I found Obama's speech profoundly depressing. It was cold, precisely calculated, and, on the Chris Matthews Legometer, stunningly effective...The Legometer slays me. And see? I told you it was a good speech. Meanwhile, Ross Douthat comments regarding the Conservative response (in response to someone who long ago lost his right to be read or taken seriously and I really don't know why anyone bothers --this blogger stopped reading him in 2005 and this blog hasn't mentioned him since 2006, without feeling any the worse for it):
[He Whose Reason Has Been O'erthrown] argues that the dismissive reactions to Obama's speech from the right are "palpably fueled by fear and racism." That's unfair and unfounded: As I suggested yesterday in detailing my own qualms about the speech, they're palpably fueled by the fact that Obama is a liberal. The conservative idea of a candidate who's "transformational" on race is someone who sounds like Bill Cosby and works with Ward Connerly, and that just isn't what Obama's doing; hence the Right's disappointment, which in many cases is curdling into dismissiveness and outright dislike.But this is the point, those of you who can't see how good the speech was are missing:
It's been noted before before, but to understand the Right's mounting disappointment with his candidacy it's worth pointing out again that in his attempt to bring new voters into the Democratic tent, Obama's rightward outreach is primarily stylistic rather than substantive. He's making a bet that the country is already moving left, and that by taking an unusually respectful (by liberal standards) approach to the ideas and grievances that pushed an earlier generation to the right he can win many of them, and their children, back to the liberalism that once dominated American politics. As everyone from Rod Dreher to Mickey Kaus to Steve Sailer [and our own Prof. K, extensively --ed] have noted, his practical concessions to present-day conservatism are vanishingly small. But he isn't trying to win over the gang at the Corner, or movement conservatives more generally; he's trying to win over those voters (and writers) who sometimes think that conservatives make a lot of sense, but whose ideological commitments are ultimately malleable. So of course if you're an ideological conservative you don't like what you hear from him; he's talking to everybody else, but not to you.Let's hope Big Mac and his speechwriters take him seriously at least.
Update: Watch this space. I just got a preview of what the Register will have to say on the subject later this week.
