Sen. Barack Obama gave a speech Tuesday that did something no other major political figure has ever done.
In the words of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, he spoke to America on the subject of race, and he spoke to Americans "like they were adults."
I won't attempt to recap the entire speech here. I'm just not that skilled a writer.
After viewing the speech and reading the text (both available here), I was left with many thoughts -
"Wow."
"Wow."
"Wow."
"Wow."
"Wow."
"Wow."
"Wow."
"Wow."
OK, so it was one thought expressed many times. :))
Personally, I think that this speech just sewed up the nomination - every voter in the remaining primaries, as well as every super-delegate, will see the speech and see Barack Obama as the one candidate with both the ability to win election as President and the clarity of vision, emotional depth, and intellectual honesty to actually do some good once he has the job.
To be sure, there are those who will see that but still not vote for Obama, if only because they are totally wedded to insider politics.
Fortunately, they don't constitute a majority of the Democratic Party, or of the country as a whole.
BTW - While watching the speech, I *did* have one or two thoughts besides "wow"...
"Good God, I wish I wrote as well as his speechwriter," followed by "betcha Hillary Clinton wishes her campaign had a speechwriter that good."
Washington Post coverage (columnist Courtland Malloy) here.
To those readers of the Republican persuasion - It should be noted that while Sen. Obama presumably spent Monday polishing his speech, the Republican nominee spent the day polishing up the picks in his NCAA brackets.
Later!
2 comments:
No speechwriters required! That speech was all Obama!
No matter whether it was written by professional writers or by the Senator himself, it was a great speech.
And either way, I still wish I wrote that well - a speechmaker might have the best delivery (and one can argue that right now, Sen. Obama is the best speaker in the country, he or she can only work with the material they have at hand.
Bottom line: if he was reading crap, it would sound like well-delivered crap, nothing more.
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