Obama's Lincoln moment

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Tim Rutten
Obama's Lincoln moment
Never before has a candidate for national office spoken so frankly about race in America.
March 19, 2008

One hundred and fifty years ago this June, a lanky Illinois lawyer turned politician gave a speech that changed the way Americans talked about the great racial issues of their day. The lawyer was Abraham Lincoln, and the speech was the famous "House Divided" address with which he accepted the Republican Party's nomination as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Lincoln lost to Stephen Douglas, but the address changed the national conversation on slavery and, two years later, Lincoln was on his way from Springfield to the White House.

America's political story is studded with such addresses -- historical signposts that divide that which went before from all that followed on an issue of crucial national importance. Franklin Roosevelt's "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" speech fundamentally changed Americans' expectations of their government in times of social and economic crisis. John F. Kennedy's address on Catholicism and politics to the Greater Houston Ministerial Assn. in 1960 forever altered the way we think about religion and public office.

Sen. Barack Obama, another lanky lawyer from Illinois, planted one of those rhetorical markers in the political landscape Tuesday, when he delivered his "More Perfect Union" speech in Philadelphia, near Independence Hall. The address was meant to dampen the firestorm of criticism that has attached itself to the senator's campaign since video clips of race-baiting remarks by his Chicago church's former pastor began circulating last week.

But instead of offering a simple exercise in damage control, Obama chose to place his discussion of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright's incendiary comments in a wider consideration of race in America -- and the results were, like those Kennedy achieved in Houston, historic....

***

Obama did what he had to do, unequivocally repudiating Wright's extreme rhetoric. But what was truly radical about his analysis was his implicit demand that black and white Americans accept the imperfection of each other's views on race. Embedded in such acceptance is the seed of that "more perfect union" toward which this country -- unquestionably great but itself imperfect -- must strive....

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-rutten19mar19,0,6257335.column?track=mostviewed-storylevel

[liberalmuse]

1. I am extremely impressed with Obama's speech...

Enough good can't be said about what Barack Obama accomplished in his speech on race, and how he addressed this most recent scandal directly. You rarely hear something so forthright and honest from politicos these days. I would be proud and honored to have this man as my President.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. The difference between that speech & all the real ones.

The purpose of the Obama speech was to cover his ass as a result of personal political problems.