We will probably soon learn whether Obama’s speech about race freed his campaign to move on. But regardless of whether or not Obama becomes President, the impact of his speech may be far greater in the future than in this election year. As with other issues, Obama found a way to transcend the current question and turn a potentially divisive issue into a call for unity and change.
Obama brings something that has been so lacking in politics that I think we stopped being conscious of missing it. He is able to take the common political situation and add to it. Rather than defending Rev. Wright’s remarks or his involvement with them, he accepted them and then took the opportunity to talk about something that, frankly, he may have longed to talk about publicly for some time. In doing that, he opened up a path that was never available before. In doing so, I think he showed something that marks him as great presidential material.
That something is courage. It takes uncommon courage to step up and address this issue directly. And we absolutely need a President with courage, especially after the last seven years of cowardice.
But that’s about Obama, and what I really want to get to is the historic nature of his speech. It should not be lost on us that he is continuing a discussion about race that started before the American Revolution and has been embedded in the great written and spoken works of our country. In taking a balanced view that allowed for the opinions of all parties, Obama moved the discussion forward, staking out a new high ground. By shunning the crass debate about who’s right and moving us back in the direction of the critical issues that we all face, he’s invited us to get to the essence of our needs, an essence so long avoided by focusing on divisive issues.
I might not be the first, but I want to be among the first to say that this speech gives Obama a claim on the presidency. This is how I would expect our President to deal with a crisis: not by enlisting special interests to divide us, but rather by calling on us all to come together.
The text and video is available on the Obama website.