I know there are a lot of people that think that Obama’s speech is the stuff that dreams are made of. I agree, since it largely put me to sleep. Here’s a quip that sums up my feelings nicely from Instapundit:

The question is, how much does that help a guy who’s known for giving good speeches, when the real question is whether he means what he says?

There are a lot of writers who have great things to say about the speech, and communicate it in a way I don’t need to replicate. However, three big things jumped out at me as I listened to this speech:

Quote #1:

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.

I addressed this yesterday, so I won’t repeat myself. I do find it fascinating that the left is allowed the unchecked privilege of publicly flogging white Christian pastors such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson while we’re made to feel that we’ve breached some racial no-no by latching on to Rev. Wright’s comments. President Bush received a media scalping when he spoke at Bob Jones University, but I’m supposed to feel like some backwoods bigot for suggesting that Rev. Wright is is Rev. Wrong. Problem is that I’m not the bigot here.

Quote #2:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

Obama will sell whoever necessary down the river to become president … even his own grandmother. And we thought Hillary was cold-blooded.

Quote #3

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons.

I have to hand it to Sen. Obama. This was a masterclass in propagandizing a negative into a positive. In this one casual remark he turns Rev. Wright’s comments and evil rhetoric into the Republican/Conservative talking points. In just this one sound bite he manages to, in his mind, turn all conservatives into America-hating racists with a chip on their shoulders.

I could tear the speech apart line by line and critique, but honestly who has the time for something like that? If you read the full text (get a cup of coffee) you’ll see that it’s nothing more than a rambling argument with himself, each paragraph offering counterclaims to the previous.

I suppose this is just proof that if you ramble on long enough, you’re bound to be right about something somewhere along the way.

*Taken from Hillary Clinton’s famous 1998 Today show interview.