Thank you, Mr. Corn, for bringing this story to alternet, and for your positive comments praising this brave man. I am absolutely staggered by the wisdom and courage that Barrack Obama displayed in addressing racial concerns and candidly discussing his pastor's comments as seen from an understandably generational perspective. Obama's ability to see both sides of the fence (and far beyond) makes him truly unique as well as his willingness to be open, as a uniter, to a better America for all people, regardless of race, gender, religion, cultural heritage and experience. Obama's further rational and well-reasoned ability to put these issues into a broader perspective (lifting America up by addressing substantive issues) goes straight to the heart of healthcare reform, education reform, and economic reforms that can only be achieved through everyone pulling together to address new heights - not old biases.

Mr. Corn, we need more honest commentators like yourself who are not just making a living by fanning the flames of controversy for more readership or viewer ratings. The politics of fear and hate will divide America and continue to cause misery for its people both economically and emotionally. We as a nation are in crisis and we know it - let's get behind a leader who can lead us - out of the darkness and into the light.

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THE TORRES-VIGNALI CONNECTION is explored in detail in a congressional report that resulted from Pardongate, when revelations surfaced that President Clinton granted clemency for Carlos Vignali Jr. — convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 1995 — along with other convicted criminals and one-time international fugitive Marc Rich. The granting of clemency occurred after payments were made to Clinton’s brother-in-law, Hugh Rodham, the brother of former first lady, New York state senator and 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Released in March 2002 by the congressional Committee on Government Reform, “Justice Undone: Clemency Decisions in the Clinton White House” details Hugh Rodham’s involvement in the Vignali affair, as well as the long business history Vignali once shared with George Torres.

The report takes to task top L.A. elected officials, including county Supervisor Gloria Molina, then–state Senator Richard Polanco, then–state Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa and U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra, among others, for lobbying on behalf of Vignali Jr., in light of his drug conviction and the fact that DEA agents long suspected Vignali Sr. to be involved in drug trafficking — along with Torres. While a member of the California state Assembly, Villaraigosa wrote the first letter on Vignali’s behalf on May 24, 1996.

In particular, L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca and former U.S. Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas were heavily criticized for lobbying for Vignali Jr.’s clemency. The report found the input of Baca and Mayorkas to the White House to be “instrumental” in the decision to grant clemency to Vignali Jr., who at his drug-trafficking trial in 1994 confirmed a close family association with Torres. Attorneys for Torres told the Weekly in 2005 that the association between the Vignalis and Torres has long since ended

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I'll be impressed. But on that issue, he's strict party line.

Who in their right mind wouldn't be attracted to Obama's message of racial honesty? When you come right down to it though, this is a diversionary tactic as effective as any other wedge issue, though with a positive rather than negative spin. I'm all for honest discussion, on ALL issues.

Still, a wedge wedge issue it remains, powerfully diverting attention from events, individuals, and institutions serving up the lions share portion of exploitation and suffering in the world today. Smoke and mirrors. Smoke and mirrors.

Have to hand it to the puppet masters. This is pure brilliance.

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The speech delivered by Obama was refreshing to the maximum degree. Finally a major candidate in a national election addressed, in ADULT form to a presumed ADULT audience that issue that always swirls and bubbles just beneath the surface and is usually broached in the most coded and 'tenderest' of manners in political contests: the race and racialist perspective. The speech had integrity, despite what each one of us may think of its content. And integrity is not high on the list of this most expedient and compromising and compromised society of ours; it's certainly not one of those 'values' most admired or practiced, that's for sure.

And now, fair is fair. Given that the whole issue was introduced slyly, efficiently and very deliberately by the Clinton camp in South Carolina (and McCain's sly and aloof distance for the moment!), it's only reasonable that Mrs Clinton and John McCain be held to that same standard and that they deliver a speech regarding the issue with that same honesty as seen in Obama's speech. Let's all hear what they REALLY think of race and racial issues in this USA of ours, and of its place in their politics!

Obama assumed Adult Human Beings as his audience; let's meet that assumption head on. Whatever his fate in this cynical RealPolitik arena of mendacity we are habituated to, his speech has elevated the field to a needful discourse for those who still hold reason, truth and integrity as capacities worth having.

CAN we meet this assumption?

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I watched/listened to Obama's entire speech on C-SPAN. He convinced me that he is truly a uniter... not a divider. Not only a uniter of parties, but of races and classes. He is a statesman. America hasn't been graced by the likes of him for a very long time.

I believe there are more US citizens that agree with Reverend Jeremiah Wright's remarks than would like to admit. I have spoken to some.

Centavo's remark about 911 is true. Unfortunately if Obama tried to address the issue now, he would be removed from TV... kind of like Howard Dean was.

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I have to agree with Paul Street and William Kristol of all people:

AMBITION, ARTIFICE, DECEIT, AND CONCEIT

The closer we get to the general election, the more and more it is going to dawn on entranced Americans that Obama is just another capitalist politician. As the neoconservative New York Times columnist William Kristol – no common or natural ally of this essay’s author – recently noted in the wake of the Wright revelations:

“Obama seems to have seen, early in his career, the utility of joining a prominent church that would help him establish political roots in the community in which he lives. Now he sees the utility of distancing himself from that church….”

“The more you learn about him, the more Obama seems to be a conventionally opportunistic politician, impressively smart and disciplined, who has put together a good political career and a terrific presidential campaign. But there’s not much audacity of hope there. There’s the calculation of ambition, and the construction of artifice, mixed in with a dash of deceit – all covered over with the great conceit that this campaign, and this candidate is different” (William Kristol, “Generation Obama? Perhaps Not,” New York Times, 17 March, 2008, p. A23.).

Penned though it may be by any leftist’s moral and ideological enemy – by a leading and enthusiastic advocate of the racist, arch-criminal, mass-murderous, and petro-imperialist Iraq occupation (launched with what Obama considers to be "the best of itentions")– Kristol’s well-crafted judgment strikes me as all too perfectly accurate and on-point.

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Obama's speech played well to the uninitiated, those who have little to no interaction with people of color or their history or Christianity for that matter. It reads like or is reminiscent of early Malcom X / 1960s Black Panthers rhetoric albeit made more palatable for general consumption, i.e. " White people are to blame for chattel slavery and this country should be ashamed of itself and therefore feel guilt for the situation black Americans find themselves currently (those who are not doing well economically)." This sounds like more, "we need reparations, blah, blah, blah" to me. What is so Christian about any of this? Where's the one is responsible for oneself, and the Lord helps those who help themselves? I don't remember Christ saying sit around and say woe is me and everyone else is to blame for my misfortune, rather I recall the Bible stating the Lord helps those who help themselves. My Christian teachings were along the lines of you know what is right and what is wrong and it's up to you the individual to do the right thing. Not "this country goes out of its way to bring misfortune to people of color, blame it and God Damn America."

This speech also plays on the heartstrings of those who have a tacit understanding about this country's history. Try going beneath the surface to real facts about the issues. Most people in this country had little to do with slavery, most did not own slaves (when slavery was legal over two hundred years ago). Slavery was an attempt by those who participated in large scale farming and processing industries to contain costs. Historically, slavery wouldn't have lasted, it would have become too expensive to continue (e.g. medical expenses, housing, feeding, clothing, etc.) and would have eventually been replaced either by sharecropping and/or industrialization, you don't see too many people using horse, mule and ox teams currently do you?

I notice Obama's approach and those of many American people of African ancestry that it does not take into account the fact that most slaves were sold in Africa by other Africans. Little is made of the facts that most Europeans were unable to penetrate beyond the coasts of Africa due to malaria and the Tse Tse fly (which killed European cattle which was a staple food source of European colonization). Little mention is also made of the fact that slavery of black Africans by black Africans had a long history prior to the sixteenth century when Europeans in ships began to spread their culture and influence around the known world. Obama also leaves out the fact that the slave trade that occurred around the turn of the nineteenth century (1800) was facilitated by American freed blacks who returned to Africa for that purpose and to cash in on the practice that was soon to be outlawed by the British (who controlled the seas at the time) and the USA.

I could go on and on but it shows how if one conveniently picks and chooses what facts one wants to highlight while leaving out the facts that disproves one's thesis it is easy to make an invalid logically unsound argument. This type of argument is called sophistry and was repudiated by Socrates back in the fifth century B.C. Someone with a Harvard education should know that and that further calls into question Obama's motives. There is no justification for what Reverend Wright stated, "...God Damn America." Obama's speech comes across as an insiduous attempt to deflect people away from the point in question and direct us away from the facts that he does not want to face: a highly influential man in his life is a race baiter, how un-Christian of him. All in all Obama's speech comes across as the fallacy informally known as argumentum misericordia, appeal to pity.

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Barack Obama showed powerful insight describing, for those of us desiring to heal our nation, a path to unity. Many will scoff at this visionary speech as "just politics"; but those are the people that want to maintain the status quo in America. Personally, I don not.

For to long we have dealt ineffectively with history that has made us less strong as a nation, less tolerant, less effective in the world. Each individual citizen dealing with life from purely an egocentric viewpoint. I don't think that we are so small that we want to be ruled by a bunch of selfish, old white men who want a world in which its every man for himself.

Obama shows us a path to unity. A path which, in a modern world where every individual, every state and country are inextricably linked. Linked by our world economy, by global warming, by the need for energy and food. We have huge challenges ahead and if we do not unit the world will devolve into a deeper chaos then we are experiencing now.

Obama talks about unity, talks about a new order in our approach to politics. The old goats, elephants and donkeys may not want to upset their apple carts and participate, but a vast majority of plane, average Americans do. Why? because when we join together we can accomplish the great things that we as Americans and Yes we as citizens of the world, can accomplish.

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Last night I listened to Barack Obama speak about race in America. I know he's a centrist Democrat with strong corporate ties, but he spoke about race in a public way that I haven't heard in many years.

Whatever you may think of him as a man and as a political leader, he spoke some important truths last night for all those with ears to hear and minds to think with.

His were the kind of words that got people like ML King and Fred Hampton killed. It seems that when a respected leader talks about multi-racial unity in this country, they put their life on the line.

I sincerely hope that we have moved past that kind of political ugliness. The emerging Chernobyl on Wall Street suggests that we'll need a working class unity the likes of which we have never seen in this country.

Barack Obama can't save us from the economic meltdown that some are predicting, but he could provide the political context that could help us save ourselves.

Bob Simpson

The BobboSphere

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One point that Mr Corn's wonderful coverage of Mr Obama's speech misses - a point that no one seems to have mentioned yet - is that the speech not only attests to the fact that Mr Obama is the paradigmatic American, but also that the issue of race is inextricably linked to the very issue of our identity as a people.
His speech begins by reminding us of our colonial experience, when we were forging a people of a new identity, one that John Adams characterized as stripped of European origins, but nevertheless forged of the various metals that constitute the world's diverse ethnicities - as Arthur Schlesinger argued in his monograph, "The Disuniting of America."
As Mr Obama continues his speech, he focuses on himself: an American of multi-ethnic identity, whose life has pivoted on embracing that multi-ethnicity, an acceptance that has allowed him to overcome the adversity his life typically faced.
Our society's problems of race pivot on its own identity problems, its refusal to embrace an identity that is no less multi-ethnic than Mr Obama's own - and as does Mr Obama, so should America. Mr Obama's message of hope is witnessed in his very person: once we Americans understand and accept who we are, in all of our rich multi-ethnic diversity, will we be able to improve the foundry that molds each of our identities and begin solving the ills that infect our society.
Hopefully, this historically important speech will not be construed merely as a response to Mr Wright's comments - it is so much more than that .... In any case, has no one heard of the fallacy of guilt by association?

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All-in-all a fine analysis of a fine speech. However, I found one part of Mr. Obama’s speech, one that Mr. Corn did not mention, very disappointing, and that was where he bowed down to the Israel Lobby and blamed the Palestinian problem on “radical Islam” instead of on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, as well as their attempt to break the will of the Palestinians through hardship and humiliation. Note that I say “disappointing,” not “surprising,” because I have seen this time and again: a politician indicates a willingness to view the Palestinian issue with a modicum of fairness, then gets beat up by the Lobby, then protects his or her career by “getting with the program.” Ick, uck, yuk!

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Obama Speech Analysis

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This is apparently a speech that Obama wrote himself--a rarity in politics today. It provides remarkable insight into his character. He strikes me as intelligent, thoughtful, and perceptive. Even more, he's empathetic--he appears to understand well the racial and class grievances that separate us. He's also aware of how cynical elites use race and class grievances to turn people against one another, while these same elites vacuum up all the money and enjoy life in their secure and exclusive enclaves. Hillary and McCain keep talking about "experience," but how about character and wisdom as key qualities of a president? With this speech, Obama shows once again that he has the character and wisdom to lead this country to a brighter, more inclusive, less divisive and exploitative, future.

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It was a wonderful and brave speech, except for the Israel-kow-towing, of course. But...
Right at the beginning, Obama could have pointed out that the Teachings of Jesus do NOT stop at the boundaries of THIS COUNTRY, or, for that matter, THIS Religion!
THAT, I believe, was the point the fiery Reverend was making. God has already BLESSED this country enough...and look what we've done with it!
...but of course, like the Dean Scream, the Zionazi Media has taken his "God Damn America"
comment completely out of context and trumpets it ad Nauseum, propaganda-meisters that they are!

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Senator Obama's speech reveals his complexity and his intrinsic ability to touch people in a meaningful way. In this sense, it distinguishes him from other politicians like our current President and Vice President who have no inner compass other than the arrogance of their ego and the weakness of their character.

It also reveals how difficult leadership is when contrasted in the public light with the temerity of one's own ambition and the reality of one's own deeds. It is true that the Senator said he has chosen not to renounce Rev Wright for uttering those words of anger. Those words are however not any different from the words of any evangelical leader to the right, as when Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell blame Katrina on the sins of New Orleans. At least, Rev Wright did not claim he talked to God and God told him who the next president will be. Yet, when one separates words from deeds, whether voluntarily or by design, this man who has given his own community the best years of his life and guided their spiritual quest, is now being sacrificed and pushed into an early retirement so the story of the young Senator can have the desired happy ending.

There is an intrinsic flaw to the thought process for politicians: every truth begins and ends with their story. Truth be told, it does not. The story of this nation is not the story of our political leaders. It is the story of the men and women who go to work every day and build it, some day with resentment, but every day sacrificing and toiling for their children, their families, their State, their nation. Senator Obama talks about the resentment and in many ways panders to that resentment. The courageous thing would have been to have Rev Wright in the room and recognize him for the sacrifices he has made for him as his spiritual mentor. His absence speaks louder than the Senator's words.

It is a courageous speech. It is a heartfelt speech, but until our young Senator grows up and leads us in the way he grows up, he will become like all other politicians, overly impressed with his own story, caught up in the search for power and ultimately unable to cast a long moral shadow of integrity for the next generation which has him on a pedestal.

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again with Jim Shaw and others who resent the existence of Israel. Hamas and other Islamic terrorists have been sending rockets, suicide bombers etc. into Israel for 60 years. I am glad that Obama, a true statesman, doesn't hate Israel and we Zionists.

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This article is like a breath of fresh air. Like something molding in the attic has finally been brought out into the sunlight. Racial anger is real and is felt by all races. I am an Anglo living in the southwest with many Hispanic and Native American friends. There is anger from a time when their native languages were forbidden in the schools, when their culture and way of life was being destroyed. Anger that land, once open, is now protected for only the wealthy behind the gates of gated communities. And there is anger in the white communities that are struggling financially. As Obama pointed out, there is anger in seeing that after a lifetime of hard work and struggle there isn't enough money to survive. An Anglo friend of mine is moving to Costa Rica as health care here