each time I feel it slippin' away

From "in gratitude..." by Albert Feldstein & Wallace Wood, printed in Shock SuspenStories #11, Oct-Nov 1953
Well, I thought it was a magnificent speech. Eschewing the usual penny-ante gotcha politicking and expedient dissembling, Barack Obama took the opportunity in speech last Tuesday to not simply address the politically troubling remarks of his pastor, but to offer an insightful look into where we are as a diverse nation, and where we could, and should go from there. "We," as in all of us.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

I am not so naive to think that a speech, however eloquent, done under the pressure of "dealing" with a campaign controversy automatically equals "what will be." The usual segments of the chattering classes (or is that "nattering nabobs?) have been laboring to spin, dissect, and analyze Obama's lofty sentiments -- He's "dodging the issue," he didn't go far enough to condemn Reverend Wright's remarks, what does it mean for his poll numbers -- as another action in the great and cynical game of politics.

The speech and the sentiments expressed therein stand head and shoulders above the present election narrative. As dictated by the sensationalist, Heisenbergian format of modern journalism, the election process has been reduced to a gaudy sideshow cast in terms more purple than the commentary at a pro-wrestling match (the better to fill the time between pharmaceutical ads). In such an environment, cynical calculated behavior has become the order of the day for aspriring candidates. Principles are dealt out like cards in a game of blackjack, with the goal of hitting electibility without going bust. "I stand for X, except when I was against it." "I stand for X, unless this important voting bloc wants me to stand for Y instead."

Even if Obama's speech was bullshit, it was a better class of bullshit than any I've encountered so far this election, and, to reiterate what Dave Lartigue has already said, it's light-years ahead of what we've seen from the other two candidates, whether the short-sighted divisive tactics employed by the Clinton camp or McCain's obsequious efforts to pander to fundamentalist demagogues whose documented views meet and exceed anything that has ever come from Reverend Wright's pulpit. ("But they aren't McCain's personal ministers," say the pundits. No, they just get an inordinate amount of access and power to shape government policy...which is more acceptible, somehow.)

Brinsley Schwarz - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding (from The New Favourites of..., 1974) - I've said it before, I'll say it again: Nick Lowe trumps Elvis Costello.