Obama: "A More Perfect Union"

[topaz]

Barack Obama gave his much-anticipated speech on race this morning.  If you haven't read or seen it, you should.  The performance is a little less than 40 minutes, and if you can take the time I recommend it strongly.

Transcript and audio are available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88481254.
Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU.

I expected something along these lines: a repudiation of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments without actually denouncing the man himself.  It was understood that was what he had to do in order to handle this issue plausibly.  The man is nothing if not a master rhetoritician, so I expected nothing less.

And yet we got so much more.  It is absolutely a stunning, riveting speech, the likes of which I do not think I have heard given in my lifetime.  According to the Atlantic Monthly's Marc Ambinder, he wrote it entirely by himself in the last two days.  I am honestly not sure whether to believe that without knowing Ambinder's source --- it is extraordinary in this day and age for a politician to write such a crucial speech on such a pivotal issue without significant input from their communications specialists.  But Obama is an extraordinary candidate (and I do not think you have to support him in order to agree with that).

It mystifies me to hear people say that while he's a great public speaker, that doesn't prove he's up to the job of President.  A speech like this is not about his ability to implement policy; it's about his ability to communicate very sensitive and personal issues of faith, in the tense and sensitive context of racial demagoguery.  It's about his ability to navigate the treacherous landscape of racial conflict in a country where that is arguably the defining cultural milestone.  This speech only presents more evidence that Obama is better equipped to do that than anyone we have seen in a generation.

Are our national leaders not supposed to be expert communicators, persuaders, and negotiators?  I think that they are.  Not for nothing was Ronald Reagan called "The Great Communicator" (and while I am no fan of Ronald Reagan I can hardly deny that the label was deserved).  And not for nothing have people been calling Obama the Democrats' Ronald Reagan.

This address is still ringing in my ears.  I wonder if, years from now, people will be talking about the "Ashley speech" as a turning point in American politics.

Comments

[opadit.livejournal.com]

wrote it entirely by himself in the last two days

I partially mentioned this in another thread: Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude from HLS. I have no trouble believing that he wrote the speech all on his very own.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I've no doubt whatsoever about his ability to write or the quality of his brain. But speechwriting is a very specific skill that isn't necessarily the same thing as writing prose. It's not just wordsmithing but also public relations. Not all smart politicians have it, particularly not at Obama's level of mastery. I am not disbelieving, but still astonished, at the idea that he wrote the whole thing by himself.

[opadit.livejournal.com]

A lot of lawyering is using rhetoric. He spent some time as a trial lawyer, too, and has had time in the state and national legislature to polish his speechwriting craft.

This is not to say that he didn't have an editor. Is his wife an attorney, too? She'd likely have a good eye for helping get his points across. I would seriously doubt that he didn't let some professional speechwriter take a gander at it before he gave it, though.

[sine.livejournal.com]

just reading the text brought tears to my eyes. it was truly amazing.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

It has been a very long time since a Presidential candidate actually wrote their own speech on anything.

I still have a lot of reservations about Obama (although I am coming to think that, even with all my reservations, he's still the best candidate actually likely to be elected), but there is no denying the man's ability. In terms of intellectual power, you'd probably have to go back to Teddy Roosevelt, and maybe even farther back to James Garfield, to find a good comparison.

[badlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

If it were legal for me to vote for this man multiple times, I would.

[jss]

Move to Chicago. "Vote early, vote often!"

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

"I wish there was a way I could vote for you a hundred times!"
"You know, there is."
"Really?"
[beat]
"Just kidding." (http://movies.real.com/movie/1992/bob_roberts/reviews.html)

[badlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

Man, I love that movie. Haven't seen it forever... I think I need to go add that to my Netflix queue.

[quigleydoor.livejournal.com]

If he were bisexual as well as biracial, I'd vote for him four times.

[arfur]

I, too, was blown away by the speech, despite mostly agreeing with what I've heard of the dissed pastor. I found the use of the phrase "more perfect union" interesting -- it's not the first time an African-American politician has used that phrase to address racial and social justice; in fact, it's more or less been Jesse Jackson Jr's tagline for a while.

[redheadedmuse.livejournal.com]

This speech was totally the Kool-Aid I'd been waiting for; I read it and thought, 'Wow, that man needs to be my leader!' in a way that none of his other stuff has quite grabbed me.

[zsquirrelboy.livejournal.com]

My first reaction was relief. Okay, he can handle this stuff, good, good.

Every time I start to get excited, I get scared. I thought the nightmare and the disaster was going to end in 2004, and then it didn't.

But I'm starting to believe that a good, thoughtful man may actually survive this stupid gauntlet we use to choose presidents with.

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pointer & recommendation, I wouldn't have listened to this speech otherwise but I'm glad I did.

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Goddamn.

Thanks for calling this to everyone's attention, hon.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about how this is playing to non-Obama people.

[mr-niggle.livejournal.com]

I was playing as boring. Fell asleep about twenty minutes in.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I usually just read speeches rather than listen/watch them, because things move a lot faster that way. So I can't comment on the delivery.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

AFAICT, it's widely acknowledged to have been an eloquent and effective speech in that segment of the blogosphere that I frequent. The reactions to the substance, you could pretty much predict beforehand based people's politics going in. The Obama voters (Megan McArdle (http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/03/speech_speech.php), Armed Liberal (http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/obamas_great_speech.php)) mostly loved it with minor reservations. The ones who weren't going to vote for Obama (McQ at qando.net (http://qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=8130), Mickey Kaus (http://www.slate.com/id/2186845/)) have problems with, e.g., its vagueness about what Wright actually said that Obama is repudiating, and its implicit equating of, e.g., Wright's promoting conspiracy theories about AIDS and 9/11 and damning the US to his congregation with Obama's grandmother's being personally nervous about encountering young black men on the street.

But of course it's not pundits with already-formed positions that Obama's speech needs to win over. It's clearly succeeded on one front by energizing his base and making him look presidential (especially important given the unusual circumstances of this election's Democratic contest). Whether it also won over swing voters will have to wait for the poll data-- I'm not sure I know anyone whose vote I'd expect to hinge on something like this.

Likewise, I don't know whether there are Democratic fence-sitters for whom this will help them decide between Clinton and Obama or not. And if so, which way-- confronting the race issue head on may help there, or it may dent Obama's image as a candidate for who race is or should be incidental. Not that he could necessarily avoid that problem at this stage, but then that's probably what the Clinton campaign has been hoping for.

(I've been back and forth over my own expectations as to who's going to be the nominee-- before Super Tuesday I was certain it would be Clinton, soon afterwards I thought for sure Obama, now I think probably Obama... but I'm not counting Clinton out.)

[mr-niggle.livejournal.com]

Well, now that I've had some caffeine and woken up, I read the text of the speech. It's the delivery of the first 20 minutes that were killing me. Opinion aside (people are generally wrong), it was not well delivered. It was dull as hell. The final forty minutes were rhetorically much more powerful, and I can see why people are excited. Certainly I agree with the content of the speech -- but I'm generally happy with Obama's content. (It's too vague, but generally unassailable.)

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll read up.

Huckabee Defends Obama … and the Rev. Wright

[quigleydoor.livejournal.com]

Interesting comments by Mike Huckabee, who complements Obama and says he can relate to Jeremiah Wright in sermons' context.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/huckabee-defend.html

Re: Huckabee Defends Obama … and the Rev. Wright

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Isn't that just the nuttiest? I can't wait to read that in detail.

Re: Huckabee Defends Obama … and the Rev. Wright

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it as nutty as all. He was speaking from experience, since he himself has been a preacher, so he knows what goes on in sermons.

Huckabee needs a TV show.

Re: Huckabee Defends Obama … and the Rev. Wright

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't see the content as nutty at all -- just the fact that it was coming from Huckabee, who I would not have expected to have any sympathy for Wright at all, preacher or no.

Re: Huckabee Defends Obama … and the Rev. Wright

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

Well, Huckabee is a social conservative, but he's not a racist. He's old enough to remember the badness of the Jim Crow days, and to his credit (and maybe because he's a religious guy) he has sympathy.

[quigleydoor.livejournal.com]

Summary on openDemocracy.net:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/kanishk_tharoor/us_right_wrong_on_obama

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

That's a nice roundup of how the conservative media have been struggling to respond to Obama's speech. What I thought innerdoggie was asking is how this is playing to jes' folks who aren't currently favorable to Obama. (Maybe I'm just projecting because that's what I'm curious about.)

It looks as if he has not lost any ground overall, though at that point it may have as much to do with his speech as with Richardson's endorsement, which occurred after I posted this). (http://www.gallup.com/poll/105529/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Edges-Ahead-Clinton.aspx)

[quigleydoor.livejournal.com]

I approve of his choice to use the words 'black' and 'brown' in juxtaposition to 'white'. Especially 'brown'. It's an active choice to step away from divisions based on ethnic heritage, honoring us all as Americans instead of emphasizing differences.

I want more people to use the word 'brown'. So many brown Americans go through life continually being stereotyped as something they are not. Just call 'em brown and be done with it.

[mr-niggle.livejournal.com]

What was so special aboutit? It had good grammar. It was delivered in slow plodding fashion. I fell asleep twenty minutes in, after he had said nothing useful except "I'm multi-ethnic." So what?

Sorry, I just wasted twenty minutes of my life listening to someone that's simply not very incendiary as a speaker.

Yawn.