Not This Time.

As everyone knows, Barack Obama spoke in Philadelphia this morning to address the issue of race and the role it has played in this campaign season. Most cynical pundits expected a pat speech blowing off the controversy caused by what Rev. Wright said (which will be played on a constant loop on Fox through November). Instead, Sen. Obama raised the stakes, giving a lengthy and detailed speech on race in America and in our politics.

I can only speak for myself, but I think that this was the most honest speech given on the issue of race by a presidential contender in my lifetime. Need to judge for yourself? Here is the video-



You can read the full transcript- here. Still, let me compile some key excerpts.

To those critics asking if Obama had heard Wright's words before, he says-

"I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."

He goes on to discuss the history and nuance of his relationship with Rev. Wright.

And after speaking on the systematic segregation and bigotry in our past, he acknowledges how the legacy of all this continues to haunt black communities today-

"A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families -- a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods -- parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pickup and building code enforcement -- all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continues to haunt us."

To the fears of white people that this issue was meant to exploit, he says-

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

On the question on what about what Wright said he is denouncing, he says-

"The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress has been made, as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black, Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen -- is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation."

On how the media, etc, have worked to make race an issue in the campaign he says-

"This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either 'too black' or 'not black enough.' We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well."

And finally, of our choices in moving forward from here, he says-

"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.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, 'Not this time.'"

Andrew Sullivan sums up what makes this speech so powerful: "Bill Clinton once said that everything bad in America can be rectified by what is good in America. He was right - and Obama takes that to a new level. And does it with the deepest darkest wound in this country's history." Yes. This is the original third rail of American politics. And Obama has shown that he is up the challenge of confronting it, and will not run from it.

Suffice to say, this will not end the noise on cable news (they have ratings to think of, after all), but at the least the speech should give them something to think about and reflect on. If only.

Over at the National Review, some were praising the speech, while most took a step back to get back in character and tell you that this is a bad man who hates America. Kathryn Jean Lopez-- NR Online's head cheerleader-- keeps insisting in post after post that Obama's simply a "white guilt" candidate... or is he just the token candidate of black people? It's hard to keep things straight when one is race-baiting. In the end, I think the nuance of the speech may have been too much to handle for them. It's much easier when you just put everyone in their box.

So here's the question for 2008? Is America ready for... an intelligent, nuanced political dialogue? Let's find out.