True colours

Barack Obama could have responded to the controversy...with regard to comments made by his former pastor with a safe and predictable speech.

Barack Obama could have responded to the controversy8230;with regard to comments made by his former pastor with a safe and predictable speech. The politically 8220;smart8221; strategy8230;would have been to8230; focus on concerns about the Rev Jeremiah Wright, Jr.8217;s critique of U.S. foreign policy and then distance himself from any offending sentiments.

But Obama did not do the politically 8220;smart8221; thing.

He did the right thing. And that is why his campaign will weather this storm. The Illinois senator recognized that the media-driven dialogue about sermons delivered by Wright had little to do with the content of the pastor8217;s words and everything to do with the colour of the pastor8217;s 8212; and the candidate8217;s 8212; skin.

So Obama seized the opportunity to open up a dialogue about the role of race in America, turning a political challenge into8230;8221;a teaching moment.8221;

8230;Obama did what the media has failed to do. He presented Wright and Wright8217;s comments8230; in context: the context of the African-American religious experience, the context of the candidate8217;s connection to the church and, above all, the context of this country8217;s unresolved experience of what Obama correctly refers to as 8220;the original sin8221; of the American experiment 8212; human bondage 8212; and its legacy.

The speech was masterful in this regard. Obama took the time to explore questions that rarely8230; get a fair hearing in American politics. He avoided cheap theatrics, such as a blunt rejection of Wright as an individual or a spiritual leader8230; The other part of what made this particular 8220;teaching moment8221; so successful was the candidate8217;s recognition that it was not merely his task to open up a deeper discussion. He also had to challenge his listeners.

Obama issued that challenge in what was the essential section of what may well be the essential speech of the 2008 campaign 8212; and, if Obama succeeds, of the presidential campaigns of the future.

8220;Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well,8221; the senator told the crowd in Philadelphia and the millions who tuned in via radio, television and the internet.

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After too many campaigns diverted into the void of Willie Horton smears and Swift-Boat charges, Barack Obama called American politics to a higher ground.

Excerpted from John Nichols8217; 8216;A Teaching Moment8217; in the latest issue of The Nation