Barack Obama gave an honest, candid speech today.
Many people here admired that speech, and rightly so. That speech today represented something rare in the annals of recent American politics.
When, in living memory, when the chips were down, has a candidate or a President stood up and given a speech in their own words telling the American people not what they thought the public wanted to hear, but what needed to be said?
Barack Obama did that today.
He has a delegate lead. And yet he is still under attack from all sides.
This is not over. Far from it...
To me what was remarkable about the last five or six days has not been what did happen, but what did not.
It is entirely predictable that the right wing and the MSM would collaborate on stories that inflamed racial fears and resentments given those clips of Reverend Wright. That should come as no surprise.
Whatever is wrong with this nation, however, and there is plenty that we can improve upon, has very little to do with the words of one charismatic Black Preacher on Chicago's South Side no matter how "powerful" or "successful" the preacher, or how "outrageous" and, ultimately, disappointing his words.
Bill Clinton knows this. Al Gore knows this. Nancy Pelosi knows this. John and Elizabeth Edwards know this. Hillary Clinton knows this cold.
Anyone with a lifetime of experience in Democratic politics knows that Jeremiah Wright, for as wrong-headed, factually inaccurate, divisive and inflammatory his rhetoric in the pulpit in those clips...has over the last five or six days served as nothing more and nothing less than a national scape goat.
Reverend Wright has been fashioned by our media into nothing more than an angry Black man. (Which is easy to do, of course, because, in those clips he so very much seems to be nothing more than an angry, Black man.)
And now this complex man who, however, is so much more than simply those angry clips, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, is being used to take down and question the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama.
Which, for anyone who saw Senator Obama's candid, honest, imperfect and yet, uplifting, speech today, is a crying shame.
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I have a very simple message to those who support Barack Obama tonight.
This is not over. This is far from over.
Not simply because those sermons from Reverend Wright do raise valid questions of Senator Obama, but also because the state of the nomination is in flux.
And we need to talk about that. We need to strategize.
Tonight, I think all of us who voted for Barack Obama or intend to do so, must ask ourselves a question. What was the meaning of our vote? What did it mean?
Because tonight that meaning is being put to the test.
Allow me to be frank here, the history of the Democratic party is littered with the campaigns of well-meaning and well-intentioned individuals whose candidacies succumbed to the overwhelming inertia of the status quo.
I've been around the block a few times within our party. It's a different party behind closed doors. As Democrats, in fact, behind those closed doors is where our ideals go to die. Behind closed doors is also where I've received those "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" emails asking whether I knew everything about the Church of the candidate I support. I think we all know now what they were getting at.
That's just the truth about this campaign in 2008.
Today, in Philadelphia, a man named Barack Obama stood up, alone, out in the open, for a different way of doing things, for a different way of talking about politics.
But standing up and speaking honestly is not sufficient.
It can't just be him. We've got to stand up too.
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The structure of the Democratic nomination is such that persuasion and influence are now key. This is a contest for pledged delegates, and a contest for Super Delegates.
I disagree with Markos here. Talking about a coup is counter-productive.
We should be talking about a very few, very focused things.
First, we need to help with Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina. We are in for the fight of our lives. Here are three simple things you can do to help:
REGISTER VOTERS. TAKE ACTION. DONATE.
Second, all of us who live in states where we've already cast our votes for Obama should do one very simple thing in addition to helping out with the states yet to come.
We should take inspiration from Obama's speech today and, in our own lives, reach out to someone different from ourselves. Cross that barrier. Break that comfort level. Reach out and ask that question we've been meaning to. "Where are you from?" "How do you like working here?" "What's your opinion?"
This sounds corny. It's not. Trust me, I've been there. Reach out and ask that question, make that new friend, attend the church service down the block, stretch yourself and be vulnerable. Look someone in the eye. Break down the walls of mistrust.
If you want vulnerable that was Senator Barack Obama in Philadelphia today.
He can handle it. He's skinny but he's tough.
But he can't do this alone.
Everything he said convinced me that he is the caliber of leader we need to lead our nation. He's already a United States Senator, he would make a great president.
But it's not even close to being over.
That's tough, but I'm telling you tonight that it's true.
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In conclusion, I'd just like to convey that my take on our moment in history has grown and evolved. Like Markos, I'm approaching my 40th year (I'm a ways ahead of him.)
I'm not going to pretend that this is going to be easy. There are strengths to this campaign and there are weaknesses. Our greatest weakness is that we are fighting the status quo, and that status quo is so very powerful, especially behind closed doors.
I support Barack Obama because I want our ideas and our candidates to win.
I support the caliber of leadership he brings.
He is a good and honest man.
We need that in Washington, D.C.
I don't think he's perfect. I never have. I don't invest him with anything more or anything less than the candor, insight, and courage he expressed in that speech today.
If you feel the same way, I have a simple message tonight.
This is not over.
Barack Obama still needs your help.