Barack Obama's speech was not meant for me. He is a true believer in liberal orthodoxy, which centrally involves "victimology" (as M_O_M noted yesterday) and Obama will not be getting my vote. However, I was very curious about how his target audience(s) would receive the speech. Last night I watched Chris Mathews on Hardball and the reactions ranged from effusive praise to ecstasy. Matthews stated that it was one of the greatest speeches in American history. That being said, I think Obama's speech failed, and the key failure involved his appeal to the white middle class voter without whom he cannot win in November. Jay Cost, at RCP, among many others, took note of this passage:
Obama recognizes the problem with Wright's viewpoint, feels strongly that it is part of a problem in society that needs to be corrected, but offers no evidence of his work to correct it. Instead, he says, "Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed." But there are many ways to "disagree." Did he merely shake his head quietly in the pews and complain to Michelle on the drive back to Kenwood? Or did he do something about it? Many parishioners in many churches or synagogues would do something if their pastors, priests or rabbis went astray on an important issue. Many more would expect a future president to do something. [Emphasis mine-SW]
The point Jay Cost misses and that Obama seems to completely fail to comprehend is that for the vast majority of white Americans, if we heard our pastors, priests, or rabbis spew racist nonsense, we would disassociate ourselves from our church or synagogue just as quickly as possible. Further, we would know that if such ravings became public it would lead to the immediate, well deserved, demonization of the offending religious figure. There would be no hair-splitting, no nuance; no quarter would be given in the court of public opinion. Over the last 40 years white Americans have become exceptionally sensitive to any utterances that cen be interpreted as racist, the worst insult available in contemporary America. I suspect that most white Americans, lacking the subtly and nuance of Chris Matthews's audience will conclude that the attempt to draw an equivalence between Geraldine Ferraro's comments, the racism of which requires careful exegesis, and the overtly anti-white racism of Jeremiah Wright, is arrant nonsense, even if many in Obama's church believe the two are the same.
Obama cannot expect whites who, rightly or wrongly, already feel they are held to higher standards than blacks in public discourse, to accept an equivalence that implies that all whites are inherently racist.
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