MAN, THAT SPEECH: Even Charles Murray went ga-ga for it! (Does that make The Bell Curve less racist?) You just have to admire Obama's willingness to do things completely differently and go after the race issue in a way that's intelligent, nuanced, and (possibly) easily digestible (in the "media eats x and poops out y" sense--the poop they make out of this somehow won't stink. Or I don't see where they'll get the soundbites that make him look like a doofus out of this.) My current wishful thinking is that rightwing radio is going to regret trying to make a big deal out of this, that he just jujitsued them all over the mat by not disowning the crazy (in a good way--I mean, Condoskeeza Rice? HAHAHAHAHAHA!) reverend (so they couldn't accuse them of DUMPING HIS FRIENDS! NO CHARACTER) and turning it into a general conversation about race (which rightwing radio and friends definitely do not want to go.) They thought they had him kobayashi marued (look it up, non nerds) in a situation where they could get him to dump his old pastor OR make him at least appear to agree with his old pastor's words but he just mushed them together and went into the legit and non-legit points of the Wright speeches and spun that into the conversation about race we've been avoiding since the 90s. Excellent stuff.