Obama Blew It

Finally the smoke has cleared from Barack Obama’s critically-acclaimed speech on racial healing and the verdict is clear: He blew it.
 

Obama had a a chance to wrap up the Democratic nomination, the general election, and give a speech that would have gone down in history as inspiring as Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” all in one fell swoop
 

He could have done is all so simply and so easily.  Instead of saying how terrible racism has been in the past against blacks, and instead of implying the racism of his white grandmother [for being scared of being mugged by blacks] was somehow the equivalent of the racism of Jeremiah Wright [which is ridiculous], all Obama had to do was to simply state thusly:
 

"Look, I jointed the Trinity United Church as a young man in my 20s because the church helped me find God.  And I've belonged to that church for 23 years because they

have done so much to help black folks empower themselves, and have done so much good work for the black community in Chicago.  However, in retrospect, since I am running for president as the candidate to bring people together and to bring the races together, it was wrong of me to belong to a church that was so racially divisive.  

 
“When Hillary Clinton criticized me for being a man of words and not a man of action, I correctly pointed out that words are sometimes just as important as actions, such when as Martin Luther King said "I Have a Dream" and when Lincoln said  "All Men Are Created Equal."  These were not merely “ words” by King and Lincoln, they were the visions by great  visionaries of the future of America; of how America should be, and in retrospect, would be.  And those words inspired Americans to become better people and inspired America to become a better country.  Because of those words’  inspiration, those visions became reality for America. 

 
Likewise, words can be destructive and be used to divide.  Which is why I was wrong to belong to the Trinity United Church.  I hereby disavow the church completely, and hope that all Americans, black and white, will strongly disavow and no longer accept any racism of bigotry against people of any color, black or white, nor accept any bigotry against America."

Trust me on this folks: Had Obama said that instead of his lame speech, not only would he have wrapped up the Democratic nomination and the general election in one fell swoop, but would have eventually crushed McCain 60-40.  
 

I still may happen, but win or lose, his inability to deal with this issue in an intellectually honest manner shows him to be  [in my never-humble opinion], an intellectual lightweight.  And even more importantly in this presidential campaign, a typical politician
 

White America craves electing a black man president o show that white people have changed and that America is truly a non-racist country.  This is why Barack Obama has been so successful this far, in addition to all his other political and personal attributes. This is also why Colin Powell would have won in a walk had he chosen to run for president in 1996 against Clinton.
 

And I too share that hope to see a black president in my lifetime But is Obama the right black man to take us there?  He may be.