Is Obama's Rhetoric Enough?

Many undecided voters are cynical about all politicians and are considering not voting at all. Another group plans to vote but waits on the fence for a politician to inspire them.

Both these groups should really listen - for the first time or the 10th - to Barack Obama's speech on race, also known as the "More Perfect Union" speech. They just might find that inspiration in a politician, and a reason to vote and participate in this great 232-year-old experiment in democracy. Maybe it's time for another great orator in the White House. Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy and Reagan were also great orators with brief political experience, but they all changed history and shifted the mood of the country.

I don't agree with all of Barack Obama's policies, but my choice for president keeps coming back to his remarkable March speech. It laid bare many wounds and faults in the United States, but it also gave hope and reason to believe in a better tomorrow. That is unusual and powerful.

Everyone is pretty cynical now and it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking "Yeah, he's a great speaker, but ..." Maybe there should be no "but." Speeches can redefine history, they can create a movement and they can change people's hearts.

Obama's race speech has been largely forgotten in the hype about the economy, Sarah Palin and dozens of daily campaign issues. In fact, the speech was a reaction to the daily news cycle and the controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright that threatened to derail his campaign.

So maybe he was just trying to save his own political butt, but it sure didn't sound like it. He touched on something much deeper. The meat of the speech starts at about the 12-minute mark

"The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect," he said. "And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American."

Thus opened a raw exploration of issues of race and class that most politicians in the last 50 years have either ignored or exploited for votes. But his harsh, uncompromising speech wasn't pandering. He starkly criticizes the black community that forms much of his base.

"That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change," he said.

And he doesn't give the white community a pass, either.

"A similar anger exists within segments of the white community," he said. "Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. ... Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company."

He continues by suggesting the real target of all this anger, fear and resentment should be the economic and political policies "that favor the few over the many," but offers reason to believe that even this entrenched inequality can be changed.

"What we know - what we have seen - is that America can change," he said. "That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

So was it just a speech, just a piece of a long campaign to win the White House? Maybe, but I believe speeches can change the world. And you do too.

If you loved "To Kill a Mockingbird," you believe a great speech in a courtroom can change hearts. If you liked "Braveheart," you believe a great speech can change minds, and drive people to face seemingly impossible odds to do the right thing.

And history proves it. Reaganites should not dismiss Obama's oratory. President Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech played no small part in ending the Cold War and dismantling the Soviet Union.

Martin Luther King Jr. bravely participated in the civil rights struggles of his day, of course, but there is a reason his speeches are most vividly recalled. While boycotts and court cases may have largely ended segregation in the United States, King's "I Have a Dream" speech inspires people all over the world to reach and fight for equality.

Long before Teleprompters, speeches roused people to action and change. In 326 B.C., Alexander the Great drove an exhausted army to battle with a legendary Aristotle-inspired speech.

Unfortunately, we forget that speeches and great oratory really can change the world. We've become too cynical, but about the wrong things. We believe the negative attack ads and conclude all candidates are crooks, but we won't take a chance on those candidates when they tell us something we want to believe in.

Obama won't be a perfect president. He will make mistakes. And he can't solve all the problems or assuage all the fears he addresses in his speech on race, but he believes it and he's going to try to create "A More Perfect Union."