Barak Obama:Rising from the Ashes

A few days ago I had written off Obama because of the flack caused over his preacher. As I sit this morning watching his speech to answer these questions I am again amazed at his ability to reach the right notes and strike the right tone.
When he was the keynote speaker at the Democratic Convention, I saw someone who had a way with words that was as impressive as any who had come before. Now don't get me wrong, Obama is a left wing liberal who would move towards a greater socialistic society if given the chance. But when Reagan was elected he managed to bring in votes from people who would never agree to the idealogical positions he held. Reagan spoke to people not at them, Obama has the same ability.
Obama started his speech with the perfuncatory denuciation of Rev. Wright without his past attempt to explain it away. He moved the speech forward to an embrace of America and used his own life story to show that he believes that America does offer opportunity to everyone. By the end of the speech he had gotten back on message and reframed his debate as a way to heal the divide between white and black.
Obama has risen above the fray of this incident.

Although Obama is wrong on the war, whether he is naive about world events or he just doesn't like war, he is wrong. The Iraq war is seminal to the safety of America. Obama has made his case and he is much more a worthy opponent than Clinton. This debate between McCain and Obama should make for historic campaigning much like the Lincoln/Douglas debates of 150 years ago. Just remember thatLincoln was the Republican.

More later......