Is there a full transcript of this anywhere?

I believe in his message of unity and hope for a new nation. I respect the subtle anger that lay beneath the whole speech. But there is this tone of grandiosity that tainsts his speeches. It's as if he is the opposite extreme of Bush. I don't know how to articulate it.

He addressed the realities of this country's past and present in regards to race. But I can't help but think that he is a little delusional to think that most of America will be behind him. The sad truth is that this country is scarred with deep divisional issues among race, religion, class, gender, and sexual orientation.

Some of us do hope for that perfect America. Thing is... it's harder said than done. And I think it's a bit irresponsible to instill hope without putting out a very clear path as to how achieve it. I dunno. It was a great speech. I'm just wondering why now. I don't trust his intentions completely.

Perhaps he sounds a bit too uppity for you?

And that's why the man needs to be the next president of the United States.

I love the little CNN live feeds at the bottom. So very loaded and unrepresentative of the tone of the speech - even while it's going on!

CNN pundits say what I was thinking:

"no doubt he gives a great speech"
"important speech"
"speech will not change anyone's mind though"
"preaching to the choir"

Well, you know, there's no one else right now who has as much of a chance to at least accomplish some of the goals of reuniting our country on these issues. only the most nieve are saying that Obama will reign in an era of peace, love and understanding. But even if he can only accomplish 20% of what we want, isn't that better than nothing?

It was a good speech and maybe it was necessary but I think he needs to quickly change his focus to the economy and keep it there for a long while.

Well to be fair to him the issue of Race has become a part of the election right almost distracting from other issues at this point. This speech felt a little campaignish to me still but I can see why he made it. On the issue of the pastor it is his pastor and not Obama if you are voting you are voting for Obama and not his pastor and he is correct I assume that most people who go to church hear their pastors say things they do not agree with yet keep going there for the same reason he says in this speech. He is also right about the stuff his pastor has said exists in all communities in different shades and to disown or ignore that would be bad for a community it is always better to hear it than ignore it. However as a speech it still rang hollow to me and I felt it was overhyped for what it was.

Why now?

Because he's using this speech to quell any questions, suspicions or hesitations white people are having about him after this overblown issue with jeremiah wright.

I don't know if anyone heard Ingraham talking about his speech this morning but she spent at least a good hour disecting it which is one reason why I like listening to her.

I'll just highlight the good thoughts she had:

well delivered speech
possibly the most of important speech of life (in regards to a response to the wright "scandal")(saving his presidency aspirations)
she liked how he would contrast the past misdeeds of certain people then praise them right after (some early found fathers being slave owners yet also being great leaders and founders of this great nation)
somehow she concluded that obama was saying that "you need BO to save you from the thinking of rev. wright" (I can't recall how she came to that conclusion but it sounded great when I first heard it)

I only got to hear various clips of the speech but it sounded good to me. As long as it diminishes the cloud the wright issue is having on him then I'm happy.

He's a great orator and I find myself in agreement with much of his foreign policy as well as some of his positions on social issues. But on economic issues what I've heard has been pretty depressing. Like Krem said in another thread, he seems to take the stance that throwing money at every problem fixes it. He's also anti-free trade as evident from numerous remarks he has made about NAFTA. Here's also a comparison of his, Clinton's and McCain's stances on free trade. If the coming election were only a question of economic issues, there's no question who I would vote for.

And then there's also stuff like this:



Is he saying that Christians can't by any means accept evolution and that it is a good thing that more Americans believe in nonsense about angels than in science? How uplifting. It would be good for America to get a freethinking politician of presidential caliber again. It's been a long time since you had Lincoln.

I can't vote in the election so my opinions don't matter anyway. But it has been quite fun following this madness that you call American politics. The American system might as well have been invented by a mad lawyer with the intention of having the election process as long as humanly possible just so that he wouldn't get bored. I mean, for how long has this actually been going on? Three years? It seems like forever.

Quite the opposite. He is quite freethinking, as far as Christians go. In my book, his frank attitude towards faith and race in American culture goes a long way.

I find it extremely interesting how quiet this thread and sub-forum have gotten since this whole thing blew up.

Hillary on the rise. Obama in the defensive. My my how times change so quickly...

I think a lot of people are plain tired of the race. At this point it's obvious that 1) Obama is going to end the primary season with more pledged delegates 2) Hillary's only chance is making Obama unelectable from her attacks and then saying pick me, he's unelectable! So we're just left to wait for 2 more months to find out what the wimpy, procrastinating super delegates do.

By the way drudge is hinting at two bombshells. 1) Someone may have been attempting dirty tricks regarding looking up Obama's passport info at the state department. 2) Possible footage or other information regarding Bill Clinton associating with Obama's pastor.

Update: Clinton and the pastor.

How is Hillary on the Rise? She can't win without superdelegates going against the will of everything and that would be the destruction of the party since it's all about Race now.

Also, the evening news was showing a clip of Hillary talking today about how she was the more electable candidate of the two and someone else was mentioning how she had Less baggage (LESS BAGGAGE? Can't we be serious? Is this reality?). I'm so over this Non issue yet white folk can't stop bringing it up. As if white people don't say GD america or white people don't think the same thoughts as Wright. It's okay, the convention can't get here fast enough to end the Hillary express.

I think 'unity' can be a scary word. To suggest we should speak with one voice. Better to be able to look at the 'big picture' and create a vision that integrates and smooths out the sharp edges between different cultural environments. Essentially the creation of a code built on grand ideas to unify lesser ones. That's unity in a sense in 'working together'. But it's not treating everyone as one mass. It's using ideas for the sake of their strength and universality rather than for the sake of unity. When I hear the word unity, I think: How? For what purpose?

He outlined something there, but what is the philosophy or vision in clearer terms?


Great speech though.