"He spoke to Americans as though they were adults."

FYI...The following post will be unapologetically elitist and should be taken with a grain of salt:

"He spoke to Americans as though they were adults" quipped Jon Stewart on The Daily Show following Obama's "More Perfect Union" speech Tuesday.

Sadly, they're not. This is why I salute our forefathers for establishing our representative democracy and not a "pure" democracy. This is why the "superdelegate" structure is not offensive to me. To be completely honest, I don't give a damn what the "Budweiser class" thinks if they're unwilling to invest in learning about the issues that they are so quickly to espouse an opinion on. The polls say that the president people would "most like to have a beer with" are the ones that usually win. Their ignorant ADD "insights" are the reason for eight years of Dubya in the first place. Hell, I'll grab a beer with whomever is voting for the leader of the free world based on this genius logic as long as it keeps them away from the polls that day.

You can disagree with Obama on any of his policies. You can certainly not vote for him and you don't even have to like him. However, the bottom line for me is that Obama's speech is not one that you can objectively disagree with and come out on the right side. It's just not. You can't be an intelligent person with half a brain, or heart for that matter, and not find it honest, compelling and most of all, truthful. The problem is the audience, not the speaker. This is a test for America, not Obama, and it appears it's a test we won't pass.

The article below says it best,

“So here the problem is, Jeremiah Wright is conducive to a 10-second sound bite and the speech is not,” he said. “This is the problem. The Wright thing is perfect for our short attention spans, and this requires a little bit of attention. [The speech] takes some sitting down and settling in and not a lot of folks are willing to do that.”

"More than a dozen interviews [in PA] found voters unmoved by Obama’s plea to move beyond racial divisions of the past. Despite baring himself with extraordinarily personal reflections on one of the most toxic issues of the day."

Here's an open letter from me to not just the uneducated among the people of Pennsylvania, but to blue-collar workers, rednecks, and Larry the Cable Guy fan club gold members everywhere: Turn off Dr. Phil, put down the Bud or bud, read a book that isn't "My Pet Goat", go back and get your high school diploma, actually read the damn speech and then come back to the political table. Until you spend more time studying American history and the candidates policies than you do assembling your NCAA tourney bracket, shut the hell up and for all our sakes, DON'T VOTE.

Jim Wallis's take from the Sojourners blog:

"It has simmered throughout this campaign, and now race has exploded into the center of the media debate about the presidential race. Just when a black political leader is calling us all to a new level of responsibility, hope, and unity, the old and divisive rhetoric of race from both blacks and whites is rearing its ugly head to bring down the best chance we have had for years of finally moving forward.

And that is indeed the real issue here. A black man is closer to possibly becoming president than ever before in U.S. history. And this black man is not even running as "a black man," but as a new kind of political leader who believes the country is ready for a new kind of politics. But a new kind of politics and a new face for political leadership is deeply threatening to all the forces that represent the old kind of politics in the U.S. And all the rising focus on race in this election campaign has one purpose and one purpose alone—to stop Barack Obama from becoming president of the United States.

Barack Obama should win or lose his party's nomination or the presidency based on the positions he takes regarding the great issues of our time and his capacity to lead the country and the U.S.'s role in the world. He must not win or lose because of the old politics of race in the U.S. That would be a tragedy for all of us."

here's the original article that inspired this rant:

Obama racial issues may extend to Pa.
By: Carrie Budoff Brown
March 20, 2008 12:00 PM EST

PHILADELPHIA — Stephanie Gill, a bartender in a white working-class neighborhood, noticed the shift immediately.

A week ago, her customers at Rauchut’s Tavern in Tacony didn’t have much to say about Barack Obama. But when she returned to work Wednesday, a day after the Illinois senator attempted to quell the furor over his pastor’s racially incendiary remarks, the reaction inside the corner bar was raw and unapologetic.

“People are not happy with Obama,” Gill said. “It’s the race stuff.”

Obama has always been a tough sell in largely white Northeast Philadelphia and in the city's blue-collar river wards, a collection of white ethnic enclaves where customers at the local watering hole are often born and raised in the neighborhood that supports it.

And his speech Tuesday, although widely praised by the pundit caste and Obama supporters, has only seemed to widen the gulf with the Budweiser class here.

More than a dozen interviews Wednesday found voters unmoved by Obama’s plea to move beyond racial divisions of the past. Despite baring himself with extraordinarily personal reflections on one of the most toxic issues of the day, a highly unusual move for a politician running for national office, the debate inside taverns and beauty shops here had barely moved beyond outrage aimed at the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Obama’s refusal to “disown” his longtime pastor.

story continued / click link below:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9132.html