Barack Obama For President

Now I understand why my friend M was so excited about this speech. Barack Obama is the face of her version of America. Her closest friends, me included, are all but WASPs. She is born of a Vietnamese mum and a Pakistani dad who met in Hawaii. Her half sister is half Japanese. Her step-father is Caucasian. Spanish is her second language and her closest friends in Texas are Latino. I thought her Latino myself when I first met her. She lived for 10 months in Korea as an English teacher. She "samples" different religions because her family practices different faiths. I must say, I like the face of her version of America as well.



Reactions to the speech:

From Mother Jones:

With this address, Obama was trying to show the nation a pathway to a society free of racial gridlock and denial. Moreover, he declared that bridging the very real racial divide of today is essential to forging the popular coalition necessary to transform America into a society with a universal and effective health care system, an education system that serves poor and rich children, and an economy that yields a decent-paying jobs for all. Obama was not playing the race card. He was shooting the moon.

From Daniel Finkelstein of Times Online (UK):

Somehow he has mastered the art of conveying feeling, strong feeling, without seeming emotionally manipulative. He stands there in his sober suit. His voice is firm, his body-language surprisingly still. He makes few, if any, movements with his hands or arms...Indeed, you might almost say that he's leadership incarnate. Never, even for a moment, does Obama lose a sense of quiet power and effortless authority. He radiates dignity and decency...Throughout, he struck me as infinitely credible and, indeed, presidential.

From Taylor Owen:

I haven’t read through all the commentary on Obama’s race speech yet, but I did watch it, and believe that above all else, the style he exhibited goes to the core of his candidacy. He speaks about issues, controversial issues, with a political voice that hasn’t been heard before. He transcends old ideological, ethnic, religious and historical divides. This voice is not just new to the US, but internationally. This is why so many people in Canada and Europe, for example, are watching him in a way they don’t even look at their own leaders. I can’t express the number of times I have been asked in Canada who will be “our Obama”. Same in the UK.

Its a forty minute speech. You know where to find the rest. I cried a couple of times. Huhu.

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