Obama's Speech

Yes, the one about Wright, Race, and America. Needless to say, it's all over the place, most of the commentary being thoroughly predictable -- ridicule from the rabid right (who have no interest in unifying the country -- division has worked too well for them) and worship from the left. Dday at Hullaballoo starts off his post with something unexpected, but very welcome:

I want to discuss Barack Obama's speech on race and politics, but first I want to say that I have a problem with these expected blog posts on expected speeches that the dynamics of 21st-century campaigns demand. This election has turned into some kind of bizarre series of rituals, like an season of Greek theater where everybody knows the plot and the audience is left to judge the work on the presentation. The parade of comment, counter-comment, conference call about comment, distancing from comment, and major speech incorporating remarks about comment is the real distraction in this campaign, diverting from a looming economic recession (a recession at BEST) and a tragic stalemate in Iraq. Rarely does anything good for the country come out of this exchange.

Furthermore, I'm sick and tired of this "action figure" conservatism where a bunch of stay-at-home bloggers decide for others what they should do in particular situations. "If I were Obama, I would have stood up during the sermon and fired a poison dart at Rev. Wright and talked about the need to cut the capital gains tax!" The imagined fantasies of these clowns resemble a Chuck Norris movie, when the realities involve far more [than ] Cheetos and nasal spray.

Over at EA Forums, I've been maintaining pretty much the same stance: this is a distraction from the issues, it was meant to be a distraction from the issues because the right has nowhere to go on the issues: they're all invested in Bush's third term and the American people most definitely do not want an instant replay. That much is clear, even to them. The right's only option is to try to take down the front-runner with irrelevancies.

Andrew Sullivan reports a series of posts that illustrate my point -- even the positive ones. From Ross Douthat:

Can you think of a better speech on race in America delivered recently by any politician, black or white? Of course John Derbyshire is right that Obama’s vision of how America ought to transcend our racial divisions is essentially left-wing, with whites and blacks joining hands to raise taxes and government spending, while uniting against their common enemy, the wicked axis of corporations, lobbyists and special interests. But Obama’s candidacy is essentially left-wing; he’s attempting to be a liberal Reagan, not a difference-splitter like Bill Clinton, and I think our political moment is tilting sufficiently leftward that he might just succeed. Certainly, I would have liked to see him talk more than he did about what America has achieved over the past thirty years, rather than pivoting so quickly to how much remains to be done. This speech of all speeches could have done with a little more pure “God bless America” chest-thumping, and a little less of what Andrew Ferguson has memorably described as the Obama style of “optimistic despair," in which "America is a fetid sewer whose most glorious days lie just ahead, thanks to the endless ranks of pathetic losers who make it a beacon of hope to all mankind." But this is a conservative's quibble about a liberal politician's address; it's my way of saying "I wish Barack Obama were a little less left-wing," and it doesn't detract from the speech's overall impressiveness.

First of all, when has John Derbyshire been right about anything? And of course, Douthat goes right into the evils of leftism. The problem with Douthat's position is that the right has no vision of how to transcend our racial divisions -- they're investing a lot of energy into maintaining and deepening them: the only area in which they want to be inclusive. The logical disjunct that follows is glaring and shows the poverty of the right's resources: transcending our differences somehow immediately equates to raising taxes and government spending. Excuse me -- have you looked at government spending over the past seven years? And the size of the deficit? How do you expect to fix that -- by throwing more money at the largest corporations?

Douthat's pretending to be positive about Obama's speech, but coming from the direction of focusing on what he didn't say. Talk about left-handed compliments.

And then he goes on to piss and moan because Obama didn't throw Wright under the bus:

I do think the problem Jeremiah Wright creates for Obama's campaign remains unresolved, to some extent, since there was nothing Obama could say in a single speech that would undo the perception created by his long affiliation with Wright and his church - the perception that he’s only confronting what’s wrong with Wright’s style of black politics because the media narrative is forcing him too, and that when the spotlight isn’t on him, he’s more interested in fitting in and feeling comfortable than in, well, speaking truth to power.

Douthat is obviously clueless about the dynamics here. To see how far off-base he is, look at this essay from John McWhorter:

He pegged Wright's recreational alienation as wrong, as stereotyping, as a "profound mistake," as founded upon a canard that America has made no progress on race.

It must be understood what a maverick statement this is from a 40-something black politician. In the black community one does not sass one's elders. One is expected to show a particular deference, understandably, to the generation who fought on the barricades of the Civil Rights movement. That is, to people of Jeremiah Wright's vintage.

Nor does one break step with the community, which Obama has done repeatedly, on gay issues, on Louis Farrakhan, on Donnie McClurkin, and now on this.

(It occurs to me that, as much noise as John McCain makes about being independent -- "The Maverick" -- he's merely another corporatist, neocon clone at this point. The real independent one is Obama.)

On the preacher, and what's involved in preaching, see Pastor Dan here and here (the latter contains the full text of Obama's speech, in case you haven't seen it).

The best capsule analysis I've seen is from D at L,G&M:

What a colossal failure. I just don't think there's any way for Obama to recover from the fact that Victor Davis Hanson, Paul Mirengoff, Michelle Malkin, Kathryn Lopez, John Derbyshire, some dude living in his mother's basement, and Atlas Shrugs remain unpersuaded of Obama's worthiness to lead America.

I can't really add to that.