Now this is a great speech:

In recent weeks, every one of us has been made aware of a simple truth — white Americans and black Americans often see the same world in drastically different ways — ways that go beyond and beneath the Simpson trial and its aftermath, which brought these perceptions so starkly into the open.

Abraham Lincoln reminded us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. When divisions have threatened to bring our house down, somehow we have always moved together to shore it up. My fellow Americans, our house is the greatest democracy in all human history. And with all its racial and ethnic diversity, it has beaten the odds of human history. But we know that divisions remain, and we still have work to do. (Applause.)

Recognizing one another’s real grievances is only the first step. We must all take responsibility for ourselves, our conduct and our attitudes. America, we must clean our house of racism. (Applause.)

Of course, that was Bill Clinton’s speech on the Million Man March in 1995 — the very same Bill Clinton that the Obama campaign has been systematically marginalizing as a racist, and the very same Bill Clinton who arguably took much greater political risks that day than Obama did yesterday, since the Million Man March was organized by Louis Farrakhan, a figure then far more demonized than Wright today, and Clinton was a sitting President, rather than a candidate seeking to kick start a stalled campaign. Obviously, we can answer Cornerite Charles Murray’s rhetorical question (quoted approvingly by Mat Yglesias) “Has any other major American politician ever made a speech on race that comes even close to this one?” with a resounding “Yes! Bill Clinton did!” But then, the creatures of the Conservative Movement have never give the Clintons credit for anything, and their descendants in today’s famously free press and today’s famously self-correcting blogosphere play by those same rules.

But let that pass. After all, 1995 was a long time ago, and many may not even remember that time. Let’s focus on Obama’s — I hardly dare to use the lower case “s” — speech. We all know that Obama gives a terrific speech — not least because prepared-for eloquence rules out any requirement that he think fast on his feet or take questions — and so the excellence* of Obama’s rhetoric** really isn’t the question here. (Nor do I care about Wright, who is certainly as sane as, say, Henry Kissinger. So Obama’s beautiful description of his church is interesting but to me, academic.) But when I, case-hardened cynic that I am, start looking at the pesky detail… Start trying to match up Obama’s words with Obama’s actions… I start asking questions.

Questions like:

Does Obama live up to his own speech in the way he’s running his campaign?  Read more 

Mickey Kaus at Slate notes that Andrew Sullivan preceded Geraldine Ferraro’s scurrilous racial comments by several months.

Kaus cites many of the inflammatory, racially-charged phrases Sullivan used in a piece from the Atlantic that can’t help but remind one of the most repugnant moments of The Birth of a Nation:

If one of the “foremost” things Obama offers voters is the “face of a brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia, etc.” doesn’t that mean “he would not be in this position if he were white”? If you like Obama because he might “rebrand” America to the world—well, he wouldn’t accomplish that simply by having his election televised, as Sullivan suggests he would, if he were white, would he?

Is Hillary going to stand by idly while Sullivan fuels her agenda of race-baiting, or will she speak out against Grand Wizard Andy?  Read more