Re: Obama's speech and Murray's comments, I found absolutely nothing in Obama's speech that I haven't heard before — from slavery to more spending. He was not motivated to give the speech because he wanted to bravely address issues of race in America. He could have given that speech earlier, but he was too busy trying to avoid the subject when he was riding high in the polls. No, this speech was motivated by political expediency. He and his operatives hoped it would put to rest the controversy swirling around the campaign because of Obama's long-time closeness to a bigot. It would have been brave had Obama quit the church as so many do when they are offended by a pastor's racist comments. Oprah reportedly had more courage than Obama — she quit the church because of Wright's racism.

And of course it is true many of us want Obama to lose. We are, after all, conservatives and Obama is a leftist. But so what? Is the implication that one's views can be dismissed merely because one holds certain philosophical or political views? That may apply in a specific case, depending on the nature or quality of one's arguments, but it is not a logical generalization. (Some of us have been annoyingly lectured in the past about our supposed harshness is criticizing McCain.)

And Mona is quite right about Obama's abuse of his own grandmother in his speech last week. As I've mentioned myself on the radio, his book and his speech give quite different accounts of what she said. Shame on Obama.