Mickey Kaus ("Can we go back to ignoring race") doesn't get the thrust of Obama's rhetoric. Obama, as Mr. Dickerson says, "contains multitudes".

His rhetoric is very carefully crafted to appeal to two different audiences: black and white. And the language he uses leaves each audience with opposite understandings.

As long as little old white ladies from Iowa and urban blacks from Chicago never talk to each other and compare notes, Obama will not be fully appreciated.

For example, Mickey calls this Obama comment a "Souljah moment":

"A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened."

When Obama later accuses America of "economic policies that favor the few over the many", Mickey is puzzled. Mickey thought Obama "just told us that welfare exacerbated the decline of the black family", so why is Obama going back to a big-spending, big-government theme?

Friends, black folks see no inconsistency. They get the message intended for them, which is that Clinton's "welfare policies" of "many years" have "worsened" the problem of either "black men not being able to provide for their families" or the problem of "lack of economic opportunity". It is the LACK of welfare that poses a problem by their reading of Obama's speech.

Are they correct? Contra Mickey, nowhere does Obama say that "welfare" exacerbated the "decline of the black family".

After hearing the quote above, white folks like Mickey go away thinking Obama considers welfare a bad thing, and black folks go away thinking Obama considers Clinton's welfare cuts a bad thing.

White folks (like Mickey) go away thinking Obama was talking about the moral decline of the black family (70% bastardy rates, etc.) caused by free welfare money. Blacks go away thinking that Obama was talking about low black income caused by no jobs compounded by welfare cuts.

Like I say, Obama is brilliant. Obama can deliver a speech that says diametrically opposed things to both blacks and whites, and no one ever catches on! Not even Mickey.

Go read his Selma speech. It is instructive how he glides over the issue of black bastardy and black fathers not taking care of their families. Brilliant!

But what happens if he wins?

Larry,

What will happen if he gets elected; well, here is something very interesting that shows the level of arrogance that a onetime supporter like me certainly can’t put up with.

In July 2007, talking to the reporters Barack Hussain Obama said; “I would overcome Hillary’s lead in the polls because to know me is to love me.”

In January at a gathering he said that by the time he was done speaking "a light will shine down from somewhere. It will light upon you," he continued. "You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, I have to vote for Barack. I have to do it."

A few months later, he said, "Every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there."

His wife, Michelle said: "Barack is one of the smartest people you will ever encounter who will deign to enter this messy thing called politics," his wife said a few weeks ago, adding that Americans will get only one chance to elect him.”

What a sense of entitlement or he still uses some of the “stuff” that he use to “puff on” but I guess he also “inhaled.”

It will be officially available at the biggest house in the country, we the tax payer will pay for it and someone in China will make money for supplying "vending machines."

Thank you.

Najam, NJ

Very well said, if a little disrespectfully. Obama's most successful rhetoric is to condemn the political establishment whilst building his career off of it. If he's elected, I see much more disenchantment with the system than we've ever seen. And his speeches are harbingers of this. It amazes me the awe in which people hold him even after his Philly speech. I'm pretty moderate and it turned ME off.

We missed you!

I've seen those Obama quotes in the nnajmi post and at first blush they certainly appear to make Obama sound conceited and self-absorbed. I think it's Obama irony at work, sort of poking fun at both the questions and what he would be expected to say, plus a little mix of pop culture. The mix of rhetorical cues make Obama accessible to those of us stuck in "fly over" middle America who grew up television.

Obama has a welcome sense of it, but his self-importance is also highly elevated. As Kaus again points out today, many Obama supporters are practicing heavy-duty wish fulfillment that will at some point subside. The only question is when...