember, this is a man who had been very instrumental in introducing Obama to Christianity, who had officiated at his wedding, and baptized his children.  The late Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have had a long history of making inflammatory, insensitive, and divisive comments.  Should they have been continually denounced by other conservatives [they were on occasion] or made pariahs within the Republican party?  Obama would argue that we should not judge the whole person by a single snapshot, or by only focusing on his or her worst moments.  (However, I will readily concede that Wright had quite a few "bad" moments.)

Issue:  Did Obama place all the blame on white people for America's racial divide, or for the failures in the black community?

Absolutely not!  Referring to Trinity Church, Obama explains that "the church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.  He later notes, "a lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families--a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened.

Obama also discusses the anger and resentment that are the historical legacies of discrimination, and, significantly, notes that this anger "is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines"....and that the anger is not always productive.  Indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change."  [How often have you heard a Democratic politician, a presidential candidate no less, say anything like that?]  With these words, Obama has taken a swipe at liberal welfare programs, acknowledged African-American complicity in perpetuating their social pathologies, and lobbed a verbal grenade at [black and white Democratic] politicians who have exploited black resentment.

Obama goes on to examine a corresponding anger in the white community--and he doesn't question the authenticity of that anger--citing examples such as busing, lost job opportunities or college admission because of affirmative action for minorities, and realistic fears about urban crime.  He mentions that these [justified] resentments played a role in the forging of the Reagan Coalition.  Obama wasn't condemning the phenomenon--simply stating a fact.  Moreover, while he did criticize conservative talk show hosts for dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice, he also concedes they have "unmasked bogus claim of racism."  He concludes this portion of his speech thusly: 

"And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns--this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding." 

The Constitution is indeed a masterpiece...an unparalleled achievement in providing a framework of governance for this grand experiment in democracy and defining our Republic.  But the reality of slavery and how slaves were to be considered in determining representation was indeed a stain on our society and the document itself.  To argue that fractionalization was actually a positive balancing measure misses the point.  One might as well argue that the murderous rampage of Jack the Ripper benefited London by tamping down the prostitution problem.  The inescapable truth is that slaves were considered, and treated as, chattel--pieces of property to be owned, bought and sold.  A Civil War, which was primarily fought to preserve the Union, resulted in slavery's eradication.  But institutionalized racial discrimination continued in parts of the country well into the 1960's.   The after-effects--rightly or wrongly--still haunt and divide us.  I think Obama is determined to help put that legacy completely behind us.  Consider the following words which he spoke:

"But I have asserted a firm conviction--a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people--that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path to a more perfect union."

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Jer

Noel...I do want to post some additional comments on this subject, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, I need to grab my racquet and warm up some more against "the wall"....haven't lost a match to it yet.

Later, Jer