Obama responds to race/redbaiting - Sekhar

The big news last week is Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright's "greatest hits" video compilation by some rightwingers. Obama immediately denounced them and went on every news show, every talk show that would have him (I caught him on Hannity, one of the worst rightwingers on TV/radio). But he didn't just leave it there and hope the issue would die away over the next
month; the next primary is not till April 22. Instead, he delivered a major speech on race today. I don't know how long he worked on this speech. If, indeed, he did it in the last few days, it is a remarkable achievement. People on the left can criticize it. For one thing, he is unwilling to endorse Wright's rational remarks about the link between 9/11 and US policy on Palestine and
about the oppression of Palestinians. But that would be ignoring the realities of US politics. Even before the speech today, there was a panel organized by a Jewish group where Obama was the target; there is a snide report in the Washington Post.

I have not tried to see what left and black critics of Obama have to say about the speech. Let us see. What I have below are some commentaries and reactions, two articles on what people think of Wright, Wright's Audacity speech in 1990, and Obama's speech.

Obama's site has the video as well as the prepared text. I don't know if it is correct, but the Youtube site says there have been over 200,000 views of the speech - that is in seven hours! [update: 1,230,086 in 27 hours]

The Nation on Obama's "teaching moment."
Washington Post blogger likes Obama's speech.
So do the editorial boards of the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
Politico on the audience of the speech.
Press release by the UCC on Obama's church.
Wright's old church defends him.
The text of Wright's "Audacity to Hope" sermon.

The LA Times says the increasing role of web video is affecting the real world.
The New York Times on an interview with an Obama supporter and the supporter's follow-up.