The Dish

Eugene Robinson reflects my feelings:

I believe he might have pulled off something that seemed almost impossible: He not only ventured into the minefield of race and made it back alive, but he also marked a path for the rest of us to follow.

Michael Gerson somehow manages to say that this was "one of the finest political performances under pressure since John F. Kennedy at the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in 1960," and yet damns Obama all the same. According to Gerson, nothing Obama can say now can remove the taint of some of Wright’s worst moments, and nothing else that Wright has said and done for the good  can be weighed in the balance. This from a man who flaunts his Christianity as a job credential.

John Gray on contemporary atheism:

Zealous atheism renews some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam. Just as much as these religions, it is a project of universal conversion. Evangelical atheists never doubt that human life can be transformed if everyone accepts their view of things, and they are certain that one way of living – their own, suitably embellished – is right for everybody. To be sure, atheism need not be a missionary creed of this kind. It is entirely reasonable to have no religious beliefs, and yet be friendly to religion. It is a funny sort of humanism that condemns an impulse that is peculiarly human. Yet that is what evangelical atheists do when they demonise religion.

A classic Atlantic piece on their relationship by Peter Hessler.

A reader writes:

A friend who is a journalist was teaching radio journalism in Bahrain last week. When the subject turned to American politics, his translator said "Is it true that Barack Obama is Jewish?". This genuinely seems to be the latest conspiracy theory in the Middle East. I googled it to the font of all knowledge.

It seems to be based on the name Barack being like Ehud Barak. So his first name makes people this he’s Jewish and his middle name makes people this he’s a Muslim. Lucky for him his pastor is there to speak up for him as a Christian.

Foofighters frontman Dave Grohl announces his bid for presidency:

I’m just going to come clean, I have inhaled bags of ‘shrooms. I haven’t done drugs for the past 20 years, to be really honest. I’ve smoked, [expletive], like six hits off a joint in the last 20 years. I have never done cocaine, ever in my life. I have never done heroin, I have never done speed. I have had my share of acid and mushrooms and I have smoked fields of marijuana, but by the age of 20 I realized, if I don’t stop now, I’ll never have the chance to be the President of the United States of America. This dream is a long time in the making, it’s been almost 20 years of preparing to run silently. Gathering my ideas and support. I haven’t done drugs in a long time. Because they are against the law.

Leon Wieseltier, believe it or not, introduced me to this samizdat Auden masterpiece. New York Magazine has unearthed it and I was reacquainted with it via Chris Orr. It’s a Hitch fave too. You can read the whole thing here, but this is how it starts:

It was a spring day, a day for a lay, when the air
Smelled like a locker-room, a day to blow or get blown;
Returning from lunch I turned my corner and there
On a near-by stoop I saw him standing alone.

I glanced as I advanced…

It’s now past St Patrick’s Day and the sap is rising.

The economic benefit of gay communities:

Shihe Fu estimates that a rise of one percentage point in the proportion of same-sex couples living in an area raises median house prices by 9 per cent even 10 years later, controlling for some obvious other things.

This suggests that gays improve neighborhoods; they don’t just choose to live in nicer places.

For me, this is an epiphany of sorts. Not that I have changed my mind about the things I wrote in "The Conservative Soul." Not that I have stopped believing in limited government, individual freedom, personal responsibility, pragmatic change. But I have come to believe that large swathes of today’s conservative movement truly are hateful. A reader writes:

I’ll state right away that I am a McCain supporter. Still, I am very much drawn to Obama. It’s not a silly, unthinking attraction. It has nothing to do with his race, and I have very little love for the Democratic party. I am also aware that he, in many ways, is just another politician. In other ways, he is anything but another politician.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I was at my bank when Obama began his speech. I sat down with a group of people (all white, male and female) and watched. The collective groans coming from the group surprised me. Even when Obama was reaching out, saying things I felt were absolutely true, sincere and conciliatory, he was met with derision.

A couple people felt the need to talk back to the television as if Obama could hear them (as if their opinions were appropriate at that moment). This was done in public, in the midwest. A fairly moderate town overall. Maybe I’m out of touch, but what has happened over the past 16 years to my country?
 
Then I left, got in my car, turned on the radio and already Laura Ingram was taking soundbites of Obama’s speech and mocking them, dismissing them out of hand while her listeners chimed in, supporting their queen of talk. I hate this all so much. But then I remembered that Obama will still probably get the nomination and face McCain. One is already great man, the other, Obama, may have taken his first step on his way to greatness. I hope America was listening.
 

I am immensely grateful that McCain is the nominee, because he is a far bigger man than many in the "conservative" movement today. To read the Corner today was to be reminded that some are immune to the grace and hope and civility that Reagan summoned at his best; the anger and bitterness is so palpably fueled by fear and racism it really does mark a moment of revelation to me.

A reader points out:

The other great thing about this speech was that it unequivocally proved that Obama–and Obama alone–is best equipped to fight back against Republican attacks.  Do you think John Kerry could have pushed back with a speech against being swiftboated in 2004?  Or could Hillary do the same if she was in a similar position?  I don’t think so.

I don’t know if it will "work" against the likes of O’Reilly and Hannity and cable news, which seems unable to show any other of Wright’s speeches except the now-almost mind-numbingly familiar clips. What I do know is that it was the right speech, with the right nuance and brave. If America cannot embrace such complexity, then that says more about our current polity than it does about Obama.