I’ve been reading some of the reactions to Obama’s speech on race and class and one thing they seem to share is a sense of wonderment that a politician spoke so openly about a topic that comes with more baggage than an auditorium full of divorced singles. And he spoke in plain, unadorned terms that didn’t condescend to the audience. The speech nicely embodies what I think is one of Obama’s greatest assets: his ability to articulate the the sunny as well as the more shadowy aspects of American civic life without sounding rehearsed or inauthentic. I can’t picture Clinton giving a speech like this. Her years in politics have left their scars and I’m not sure that she’s capable of letting her guard down when there are more than five people in the room.
The YouTube clips of Reverend Wright had the potential to freak out a lot of white people; the kind of white people who make it a point to talk about their black friends when the topic of race comes up. Obama needed to take control of the narrative and he did that. But he also offered a glimpse of what it might be like have a president who is willing to treat us like adults.
