Presidential Race

If I thought that I’d gotten rusty after my fall from the posting horse recently, today’s title put that concern to rest. Presidential Race, now that’s a solid pun if ever there was one. Still got it… but pressing on. I don’t where you were on March 18^th but you probably didn’t get the chance to watch friend of the Administration Barack Obama’s historic race speech – subsequently dubbed ‘A More Perfect Union’. Sure you might have seen a few sound bites, but I can tell you that unless you saw the full 37 odd minutes (see below – already viewed some 4 million times) it wasn’t done justice. As many have commented since, the speech has the potential to be carved into history’s pages of Great Speeches alongside ‘I have a Dream’ (MLK Jr), ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ (JFK) and We Shall Fight on the Beaches (Churchill)

Obama’s speech came in response to growing racial tensions and controversy hounding the Democratic Presidential campaign. Following Bill Clinton’s charged comments about Jesse Jackson’s failed 1984 candidacy, and Geraldine Ferraro’s definitively racist "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position”, came incendiary footage of Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright. Rev Wright was YouTube’d screaming “Goddam America”, “for killing innocents” and stating that 9/11 was “America's chickens… coming home to roost." Fox News had a field day and some pundits wondered if this was the Obama killing gaffe that they’d all been waiting for.

To make a long story slightly shorter, Obama chose a bold route to settle some of the media fueled innuendo: meeting it head on. In his speech he argued for a frank public debate of race – in contrast to the current status quo – which sees black anger simmering from generations of oppression, and corresponding white discontent over perceived injustices around Affirmative Action. He then decided to stand by his pastor (while condemning his inflammatory words), who he said was a good man, prone to the passion and hyperbole stereotypical of black church leader of generations past.

When the dust settled, many on the right had dismissed Obama’s speech as empty (but pretty) rhetoric – preferring to pretend that the issue of race in America was settled by Lincoln and the Civil War. He was also attacked from the left, by those claiming that he had not done enough to quiet fears about his links to such an extremist preacher. Both were wrong and both missed the point. Obama grandly invested 37 minutes of his life trying to reopen an old wound – this time hoping to get it to heal properly at the risk of his locomotive career. He behaved like a great leader should: he was honest, (not patronizing) and inspirational. Whether he goes on to win the Democratic nomination, and then the White House or not – Obama has shown a depth of character that makes his peers look distinctly two-dimensional.