Responses To Obama’s Speech On Race

March 18th, 2008

dnA:

The question is really whether America has already decided Obama is too black to be president. If that line has been crossed, than there’s really nothing he can do to convince them otherwise. Ultimately though, you have to wonder whether Obama being marginalized because of his race (and whatever you think of Wright, putting his words in Obama’s mouth is about seeing Obama as the sum of racial fears) was an “if,” rather than a “when”.

Whether or not he gets elected, his candidacy has complicated the way we talk about race in America. On some level, that has to be a good thing.

Charles Murray, author of the Bell Curve:

I read the various posts here on “The Corner,” mostly pretty ho-hum or critical about Obama’s speech. Then I figured I’d better read the text (I tried to find a video of it, but couldn’t). I’ve just finished. Has any other major American politician ever made a speech on race that comes even close to this one? As far as I’m concerned, it is just plain flat out brilliant—rhetorically, but also in capturing a lot of nuance about race in America. It is so far above the standard we’re used to from our pols.

Rush Limbaugh:

On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh said that Barack Obama was now “the candidate of race.”

He said Obama “is not an agent of racial healing, he is a product of it.”

He accuses of Obama of wanting to be the nation’s racial-healer-in-chief, rather than its commander-in-chief.

Atrios:

Aside from disparate treatment of left and right and black and white in our mainstream discourse, there’s also a difference in the basic narrative provided. The narrative from the Right – and its representatives in the conservative religious community – is of an America which was once the garden of Eden, until its tragic fall at the hands of (feminists, liberals, civil rights movement, whatever), and they wish to bring the country back to its former state. Thus they can hate the America that is while dreaming of the perfect America that was. Thus there’s no conflict between their unquestioned patriotism and their hatred of the country, as their patriotism is for the True America that was, not its current corrupted incarnation.

While the mirror image rhetoric from the Left is about a country which was flawed, often tragically so, but which has the capacity for improvement. Be disgusted with the country as it was and is, while hoping for an evolution to a better country.

Ben Smith:

A smart colleague notes that this speech is the polar opposite of this year’s other big speech on faith, in which Mitt Romney went to Texas to talk about Mormonism, but made just one reference to his Mormon faith.

Obama mentions Wright by name 14 times.

Oliver Willis:

One of my personal maxims has been that politicians will disappoint you. The ones you like will have personal failings, while the ones you detest will fail time and time again. With Senator Obama, for the first time in my life, I have watched a political leader who I don’t worry if he’ll be up to the task.

It’s like you had Michael Jordan in his prime or Joe Montana with 2 minutes to go. It’s that feeling where you say to yourself: Ok, breathe, he’s got it.

Chill, Barack’s got it.

Hillary Clinton:

“I did not have a chance to see or to read yet Sen. Obama’s speech, but I’m very glad that he gave it. It’s an important topic,” she said. “Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history, and they have been complicated in this primary campaign. There have been detours and pitfalls along the way.”

Marc Ambinder:

I do think that Obama’s speech was a marvel of contemporary political rhetoric. Politically, analytically and emotively, it hit many high notes. His acknowledgment of white working class resentments (busing) and about the perception that there’s been no racial progress, his willingness to stick by his friends, his grasp of history, his sense that our views of race are cramped and caricatured… all of that is something that even those who disagree with the substance of his speech, can, I think, appreciate

Jesse Jackson

“an extremely high moment, a very tense and teachable moment.”

“I thought that Barack rose to the occasion and turned a big minus into a plus,” he said. “You can’t just heal the wounds until you take the glass out.”

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Entry Filed under: Barack Obama