# Newspapers Weigh in on Obama's Speech - Host: [dailykos.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/dailykos.com/) - Saved: March 19, 2008 (2008-03-19T15:12:48Z) - Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/1bdbc2539e52/ - JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/1bdbc2539e52.json ## From the page (probably an excerpt, not Jamie's words) Reading responses to Obama's speech of yesterday, I've been struck that just about every commentator who makes any kind of pretense at seriousness has had to acknowledge the speech as exceptional. Not Obama's usual brand of exceptional, in which his trademark soaring delivery lifts up whatever he says, but exceptional in its depth, nuance, and forthrightness. For some, no kind of disavowal of Wright would be enough, let alone one with any nuance. For committed Obama opponents, the speech is of course ground to be mined for offenses. But for the most part, the response has recognized this as an extraordinary moment in American politics. New York Times editorial: There are moments increasingly rare in risk-abhorrent modern campaigns when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs. In the best of these moments, the speaker does not just salve the current political wound, but also illuminates larger, troubling issues that the nation is wrestling with. Inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt come to mind, as does John F. Kennedys 1960 speech on religion, with its enduring vision of the separation between church and state. Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better. Washington Post editorial: SEN. BARACK Obama's mission in Philadelphia yesterday was to put the controversy over inflammatory statements made by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his spiritual mentor and pastor for 20 years, behind him. But Mr. Obama (D-Ill.) went deeper than that. He used his address as a teachable moment, one in which he addressed the pain, anger and frustration of generations of blacks and whites head-on -- and offered a vision of how those experiences could be surmounted, if not forgotten. It was a compelling answer both to the challenge presented by his pastor's comments and to the growing role of race in the presidential campaign. Boston Globe Editorial: BARACK OBAMA could have made a much shorter speech. He could have protected his campaign yesterday by denouncing and rejecting his former pastor, Rev.Jeremiah Wright, as a crank. Then Obama could have rushed on, hoping that someone else's scandal would push his own out of the headlines. Instead, Obama took the opportunity to engage the question of race in America, starting a bold, uncomfortably honest conversation. He asked Americans to talk openly about the deep wells of anger and resentment over racism, discrimination, and affirmative action. It's a call to break out of the country's racial stalemate and finally reach a new national understanding. ## Facts - Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/) ## Same host - [Rove: don't Hussein Obama](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e41f3cabd390/) (dailykos.com, February 27, 2008) - [Thank you sir, may I have another?](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/bf811f9ec80d/) (dailykos.com, March 4, 2008) - [Bush's HHH](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/515ccc977a96/) (dailykos.com, March 5, 2008) - [Clinton is losing](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/0b0d3f7bcd79/) (dailykos.com, March 13, 2008) - [Rifling Obama's passport file](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b48395138471/) (dailykos.com, March 21, 2008) ## Saved the same week - [#90 Dinner Parties](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e3f6e977b78c/) (stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com, March 18, 2008) - [Dinner Parties](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e8215bf46180/) (stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, March 19, 2008) - [More Bloggers Raising Money. Here Come The Politics. And Here Comes My Rant.](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/037326e54729/) (techcrunch.com, March 19, 2008) - [Apple updates Time Machine and Airport - Now working together](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f7dc2e7bb991/) (9to5mac.com, March 19, 2008) - [Twitter Your Signature](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/43b23809f123/) (blog.twitter.com, March 20, 2008) ## Elsewhere - Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/03/19/479729/-Newspapers-Weigh-in-on-Obama-s-Speech