Gridlock News

I just finished watching Barack Obama's speech to respond to the hate filled comments of his own pastor the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.  The speech appears to have been written by several speech writers with handy access to  megabytes of polling information on a usb flash drive probably sitting around a big conference room in a hotel somewhere.  The speech had some very good high points that had the potential to do some good, but it also hit every polling segment with a good deal of talk that was clearly aimed at appeasing and pandering to those polling groups.

On the hole, I believe that anyone that watches then entire speech will likely take an improved view of Barack Obama the man, who obviously chose a brave road less traveled.  However, the end result will likely be over shadowed by Obama's own speech segments that clearly pandered and struck hollow from point to point.  These parts will over time take on more history as they will be exploited in sound bites where the context cannot be conveyed with an entire repeat of the speech.

Barack Obama essentially chose the brave road of trying to do some good, but chose this at the expense of doing what was politically necessary to win the election.  All his words will not achieve anything if he doesn't win the office.  This was a hard lesson that Al Gore and Democrats learned back in 2000.  When you take the high road and concede, you are choosing to lose regardless.

Barack had to deal with new claims that he was aware of his Pastor's comments and other similar comments.  In many ways he made the claim that his Pastor's comments came from a man that suffered at the hands of racism and was unable to see the changes in America.  Overall, Obama made one of the most telling remarks when he said that the most segregated hour in America each week is conducted in churches around the country.  That seems to emphasize the common flaw with Barack Obama as well as predecessors before him that included George Bush and Richard Nixon.  Their religious roots serve to separate them from the country as a whole and advance the religions they serve as opposed to the country and Constitution that they swear to uphold and defend and serve.