Andrew Sullivan’s first response<\/a> in full:<\/p>\nAlas, I cannot give a more considered response right now as I have to get on the road. But I do want to say that this searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian speech is the most honest speech on race in America in my adult lifetime. It is a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation. Its ability to embrace both the legitimate fears and resentments of whites and the understandable anger and dashed hopes of many blacks was, in my view, unique in recent American history.
\nAnd it was a reflection of faith – deep, hopeful, transcending faith in the promises of the Gospels. And it was about America – its unique promise, its historic purpose, and our duty to take up the burden to perfect this union – today, in our time, in our way.
\nI have never felt more convinced that this man’s candidacy – not this man, his candidacy – and what he can bring us to achieve – is an historic opportunity. This was a testing; and he did not merely pass it by uttering safe bromides. He addressed the intimate, painful love he has for an imperfect and sometimes embittered man. And how that love enables him to see that man’s faults and pain as well as his promise. This is what my faith is about. It is what the Gospels are about. This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian.
\nBill Clinton once said that everything bad in America can be rectified by what is good in America. He was right – and Obama takes that to a new level. And does it with the deepest darkest wound in this country’s history.
\nI love this country. I don’t remember loving it or hoping more from it than today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My president: [youtube:http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU] And, I must also quote Andrew Sullivan’s first response in full: Alas, I cannot give a more considered response right now as I have to get on the road. But I do want to say that this searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian speech is the most honest speech on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,9,8,19,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","category-pop-culture","category-re-blog-tidbits","category-stimulus","category-youtube"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-pS","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1410,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2007\/02\/26\/of-course-america-is-ready-for-a-black-president-are-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":1604,"position":0},"title":"Of course America is ready for a black president. Are you?","author":"nathaniel","date":"26 February 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the guise of a seer who has some sort of zeitgeist on the times, many cynics (mostly liberal ones, often people of color) keep posing the question, \"Is America ready for a black President?\" (Or just answer \"no\" when asked.) I'll Answer that one: of course we are. Look\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/old-categories\/links\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1699,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/08\/in-her-own-words-teacher-moved-by-students-joy-over-obama-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":1604,"position":1},"title":"In her own words: Teacher moved by students’ joy over Obama win","author":"nathaniel","date":"08 November 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I simply had to re-blog the whole article, in its entirety. I was nearly brought to tears just reading it: In her own words: Teacher moved by students' joy over Obama win - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe Boston teacher Felicia Kazer tells how Barack Obama's election transformed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":140,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2003\/08\/31\/dean-and-dr-kin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1604,"position":2},"title":"dean and dr king","author":"nathaniel","date":"31 August 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"From Dean for America (speech made by Howard Dean), August 28th, 2003 : \"Forty years ago today, a quarter of a million Americans peacefully protested the nation's unjust segregationist policies. Those patriots of all races and from all walks of life joined together on the Washington Mall to change their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":455,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/09\/22\/cover-kerry-you-dolts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1604,"position":3},"title":"cover Kerry, you dolts","author":"nathaniel","date":"22 September 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox, and the majority of the American media, continue to criticize John Kerry for \"never saying anything about the issues\". And yet, he does - every single day; Fox just does not cover it. Here are some key points from a recent speech by Kerry at New York University. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":212,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2003\/10\/15\/unsure-ambiguity-not-indifference\/","url_meta":{"origin":1604,"position":4},"title":"unsure, ambiguity, not indifference","author":"nathaniel","date":"15 October 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Not sure how I feel about the whole of Clark's Civilian Reserve idea, but it is indeed a fantastic speech, worth reading. My unsurety is more ambiguity than anything else - his idea is not that dramatic right now, but I would have been thrilled to help in a post-9\/11\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":396,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/08\/11\/performatives-speech-acts-and-difference\/","url_meta":{"origin":1604,"position":5},"title":"performatives: speech acts and difference","author":"nathaniel","date":"11 August 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"(I know I'm a loser, but I'm re-blogging myself from the networked_performance blog, since I have been thinking about this for quite a while....) In the early sixties, JL Austin coined the term performative - calling it an explicit utterance - which differs greatly (and seemingly magically) from the descriptive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}