On race and religion

The speech.

About ten minutes into it, I was struck at how certain I was that Sen. Obama writes his own stuff. It was so personal, so nuanced, so intelligent, it couldn't have been written by a political staff member. I knew he was good, but this was the speech I've been waiting for, the one to prove he's not the naive, post-partisan, post-racial vessel he's so often depicted as, in large part because that's what he's wanted to convey during the primaries. The weekend's ugliness, when the media and the right "suddenly" became aware of Rev. Wright's often bitter comments on America and the Middle East (even though there were stories about some of Wright's more virulent views months ago), perhaps liberated him to go past the loftiness and make clear he's not starry-eyed and he's not a blank slate on to which we can write our own hopes and dreams.

As the Times editors write this morning, it's hard to imagine how Obama could have handled a toxic situation more deftly, and to then to go further, and take on the toxicity of race and religion in America showed courage I can't remember seeing in a politician of my generation.