In my opinion, it's a great speech by a great speaker who will be a great leader of the U.S.
I think one of the best parts of the speech was when Barack Obama says 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."
One of the criticisms I've heard and read is that Barack Obama is for change, but doesn't define what that change is.
If you are willing to turn off the endless loop of T.V. or talk radio or the internets, and do some reading you will find Barack Obama is not just a great speaker, he has clearly laid out his policies in the Blueprint For Change, a 64 page document covering:
Ethics
Health Care
The Economy
Seniors
Education
Energy
Fiscal
Rural
Women
Immigration
Poverty
Service
Civil Rights
Foreign Policy
Veterans
He covers these, as well as the Issues of Civil Rights, Disabilities, Environment, Faith, Family, Healthcare, Homeland Security, Iraq, Social Security, and Technology and the Additional Issues of Arts, Child Advocacy, Katrina, Science, Sportsmen and Transportation.
It might not be as exciting as watching an endless loop of some emotionally charged videos from YouTube on T.V., and it would take more intellectual effort than listening to some pundit or commentator tell us what we should think, or making up our minds based on some label we have given ourselves or others - but in the long term we would all be better served if we could have civil, thoughtful discussions on these issues.
This time.
