I also would have liked it without the weasel lies about what did he know and when did he know it. Interestingly, Mr. Bookworm, who pays little attention to this stuff thought it was a great speech, honest from start to finish. It simply did not occur to him that Obama might have made other, previous speeches with which it might have conflicted, nor did it occur to him that there’s a problem to sit for 22 years and disagree with your preacher’s more inflammatory rhetoric — to 8,000 people yet — and say and do nothing.

Dennis Prager joins you in believing that Obama is a man of good will and unity who doesn’t believe this Black Liberation stuff. I’m not so generous. This was Obama’s world for 22 years. These were the words he heard in silence. There is no indication that he ever, ever, ever made a squeak about it. His candidacy has been built on sonorous, non-substantive platitudes about unity that never address any specifics. I don’t take this as a belief in some glowing vision of blacks and whites walking hand in hand. I see it as a rather typical Leftist vision of my way or the highway: just as unity in international politics, war, and economics must necessarily result from accepting Obama’s leftist views hook, line and sinker, I’m willing to bet that Obama banked on racial unity coming from buying into black liberation theology — his spiritual refuge for 22 years.

I understand all of Book’s points. But I’d like to add a few other excerpts of Obama’s speech. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a Black politician on the left actually dare to say these three things before, and I find that refreshing:

“For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. [...] And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism”

“a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.”

“a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. [...] So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.”

How many leftist Black politicians have you ever heard make statements such as these? Again, I don’t vote for leftist politicians, but for me these are refreshing sentiments to hear, and they won’t make Black Liberation Theologists happy; they won’t make many blacks happy who are anti-Israel racists or who see white people as demons. I guess I’m saying that I see him as having sentiments better than most. Statements such as those I’ve highlighted above will not play well among his constituencies.

If Barack Obama is forced to be explicit about what he wants to do with America in the coming years, it seems to me that his attempts to achieve some kind of “unity” will go right down the tubes…..I don’t believe that a majority of Americans are interested in turning our country into one more socialist paradise.

This post will grow as the day goes on. Please don’t forget to check back later. For a while I was absolutely elated to see Obama’s racist-to-the-core, God damn Whitey, God damn America spiritual advisor start getting some belated press….

You hit the nail on the head:

He’s not advancing himself as President because he’s the best man for the job, but because he, personally, by being some racial fulfillment incarnate, will save us from the last remaining “stains” created by the Founders.

It is the Obama campaign that injects race into the debate. For me the whole Wright thing is simply the political rhetoric of a far left wing preacher of Liberation Theology. Just because Wright frames much of his identification of “oppressor” in racil terms does not make him a racist. But Obama is slick in using the controversy very skillfully.

Playing to white liberal guilt he is their messiah. Playing to black America he is one of them, and playing to moderates he is the personification of our hope. Meanwhile the critics focus on race and he won’t let them forget it.

Obama is smart enough to hide his Marxist beliefs and disguise his socialism in hopeful platitudes. To be against Obama is to be against all that is good… what the rest of us must do is look behind the emotional appeals and at the philosophy that is the essence of Obama the man. I don’t think a very high percentage of voters agrees with his point of view… even if they long for a better world.

It’s not his race it’s his Marxism.