Peggy Noonan, in her column yesterday, said Obama's speech was strong, thoughtful, important and rather beautiful to read. Well, OK, that was her opinion but her opinions are becoming more and more hard to swallow. Perhaps living in New York rubs off on you, or maybe Noonan has always been a closet liberal.
What's so great about the speech? Paragraphs are short? Sentences contain subject, verb and predicate? Those are minimal standards. Obama shouldn't get special credit for good grammar.
On substance, Obama came up short. He was too easy on preacher Wright, too hard on his grandmother and Ferraro. In fact, including his grandmother in the speech was disgraceful. Obama failed to bring up black obligation -- the obligation blacks have, the same as whites, to take responsibility for their own lives, to stop being victims, to put slavery and Jim Crow behind them, to live in the present and plan for the future. Obama also didn't mention black racism, arguably a more powerful force, considering its effects, than white racism.
When Obama takes on black obligation and black racism his speeches will be worth reading.
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