Obama's "race and Rev. Wright" speech

For those of you who haven't seen it, see below.

The speech lacked quotable flights of rhetoric -- it was no "I Have A Dream" -- but what it had instead was an unusual respect for the intelligence of the listener.

The most interesting thing about it for me was that it was essentially a damage-control speech, but he managed to expand it into an intelligent and principled discussion of the tribal conflicts that underlie the Rev. Wright controversy.

When I'm driving alone, I like to scan the AM dial to see what the Dittohead Nation is thinking. (One thing I've learned is that they're completely obsessed with the Clintons, to a truly comical degree.) Yesterday, I listened to their reactions to this speech, and those reactions can be boiled down to:

- OMG, he called his grandmother a racist! He said she's just as bad as Rev. Wright!
- Instead of saying that Rev. Wright should be tarred and feathered, he said he still loves him!

This focus on simple-minded analysis -- often willfully dumbed-down, with hidden contempt for the audience -- and distraction via scandal-mongering is exactly what Obama is arguing against in this speech. If he wins the nomination and the general election, it will be, among other things, a victory for honest and intelligent political discourse.

Which means, of course, that he will probably lose. But at this moment, I am more impressed than ever by him, and excited about the possibility of him leading the Executive Branch of our empire.