I've been impressed by Obama in general, but I was particularly impressed by this speech. The most important thing a President does is lead. I think we've forgotten that in recent years, because our Presidents have not been especially inspirational (or if they have, they've inspired in the wrong direction). Today Obama showed that what looked like a wound to his campaign was in fact a long-standing wound to America, and it was time to acknowledge its reality. He acknowledged both the pain of being an African American living in a society dominated by White privilege and also the pain of Whites who don't feel privileged. That's no small accomplishment.

I watched the webcasts of the story covering this on all three major networks, and was glad they covered the speech in some detail - even if the anchors were a bit boneheaded about it.

As for whether he should have left the church - if all my parishioners left my church every time I said something they disagreed with, there'd be few people left, and it would be boring besides. If clergy are to do our job, we have to challenge people - and that means saying things that are tough. Sometimes we might even be wrong.

Dan