I think it seemed toned down because we’re so used to see his speeches at rallies. This wasn’t a rally, so he wasn’t in “Rally mode.” No yelling over the cheers, no cadences, just regular ol’ speechifyin’.
I kind of want this to be famous not for the delivery, but for the content.
I agree - I’ll say this: Every democratic superdelegate who was alive in August 1963 and heard Kings speech will get the heebie jeebies from this speech, especially John Lewis (D) Georgia, you know why???
Because he was standing right there on the Lincoln Memorial Steps when that speech was given in 1963.
stolichnaya - it will be.
How fun it is to be able to listen to history…not every day that happens.
That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.
Gee, that laid the whole Wright business to rest, didn’t it? No one can gripe anymore about that without looking like an imbiber of the ole hateraide.
Well played, BO. Well played.
I just hope Dr. King doesn’t call at 3:00 a.m…
I’m an Obama supporter big-time (though I’ll also support Hillary if she gets the nomination), but I think I’m critical enough to know if his words had seemed hollow or just politispeak, and I honestly don’t think they were. I can completely understand the appeal of a Wright: I don’t agree with him either and I think some of his words were disgusting, but I understand the fury of blacks and for that matter of poor whites (which I have been and who are and historically have been in the same boat in everything but racism- the poverty, the feeling they don’t matter, the disenfranchisement, etc.).
Repeating myself from above, I applaud the fact that he both condemned Wright’s words BUT DID NOT throw Wright to the wolves. It’s very possible to respect somebody you strongly disagree with. I detest many of the zanier policies of both William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal [polar opposites save for being patrician white boys] but have quoted both in my own writings as I greatly respect them both, and I voted for Bill Clinton twice even though I disagreed with several of his policies and even though he enacted two of the most damaging to gays pieces of legislation ever supported.
It would be hard for anybody who isn’t a KoolAid drinker to find a church or organization that they support 100% (unless it’s the Unitarians where there’s nothing really to agree or disagree with other than what time church starts).
I really do think a lot of the hate for Wright is from people who do not understand the history and the current role of the church in black society: dogma is at best secondary, it’s always been a very political institution (it began when black churches were about the only place where controversial views could be expressed with anything like impunity) and it’s not necessary to believe everything a minister says. While I’m whiter than a Julie Andres Christmas CD I’ve actually left black churches feeling invigorated and thinking “damn, I couldn’t agree less with his theology, but what he said about the government makes sense”, and to somebody with critical thinking skills extremist views can make you reconsider some of your own convictions even if you don’t agree with them.
Nothing in Obama’s past implies that believes any of Wright’s crazier allegations. I doubt that Obama’s anything remotely like a fundamentalist for any religion or philosophy or person. It’s a major reason I’m voting for him.
Aside, but total props to Diogenes for the AI take, incidentally, a rare but deserved LOL!
I had an image of Hillary Clinton watching the speech while in the Velma Kelly role from Chicago as Roxie announces she’s pregnant and Velma just says “Shit!”
I didn’t expect a hellfire and brimstone rally type speech, or even a preacher type cadenced speech. But there were a few times that he was clearly reading, particularly near the begining. A couple times where it was obviously unpracticed, and he didn’t know how to inflect the sentence, because he didn’t know where the sentence was going. And the problem with a read speech is that it’s hard to tweak the emotional level very effectivly.
It wasn’t a bad speech, but from the comments I heard I was expecting the “speech of the last 50 years”, and it wasn’t. But in terms of content, it was one of the best of the last 50 years.
Wooh, just reading that gave me chills. Damn, that was a good speech.
I think that’s a fair question. I’ve been attracted to churches because of the joy and passion I feel there. Anger can be part of that passion. Obama and Wright are angry sometimes? Hell, I’m a middle-class white woman and I’m furious sometimes about the injustices I see those in power perpetrate again and again and again. What matters is not that you get angry, but how you use that anger. Looks to me like Obama’s managed to channel it in pretty positive ways.
Well the purpose of the speech wasn’t to inspire emotion – though it still did quite well when he delved into his personal life – but to put a stop to the mostly false conclusions his opponents were putting forth vis-s-vis his relation with Wright.
That it went far and above beyond that, a truthful, forceful, devastatingly honest vision into the very soul of today’s America, only made it that much better.
Intentionally toned down? Hmm…I felt he let the speech (content over packaging) set the tone. Which, again, is why I thought it was so brilliantly powerful.
And no, he certainly wasn’t speaking to the likes of Mr Moto. He fully well knows Party zealots on either end are unreachable. Not his target audience. Not at all.
This is disingenuous for you, because you are not conisidering voting for him no matter what. He explained in his speech why he didn’t leave. Read it. And next time you’re talking to your friends in PA, call their attention to this part of his speech:
Does this sound divisive to you? How often have you heard a liberal, black Democrat acknowledge these kinds of feellings and circumstances without condemnation.
Did you watch the speech? Did you read the text? I wonder if you did because you seem to think that he didn’t answer questions that he DID answer (from what I’ve seen, the Fox News analysis at the moment is about showing as little of the speech as possible while their pontificators insist (as you did) that Obama has not “answered all the questions,” or explained why he stayed with the church. He DID explain it. Read the speech. The short version is that the cherry-picked clips of Wright being played in a loop on Fox News present a caricature of the man as a whole and that there is much more to him than the cartoon being sold by the likes of Sean Hannity.
I guarantee, it would be extremely easy to compile some xcrazy mix tapes of the likes of Robertson or Dobson making them look like raving, maniacal bigots and zealots (and they’d be more accurate too). For that matter, think how easy it would be to compile a collection of clips making GWB look like a bumbling, comic idiot. Now imagine millions of people who have never seen anything but those clips demanding that you explain how you could possibly support such a boob.
Come to think of it, we could probably pick just about any long time Doper, comb their posts for the most incendiary or inflammatory things they ever said and string them together into one shocking tirade. We could probably make Polycarp* look like Mussolini if we tried hard enough.
Bear in mind that what you see of Jeremiah Wright on Fox News is selected and framed precisely to present him as a terrifying, dangerous negro who hates nothing in life more than white people.
Agreed.
I’m not sure if I were a Hillary strategist what I would tell her to respond other than to complement him. Anything else and she’ll get BBQ’d. No?
My emphasis. Your generalization and oversimplification here are unhelpful.
My emphasis. Is that the standard for political speeches? If so, we’re in for some long speeches.
No. Nor was he suggesting that we write anyone’s anger off. In fact, he validated the root causes of anger and resentment among both blacks and whites.
I’m not sure I want to elect another person who keeps counsel only with those who agree with him on every topic.
Sure, voters will change sides over anyof a number of things. Im not laboring under the delusion that Obama’s speech will suddenly cause a giant shift in support. But, then, I’m not one of those naifs who went in looking for “another reason to like him.” Those poor things.
Just reading the transcript again. I am thoroughly impressed with the content of this speech. This is some real straight talk.
There is evidence right there, in the thoughtfulness and commonsensical attitude of the speech, that this man can bring people together.
I’m a fanboy at the moment.
{b]Diogenes**, it has been explained to you numerous times that who you are voting for doesn’t mean that you can’t contribute to a conversation. Were I to apply this standard to you, you’d have to refrain from commenting about John McCain from now on.
And yes, I read the whole speech. I haven’t watched the video yet, but I don’t feel that I need to - I read most speeches and debates in transcript form.
I think I understand the “black church” better than some people - I’ve attended numerous black Baptist and Methodist services and attended a Catholic parish in Arlington Virginia that was historically black - this is where I converted to Catholicism and got married. None of these churches, though, preached the kind of rhetoric heard in the Jeremiah Wright clips, though things did get political sometimes.
Again, I can understand it to a degree, but I can surely see how somebody can have questions about it, and that these might remain even after this speech.
But what would those questions be, exactly?
*
Is Obama some kind of closet black radical?* No.
*
Does Obama understand why some black radicals are black radicals?* Yes.
Is that a problem, given that speech? Don’t think so; why would it be?
I suppose those who don’t care to watch or read the speech to see what Obama’s answers are have ‘questions,’ and the GOP will surely do its best to keep those ‘questions’ alive. But that’s a problem with our discourse, not with Obama’s speech.
This is actually quite encouraging for Obama. Last I heard, Hillary had as much as an 18-20 point lead there. Woo Hoo!
Although… the story did say that her lead was in single digits a few weeks ago, so her lead is up recently, but still off the high. Probably the polls just aren’t worth a crap right now.
This speech has to smoulder. Mark my words you’ll see a a change soon. Forbes is reporting on how Democrats stack up, and that Obama tops Clinton. Expect more of this in the coming weeks.
Damn that was a good speech. If we could convince Mr. Obama that the solution to violence isn’t taking guns from law-abiding citizens, I might be able to vote Democrat.
Hillary’s on CNN at the moment (just delivered a speech blasting people who give speeches but don’t act) and was just asked a question about Obama and Wright’s views. Her response was “I think that’s a question you should ask him”, for which she received a smattering of applause, so she’s playing it fairly well.