Sometimes...

Not commenting on the tone of Greenwald's post today will have to be comment enough on it. As for the substance...


The vast majority of the public will never see Obama's speech, never hear it, and sure as hell never read it. Instead, they will get it sliced and diced by the media people. If the media like the speech (and how could they not? Hillary didn't make it), they will see to it that it's presented to the public in such a way that they will like it. Already most of the headlines I see on the speech disappear Wright -- disappear the reason the speech was made in the first place -- in favor of presenting it as just some speech on race relations. NPR: "Obama Speech Addresses Racial Divide" Boston Globe: "Obama Speech Goes Past Generalities On Race" BBC: "Obama says US cannot ignore race".

It's an excellent, grownup speech, of the kind I've wanted to hear from Obama from the start of his campaign, but in the end that hardly matters. What matters is that Obama could count on the speech being reported to the public in such a way that they will see it as grownup. And that's something he may or may not be able to count on in a few months, if he wins the nomination. We won't know until then just how much Obama really trusts the public.

Some further comments: race has been Obama's friend throughout the campaign. This is the first time I think he, himself made it work in his favor. It's also the first time he's really been tested, and he's coming though well. He absolutely has to put this behind him now, so it's less likely the smear machine can whip up a furor with it during the slow period of the campaign, if he gets that far. And parts of the speech spoke to me, a person who, like Obama has a foot in both the black and white worlds, personally, which is the first time he's said anything that's done that. Most of his speeches are a bunch of damn nonsense, to borrow from David Brinkley. Not this one.