So I curious about people's read on the latest salvo's between Rev. Wright at the Press Club vs. Obama's reaction. I'm still sorting it out. Its not that any of Wright's comments in the Q & A section were so terribly off (though they were clownish to the point of resembling a stand-up routine at points) but jeesh! "With friends like this who needs enemies" as they say.

First Wright's Q&A session:

I supported John Edwards earlier in this campaign. When he dropped out, I became a probable Obama supporter. I liked him enough, I was excited about the… excitement, and I think Hillary Clinton, who would make a decent President, is sort of a war monger.

So, I had this whole post written in my head, where I was going to go through the thought process whereby I was picking Obama. There were his positives, his negatives; Clinton’s positives, Clinton’s negatives. It felt a lot like how I came to weigh all my choices and vote for Mike Nutter last year. Obama would have my vote and I would root hard for him in the primary, but there was not a whole lot of investment from my perspective.

I just watched Obama’s speech about race, and the comments that his pastor, Jeremiah Wright made that have brought Obama under fire from the right-wing media (which then leaked into the mainstream media). For those who missed it, his pastor said things like this:

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

Well, let me first say on those words:

God Damn America for treating our citizens as less than human.

I am a patriotic American. In my ultra-privileged life, I have had the opportunity to wear the American flag on my chest, representing our Country at International races, hearing announcers call “United States of America” and realizing they were referring to me. (It is a crazy moment every time you hear it.) I dream every day of- and put my life on hold- to try to have the honor of representing our Country at the Olympics. And, one of the most emotional times of my life was when I was abroad during the September 11th attacks and stood in a blocks long line at our Embassy, just so I could touch our flag. I love this Country, and have been privileged by so many people and institutions within it...

But, God Damn America for treating our citizens as less than human.

In any case, Obama has come under all kinds of fire for these words of Jeremiah Wright. And so, today he gave what he billed as a major speech on race. I thought it would basically be Obama throwing his preacher under the bus, and asking for unity. Hey, that is politics, baby. We don't get people talking bluntly about these things, at least not until they are out of office.

Instead, I was continually stunned. Yes, he condemned the specific remarks of his pastor, which I suppose is necessary for a major party candidate for President. But, then said something to the effect of (I am paraphrasing) "I can no more disown him than I can disown my church or the entire black community." He said that while the specific tenor of the remarks were wrong, to condemn them without understanding the context in which they were made was ridiculous. And then he talked poetically and bluntly about race, racism, and the legacies of segregation and slavery. It was without question the best speech about race in our Country that I have ever heard a current national leader give.

He said that we all must understand the world in which African-American churches exist in, with segregated, crappy schools that are still segregated and still crappy. He talked about the lack of health care, and jobs. And, echoing the Constitution and Frederick Douglass, he talked about a union that is never perfect, but can be ever more perfected. And he then brought around inequality, and talked about the challenges we all face, of every race: the white woman hitting a glass ceiling, the white man laid off in a search for corporate profits, and an immigrant struggling to feed his family. He talked bluntly about the stain of slavery, but did so in a way imploring us to follow our better angels.

Obama could have gone another way here, because there is almost a 100 percent chance that he will be the Democratic nominee anyway. But he didn’t. From our own City, he challenged our Country to face the legacies of race and inequality.

Today, Barack Obama became a President in my mind, and I am excited to click his name in four weeks.