A More Perfect Union

This is the finest speech I’ve ever heard given by a politician in my lifetime. I really want to believe that this speech will be remembered in the way that the Gettysburg Address is remembered, the way that Kennedy’s speeches are remembered. The way Martin Luther King’s dream is remembered.

To hear a politician telling the truth — the hard truth, the unpleasant truth — about race and class in America, and then asking Americans to turn aside their differences and their prejudices and to work together…my God. My God.

I’m not voting for Obama because he’s black. I’m not voting for Obama because he wants to pull out of Iraq.

I’m voting for Obama because he is the only politician I’ve ever seen who genuinely instills in me a sense of hope in this country’s future, which is something that I’ve not had since I was a child.

I want to believe. And maybe if enough people believe — if enough people can find hope — then we can work together, rural whites and urban blacks and Latino immigrants and conservatives and liberals, to put aside our differences and remind ourselves of the love we have for this country that is first and foremost a dream of unity and freedom that we all share. I don’t believe in your God, I don’t share your skin color; I may not even share your language. But we can share our hope.

I’ll believe in that.

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  1. The guy is a racist. That speech said nothing about his preacher and how his preacher’s words are so full of hate against America and white people. Seriously, if the races were reversed here. If Obama was a white candidate who attended a radical rightwing Christian church with a preacher who would say things like “God damn black America” and stuff like that, he would be thrown off the ballot.

    I’m not saying Obama is totally bad, but it says about a the soul of a person who attends a church with a preacher like Wright.

    I do think Obama has good intentions, but I don’t think he has the experience. Actually, I KNOW he does not have the experience. Any one of us can get up there, look good, say the right things – but when it comes down to business, we’ll see how good he does – if he does get elected.

    No, this isn’t about Bush or republican vs. democrat. It’s about a person – an individual running for President who seems to me to be nothing more than a rap star who attends a radical church.

    Now I have seen what the left of center has been saying over the years about people who attend church on a regular basis. Now couple that with the fact that this guy attends a church where the preacher is an obvious racist bigot who spews hate for America – how can one think this guy will be good to lead this country?

    Billy Kess

  2. Does Obama ever actually reveal any details of his plan for change other than stating the obvious in his “Anthony Robbins inspirational speeches for change?” The Republicans will make mince meat of him in no time because he can’t say anything other than a positive daily affirmation. The only thing he has succeeded in is dividing the Democratic party amongst racial lines.

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