I liked Obama's speech. I didn't think it was great, but it was definitely good.  The reason it wasn't great, in my opinion, was because it was written for the campaign as a way to respond to and ameliorate the Wright problem.  That may be, in fact, why the pundits loved it so much:  Judged by the standard of campaign speech, it was really quite excellent, but by the standard of speeches about the nation, it could have been better.  In any case, here is what I liked about the speech:
1. I liked how
he argues that racial differences are often used as a scapegoat for
economic problems.  Lower income whites, he says, often feel that the
jobs of others come at their expense and in fact their race hasn't
privileged them at all.  That's a pretty good point, but it also should
work to refocus the issue:  He's saying, "look, we have problems that
affect everyone.  It's not about race.  It's about ensuring that the
United States works the way it promises; that everyone can get a decent
job; that economic problems are the enemy, not people of a different
ethnic background."

2. However, I also liked how he says that race isn't something that
we can ignore.  There are in fact some differences that can't be wished
away.
By way of personal confession, I have spent most of my life in
very white areas.  My hometown is something like 93% white and the
second largest ethnic group is Asians.  Columbia, Missouri, where I
went to college, is also largely white, and even on campus there were
some clear divisions.  In the main student union, for example, there
was a specific set of tables where black students congregated--de facto
segregation because either a) white students weren't welcoming enough,
or b) the black students felt a need to be around each other, or c) racism remains a problem.  This was at the University of Missouri, which has the highest proportion of black students in the Big 12.  And most recently, Austin is fairly diverse but also segregated.  There are very
few African Americans in Austin, and in any case I-35 serves to divide
the city. 
But the neighborhood where I am now living is largely black
and has a significant proportion of African immigrants.  It's a
different life and for the first time I have really had to confront
some of my personal beliefs.  I haven't given up any core beliefs, but
I am no longer able to simply dismiss or ignore the real cultural and
experiential differences.  White America need to realize that we won't get beyond racism simply by pretending that differences don't exist.

3. Relatedly, it really is a challenging speech.  Here's a black
man asking white America to admit that the anger that some black people
feel is real and
has a basis in fact.  That's a big challenge for a lot of people, and I
worry sometimes that we're not up to it.
4.
Finally, I like how he discussed his white grandmother and her reaction
to black people.  He touches on an important reality here and he
brought it up again a few days later in an interview.  The reality is
that much of our culture still teaches white people to fear black
people; it teaches us that skin color does make a difference; and
furthermore these cultural messages are a real problem in our society.

Again, by way of personal confession, when traveling in Europe, I found that I often felt safe even in
dangerous areas of some cities.  The reason was that until that point
in my life, I had been told that blacks are criminals and dangerous
while white people are safe and can be trusted.  This is not a good
assumption to operate on in societies where there are no black
people--and of course, it's not even a good assumption to operate on in
our society, because it is manifestly false in the first place and
because it is totally racist in the second.  It was as significant
epiphany for me when I realized that this was happening.  I don't mean
to suggest that the United States is racist as a whole and I don't mean to suggest that
things can't get better.  I just mean to say that we still have
problems with the stories that we tell ourselves and that racism can
still stain white people as it stains blacks and hispanics.  Not in the same way and not in the same degree, but it's still there. 
Those are the four main things that I liked about the speech. I apologize for the personal nature of this post.  I adapted it from an email I originally wrote to a friend, but I thought it would be useful to put here for discussion purposes. I have some more thoughts on this issue and I'll probably put up another post later this week when I can get those worked out.