AB gets out of sorts about Hillary's comments on working class whites. What for? I don't know a single black person who didn't think that was true a loooong time ago. I believe it's exactly what happened here in Ohio.

Before I go any further Barack's the nominee and that's fine. But before everyone else runs off and gets offended consider the implications if she's right. His choice of running mate could make a big difference. It's just another voting block that is generally for or against a given candidate whether it bothers peoples sensibilities or not.

Progressivism begins with the world as it is.

First, it was a great speech. The truest speech a politician has given in my lifetime. I think you have to go back to Eisenhower and the warning about the military/industrial complex to find even the smallest approximation of what Obama delivered. Not great oratory, but unmistakable capital "T" Truth.

I personally do not understand how Obama can equate his grandmother who privately said some uncomfortable things about her experience with a preacher that he chose every Sunday by walking into the church. I could care less about the damning America thing because that is often enough true. The trouble is we can't all agree on when it is true. But if this leader stood at the pulpit and spread vicious fantasies like the government invented AIDS then I don't understand Obama's support. Aren't there enough real issues to deal with to bother with that kind of nonsense? What kind of leader would do that?

I think Juan Williams hit it on the head yesterday on NPR. Obama could not and can not separate completely from Wright because he would be separating himself from the black community. And here we get to the crux of the issue around my experience of the speech. As a white suburban male the speech highlighted how different our American experiences have been. This is tough to say but it is as true as everything he said in the speech: He is not me.

The real question, as many have pointed out, is how the speech works politically which to my mind means how many white people will be able to see beyond this "otherness". I'm not optimistic.

Personally, I have even more reservations about his candidacy than before. I believe he is honest, I believe he has integrity and in some ways I think he is one of the most brave people around today. But at the same time I still don't know enough about what he concretely wants to do as president and what I do know doesn't satisfy. For instance, Chicago can't be all that different from Cleveland. You cannot walk around downtown Cleveland without seeing older black men getting around with canes. They were workers. They gave up their bodies to make a living. I can't look at them without thinking about white men I know who are suffering from no more than old sports injuries who are going on their second set of knees.

Are decent jobs, safe working conditions and good healthcare too much to ask? Yet he doesn't seem to talk, concretely, about the economy and he has the weaker healthcare proposal. It's a contradiction. I can't get a fix on the guy.

Regardless what happens in the election he has a bright future and I hope he can work toward the America he outlined in this speech. But there are reasons why politicians don't speak Truth very often. We'll see.

People think the general election electoral process is obtuse but compared with the Democrat nominating process it's as clear as day.

Using the electoral college method based on a quick read of the states Clinton and Obama have taken, including the caucus states but not including Michigan or Florida, Clinton would have a pretty good lead in electoral votes (218 to 182). With 270 needed to win a theoretical general election between Clinton and Obama and only the 93 uncommited electoral votes left, Obama could only afford to lose 1 of the upcoming elections and only in Montana, South Dakota or Wyoming.

There are fewer scenarios where Clinton would miss and some number where they would both miss without MI and FL.

Not counting those 2 states makes things difficult using the electoral college method. Would it make it any better in the Democrat nominating process?