Reactions to Obama’s speech yesterday fell into one of two camps. The first was that the Senator’s remarks were a frank audit of race relations in America today. These pundits felt that Obama not only addressed the serious issues that plague black and white society, but also showed presidential gravitas. This school of thought believes that this was a landmark event in presidential politics. Eugene Robinson thought the speech showed real cajones , the Sacramento Bee opined that the speech was the most significant since JFK’s in 1960, and the Kansas City Star was awed by the Senator’s integrity and challenge to move beyond our past. The other group felt that Obama did little to condemn Rev. Wrights comments. Instead of distancing himself from Wright, Obama explained why such comments were understandable in light of the history of African Americans. These opinions focus on why the Senator associated himself with Wright in the first place and why he used examples like his grandmother’s prejudice to portray a common imperfection in Americans. See Maureen Dowd’s criticism as Obama as a Messiah, Michael Gerson’s guilt by association and duplicity argument, and Newt Gingrich’s suspicion of Obama as a responsible church member.
The speech is receiving enormous attention from the mainstream press and the blogosphere. On YouTube the speech is blowing up, quickly jumping past 1 million views. Check it out and form your own opinion.