Barack Obama: A good and thoughtful speech

Except for a few places where he stumbled just a bit in the delivery, Barack Obama gave a fine speech at the Democratic Convention. He had tough things to say, some specific promises to make which one hopes he and a Democratic government can fill, and some steely challenges for John McCain. Here are a few quotes I jotted down quickly:

• "We love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight."
• On the politics of the Republican party: "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as a person to run from."
• "At defining moments like this, change doesn't come from Washington; change comes to Washington."

The speech addressed some specific criticisms lobbed against him: against his patriotism, against his judgment, against his popularity. He spoke movingly of his family, of his mother, his grandparents, of the missing father in his life. David Brooks said that this was a good speech but not a political speech. The historian Richard Norton Smith said that it was a great speech, not one that will probably be written in stone--but that any perceived shortcomings will not matter if Barack Obama has an inaugural speech in his future.

I started getting a little worried, however, that Obama wasn't going to mention Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on this historic anniversary. That tip of the hat came at the end of Obama's speech, but it was just that--a tip of the hat. For a few minutes I watched Tavis Smiley (whose program I used to watch more regularly when I lived in Central Time Zone), whose guests for a brief post-convention analysis were Dr. Cornell West and Julianne Malveaux. West and Malveaux both were disappointed in the speech and felt that Obama should have shown more gratitude for the hard work of African-Americans who made it possible for a black man to accept this historical nomination. Malveaux said: "I think the brother dropped the historical baton."

I think Obama is trying to bridge at least two divides here: a political divide (or, more accurately, the partisan divide) between Republicans and Democrats and a racial divide between whites and blacks. It's a precarious balance. He will not be able to meet everyone's expectations. He will be, I hope, the first of many African-American presidents, men and women.

Here is Kevin Drum on Obama's speech. I also really liked the first quote that Kevin copied from the speech.