REACTION TO OBAMA’S SPEECH: WHAT THE EDITORIAL PAGES SAID                                                                                                                                                       Mar 20, 2008 04:30 AM

Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/348167

WASHINGTON POST:  Senator Barack Obama’s mission in Philadelphia Tuesday was to put the controversy over inflammatory statements made by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his spiritual mentor and pastor for 20 years, behind him. But Mr. Obama went deeper than that. He used his address as a teachable moment, one in which he addressed the pain, anger and frustration of generations of blacks and whites head-on – and offered a vision of how those experiences could be surmounted, if not forgotten. It was a compelling answer both to the challenge presented by his pastor’s comments and to the growing role of race in the presidential campaign…. Mr. Obama’s speech was an extraordinary moment of truth-telling. He coupled it with an appeal that this year’s campaign not be dominated by distorted and polarizing debates about whether he or his opponents agree with extreme statements by supporters – or other attempts to divide the electorate along racial lines. Far better, he argued, that Americans of all races recognize they face common economic, social and security problems. We don’t agree with the way Mr. Obama described some of those problems… . But he was right to condemn the Rev. Wright’s words, was eloquent in describing the persistent challenge of race and racism in American society – and was right in proposing that this year’s campaign rise above “a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism.”

NEW YORK TIMES:  There are moments – increasingly rare in risk-abhorrent modern campaigns – when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs. In the best of these moments, the speaker does not just salve the current political wound but also illuminates larger, troubling issues that the nation is wrestling with. Inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt come to mind, as does John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on religion, with its enduring vision of the separation between church and state. Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better. … We can’t know how effective Obama’s words will be with those who will not draw the distinctions between faith and politics that he drew, or who will reject his frank talk about race. What is evident, though, is that he not only cleared the air over a particular controversy – he raised the discussion to a higher plane.

LOS ANGELES TIMES:  It may have begun as an exercise in political damage control, but Barack Obama’s speech in Philadelphia on “A More Perfect Union” was that rarity in American political discourse: a serious discussion of racial division, distrust and demonization. Whether or not the speech defuses the controversy about some crackpot comments by Obama’s long-time pastor, it redefines our national conversation about race and politics and lays down a challenge to the cynical use of the “race card” …. But in his speech, Obama also offered a context that explained (without excusing) Wright’s ravings: “For the men and women of Rev. Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table.” This is the sort of blunt language that is seldom heard in stump speeches by politicians of any race …. No single speech will recalibrate America’s consideration of race and politics, but we are closer today, thanks to this remarkable address, to facing our history and perfecting our nation.