Where the Race Stands
Been off being a parent instead of a blogger so let me weigh in belatedly on the tumultuous week. I thought Obama's speech had some elegant touches--lots of patriotism, a lot of uplift, not a dark vision of American as endemically racist. I thought there was some degree of sophistry as Mickey Kaus has noted. and intellectual inconsistency. I thought the media swoon was breathtaking. Can't decide if Chris Matthew's better-than-King comment was more over the top of Roger Cohen's saying it was "pitch perfect." In any event, I'm not sure it ended the pastor issue so much as draw attention to it. My own take is that you'd have to be grossly unfair to think that Obama is a hater and a proponent of the views Wright expressed but you also have to be intellectually incurious to ask why Mr. Dialogue didn't have a chat with his pastor about these comments. I also thought the Grandma analogy to be more than strained. We don't choose our grandparents; Obama chose this pastor and has been none-too-gently distancing himself from him, starting with canceling his speaking gig at his announcement in Springfield, Illinois last year. They knew they had a problem; they chose not to really deal with it; now they've dealt with it by wrapping it in a larger conversation about race. Not sure it worked. It probably doesn't matter. I tend to share the take offered in Politico that this race is really pretty much over. How can Clinton overcome the delegate gap? I haven't heard a good answer.
Obama did end the week on a nice grace note with a firm rebuttal to the 3 A.M. ad that my spouse made for Clinton. The young girl used in the stock footage in the Clinton ad is now old enough to vote and is a precinct captain for Obama. Still cherubic, her YouTube video is a slick bit of jujitsu See it below:
- Michelle, Cindy, and Us
- Jul 3 2008 5:15PM EDT
- Scalia's Law
- Jun 26 2008 3:08PM EDT
- Obama's Economic Tour
- Jun 12 2008 5:57PM EDT
- What Hillary Should Do Now
- Jun 4 2008 3:49PM EDT
- McClellan, Right and Wrong
- May 29 2008 1:13PM EDT
- Sydney Pollack, RIP
- May 27 2008 3:29PM EDT
- All in Moderation: Who Is Best?
- May 22 2008 2:10PM EDT
- Understanding John Edwards
- May 15 2008 3:51PM EDT
- The Last Clinton Election
- May 8 2008 11:23AM EDT
- HBO's Sublime "Recount"
- May 1 2008 1:21PM EDT
- Don't Decide Before Denver
- Apr 24 2008 11:50AM EDT
- The Mellencamp Election
- Apr 23 2008 8:49AM EDT
- It's All Up to Evan Bayh?
- Apr 21 2008 12:08PM EDT
- ABC News' Depressing Debate
- Apr 17 2008 10:44AM EDT
- The Colombian Trade Mess
- Apr 10 2008 12:30PM EDT
Archive
Jul 2008
Categories
- 2008 campaign
- 9/11
- Antitrust
- Business Journalism
- China
- Congress
- Crime
- Domestic policy
- Eliot Spitzer
- Entertainment
- Environment
- Federal Budget
- Federal Reserve
- Financial Markets
- Foreign policy
- GOP primary race
- Gun Control
- Immigration policy
- Iran
- Justice Department
- Labor
- Media
- Personalities
- Regulation
- Religious right
- Sexual Harassment
- Social Security
- Spitzer
- Stocks
- Subprime Crisis
- Supreme Court
- Trade
- War in Iraq
- White House
- animal rights
Links
- Huffington Post

- Talking Points Memo

- Power Line

- Real Clear Politics

- Drudge Report

- The Politico

- The Political Animal

- The Daily Dish

- Matthew Yglesias

- Tapped: The American Prospect

- firedoglake

- Atrios

- KausFiles

- Instapundit

- Swampland

- Daily Kos

- Red State.org

- National Review

- Blogging Heads

- Freakonomics

- Marc Ambinder





