Obama's Speech: The Reactions

Sen. Obama's speech has received over 2.5 million views on YouTube in just a few days, so clearly it's making an impact. But rather than discussing the important issues that Sen. Obama's speech, the media is just focusing on a bigger question... did it put an end to the controversy that they've been hyping for a week? No of course it didn't, where's the fun in that? If polls are to believed, it seems that the working-class voters of Pennsylvania were more angry and confused by the whole damn thing than reassured.

Jon Stewart did a funny bit on the media coverage of this, and it's just depressing. For the record, I would love to believe that the American people are far more intelligent than the caricature that the cable news channels seem to illustrate. But then again, I am a cynic.

Here's a good few blog posts on it that I have found...

Glenn Greenwald: Obama's faith in the reasoning abilities of the American public

The Washington Independent: No Country for Old (Black) Men

The Reality-Based Community: If Ann Coulter had liveblogged the Gettysburg Address

Salon.com: The GOP attack plan for Barack Obama--
Republicans say that if Obama is the Democratic nominee they'll target his "inexperience" and "liberal" record. But that doesn't mean the dirty tricks aren't coming.

And why are any of these posts relevant to the issues at stake this year? Tom Tomorrow says it better than me-

The entire situation has provided the right wingers with the Swift Boat narrative of 2008 and it’s not going to go away. Sean Hannity, who is exceedingly proud of the fact that he was the first major media figure to provide the Swifties with a platform in ‘04, continues to replay the pastor’s incendiary sound bites a couple dozen times each hour...

...Add to this the rest of Hannity’s litany — Obama’s shocking refusal to, um, wear a flag pin, and his wife’s blatant anti-Americanism, as expressed in a poorly-worded remark at some event somewhere — and you’ve got trouble with a capital B-L-A-C-K.

Here’s the thing: Hannity’s a front line combatant in the propaganda wars, and an utterly reliable harbinger of whatever achingly stupid right wing tangent will occupy our political discourse in the months ahead. Occasionally someone will send me an email suggesting that there’s no point in paying attention to what the radio nutjobs are talking about, as if they have no influence, everybody already knows they’re nutjobs, so why bother. To which I can only reply, tell it to President John Kerry.

These things shouldn't be an issue, but they are. We win by fighting back. Obama realizes that. Will it be enough?

[PS- On an encouraging note, it seems that not everyone at Fox News is willing to pretend this is the biggest thing ever because it's their job to. Yesterday, not only did Brian Kilmeade walk off the set of 'Fox and Friends' after a dispute on their coverage, but Chris Wallace also chewed them out over their obsession on this. Hannity cannot, and will not, be stopped though. The man is a force of nature.]