It's over, Obama, so pack your bags, kid

You might have heard about Barack Obama and the momentous speech he gave yesterday. While many people were moved by hearing someone speak so eloquently about where the United States is some 40 years after Jim Crow ended, people like Michelle Malkin, Ann Althouse, and the braniacs at "The Corner" on National Review were not so moved. They did not like Obama's speech, so Barack, hang your hat proudly friend, because if you were not able to move people who would never vote for you, who mock your supporters, who despise your wife, and who belittle your beliefs, then it's just over, dude.

The part I liked most about his speech was this:

"For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election."

Barack Obama is right. We can spend the next 7 months watching an endless run of clips from Jeremiah Wright's speeches - or we can talk about where we see the United States of America and our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan five years from now. We can spend the next 7 months obsessing about whether or not Barack Obama wears an American Flag lapel pin - or we can talk about what kind of America we want to be - one that supports torture, or one that respects the rule of law. We can spend the next 7 months discussing Michelle Obama's senior thesis, written in 1985 - or we can spend talk about the real problems the American economy is facing. We can spend the next 7 months talking about how Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein - or we can spend our time talking about the real health care crisis in this country.

The choice is ours. How do we want to spend the next seven months? I know how I want to spend them, and to those who say they would rather discuss Barack Obama's patriotism, his trip to Kenya, his wife's attitude, I say to them: fine. That is your right. But for those of us who see the direction our country is headed and don't like it, those who see what is happening in Iraq and want to change it, those who know families without health care and want to fix that, those who see injustice and want to help end it - we are simply moving on.