Obama’s speech

Barack Obama’s speech today on race and America should, if there’s any justice, seal the Democratic party’s presidential nomination. It is a remarkable, subtle, nuanced discussion of how and why America remains so polarised on race. No other candidate could have delivered this address (and certainly none of them could have written it). It is – by a distance – the best, most important speech of the year and, in many ways, perhaps even the most significant speech given by any politician in years.

Politically it seems to me that Hillary Clinton is a big loser today. Her hope must surely now rest upon the idea that conservatives will destroy Obama in November. But that’s a counsel of despair. How does she counter this speech? She can’t just make a speech herself. Obama explained the rationale that girds his campaign today. What’s hers beyond the grasping of power for the sole reason that it’s there to be grasped? If you were an undecided superdelegate wouldn’t this speech persuade you to endorse Obama? Even if it’s only for a moment, this sort of address permits one to believe, yes, in something as audacious as hope.