The View from Around the Web on Obama's Speech

Needing to address head on the repugnance felt by most Americans to comments made by his pastor of 20 years, Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia and repudiated the divisive, anti-American tone of Rev. Wright's most extreme comments while standing by the man. Harkening back to the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, he built on the idea of what it means "to form a more perfect union" and deal head on with the nagging issue of race, describing it as America's original sin. Politically, he may not have gained the support of those working class whites with whom he showed great empathy in parts of his speech, but still, most are acknowledging it as the most profound speech on race since the generation of Martin Luther King Jr. Having written the speech himself, Obama put to rest any notion that his speeches are just words. Words do matter.

Below is a smattering of opinions from around the web. Most are laudatory, but Obama will always have his detractors.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz has a daily roundup of headlines from the newspapers and blogs. It's the first thing I read every morning, especially the day after a major political event. Naturally his column the day after Obama's speech was devoted to Obama's speech: "Barack Obama didn't take the easy route. The safe course would have been to just denounce the ugly comments of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and move on to a generalized appeal for racial unity. But he didn't do that. He said he could no more disown his pastor than he could his white grandmother. He talked about how Wright came from a generation of African Americans that was understandably angry about racism and segregation in this country. Then he pivoted and talked about white anger, about resentment toward affirmative action. He also took a couple of swipes at the media before reaffirming his belief that America can still make racial progress."

NY Times Editorial: "There are moments — increasingly rare in risk-abhorrent modern campaigns — when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs. In the best of these moments, the speaker does not just salve the current political wound, but also illuminates larger, troubling issues that the nation is wrestling with."

NY Times' Maureen Dowd: "In many ways, Barack Obama’s speech on race was momentous and edifying. You could tell it was personal, that he had worked hard on it, all weekend and into the wee hours Tuesday. Overriding aides who objected to putting race center stage, he addressed a painful, difficult subject straightforwardly with a subtlety and decency rare in American politics."

Wall Street Journal Editorial: "In Philadelphia yesterday, the Senator tried to explain his puzzling 20-year attendance at Reverend Wright's Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, while also using his nearly 5,000-word address to elaborate on the themes that have energized his candidacy. It was an instructive moment, though not always in the way the Senator intended."

Shelby Steele in the WSJ: "The novelty of Barack Obama is more his cross-racial appeal than his talent. Jesse Jackson displayed considerable political talent in his presidential runs back in the 1980s. But there was a distinct limit to his white support. Mr. Obama's broad appeal to whites makes him the first plausible black presidential candidate in American history. And it was Mr. Obama's genius to understand this."

LA Times Editorial: "It may have begun as an exercise in political damage control, but Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia on 'A More Perfect Union' was that rarity in American political discourse: a serious discussion of racial division, distrust and demonization. Whether or not the speech defuses the controversy about some crackpot comments by Obama's longtime pastor, it redefines our national conversation about race and politics and lays down a challenge to the cynical use of the 'race card.' "

LA Times' Tim Rutten: "Just as every seasoned political hand in 1960 knew that, sooner or later, Kennedy would have to tackle the question of his Catholicism head-on, it's been clear for some time that Obama would have to speak explicitly to the question of race in this campaign. Still, polished orator that he may be, no one could have predicted an address of quite this depth and scope."

Washington Post Editorial: "Mr. Obama then described the resentment among some whites over affirmative action, busing, crime and a shrinking job base, saying those feelings also 'are grounded in legitimate concerns.' He talked about the need for whites to recognize the lingering problem of racial discrimination -- and for blacks to embrace the 'quintessentially American -- and yes, conservative -- notion of self-help.' "

Washington Post's Eugene Robinson: "Yesterday morning, in what may be remembered as a landmark speech regardless of who becomes the next president, Obama established new parameters for a dialogue on race in America that might actually lead somewhere -- that might break out of the sour stasis of grievance and countergrievance, of insensitivity and hypersensitivity, of mutual mistrust."

Washington Post's Michael Gerson: "Obama's speech in Philadelphia yesterday made this argument as well as it could be made. He condemned the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's views in strong language -- and embraced Wright as a wayward member of the family. He made Wright and his congregation a symbol of both the nobility and 'shocking ignorance' of the African American experience -- and presented himself as a leader who transcends that conflicted legacy. The speech recognized the historical reasons for black anger -- and argued that the best response to those grievances is the adoption of Obama's own social and economic agenda. It was one of the finest political performances under pressure since John F. Kennedy at the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in 1960. It also fell short in significant ways."

Politico.com's Roger Simon: "Where it was strongest was in appealing to the better angels of the American spirit: the notion that we can all come together. Where it was weakest was in explaining the very reason for the speech: how the inflammatory, even repugnant, comments of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are understandable."