If This Does Not Move You Then You Have No Soul

[Epsilon]

Barack Obama on race, politics and America.

God damn. I had to confirm that, yes, this happened. No this was not something spoken on a TV show or a movie. There are very few times I wish I lived in
America, but this, this is one of those times.

Holy fucking shit I think I'm crying. I...

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Epsilon

For Ashley. Damn straight, for Ashley.

[Fidoohki]

He did give a good speech that made a lot of sense. It was nice to hear a mainstream

politician say what others have suspected for a while.However, will it do any good?

I seriously doubt it. Nothing stuck to him til now and this one will and that as they say

will be that. I bet Hillarry is dancing up a storm now.

[Valles]

Whether you believe him or not (and, personally, I do), you gotta admit that the man has great big brass ones to take that stance.
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Logan Darklighter]

The Pros:

Great speech. Very eloquent. Even moving in spots.

The Cons:

Too much covering for Reverend Wright.

He makes a lot of generalizations, understandably there are expectations to every generalization but I gotta call him on one specific one.

"Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition."

Really? I would have swore it was because the middle class, especially former Democrats, felt that the Democratic party no longer supported their interests. Remember that's the democrats, not independents or republicans. (Bbased
on a study where Stan Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, analyzed white,
largely unionized auto workers in suburban Macomb County, Michigan, just
north of Detroit. So how representative it is would be up for debate.)

Bottom line for me: Extremely pretty rhetoric. If I'd been sitting there listening to him speak, I would probably have been moved. But after all is said
and done, I think this speech would've been better if it hadn't come in response to the media or the Clinton campaign pointing out his associations
with the Reverend Wright.

Agreed though, that he has some cast-iron cajones to take on the issue front and center rather than keeping his head down and hoping it would just go away.

[Logan Darklighter]

Oh - one more point against. I'd watched the political forums go almost moribund in this community. No post before this since early February.

And I kept hoping (against hope) that it would STAY THAT WAY.

I know, I know. Not realistic given the season we're moving into. But still...

[M Fnord]

Y'know, Logan ol' boy, you *could* just mark the forum read and be done with it instead of writing pissy little notes in an active thread.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Epsilon]

I don't think you understand how huge this is.

This was a politician, a politiciain running for President of the United States, the most powerful position in the world, and not some wacko, a guy in the
actula running. And he stood up and said:

There is no simple solution to this. There is no black or white, good or evil, us or them here. That the very act of saying this is black or white, the very
act of judging people based on a single trait, be it colour of skin or what they said about one thing or anything else is WRONG. The world is a complex and
hard and difficut one that requires us to compromise and sacrifice and work together and can not be solved by slogans or happy thoughts. That everybody, on all
sides, have legimtimate greivances and that finding a way to make us all happy will be hard.

In the words of Jon Stewart: "he spoke to us as if we were adults."

And its about fucking time.

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Epsilon

[Fidoohki]

Agreed.