The Philadelphia Speech

This was without a doubt the best speech on race I've ever heard from a politician. It occurs to me that the immediate instinct will be to try to determine whether it helps or hurts Obama. That's the wrong way to look at it. Instead we should be asking ourselves the question Obama posed near the end, about whether we want this election - and the next one, and the one after that - to be about distractions, or whether we want a grown up conversation about race and opportunity in this country.

Every family in America has been touched by some kind of negative experience with race. In my own family it was my grandmother, who worked as a guidance counselor, and who struggled over 40 years as the schools in Philadelphia suffered from white flight. They became more black, more poor, and ultimately they failed.

Obama doesn't offer an easy solution to problems like that, but his genius is that he offers enough fresh air for us to talk about them openly, honestly, and with good intent.

It's up to the rest of us to decide whether we're really ready for that.