I’m led to believe that Sen. Obama wrote his speech today himself, working on it late into the night. Part of me hopes he wrote it out in longhand and that those pages survive, like previous precious documents. I think the speech was historic.

I can’t even think about the political implications of the speech: whether it helps or hurts him in the primary or general seems somehow beside the point.

The full text can be read on Obama’s website here.

This is not the kind of speech one hears during a heated election campaign.

Jack Kennedy’s “Ask Not” speech was his Inaugural Statement. “I Have a Dream” was by a minister and not a candidate for office. The Gettysburg Address was by a wartime president.

I do not think today’s speech was quite up to those comparisons except for the context: this is during an election campaign in the post television era when soundbites and bumper stickers substitute for policy positions every day.

This is a speech by a thoughtful, brave and honest man. It does not pander and it does not skirt nor obfuscate.

I am sure there are quarters in which this speech is mocked. I’m in no mood right now to hear it.

I identify with Sen. Obama’s narrative. I have a Mississippi grandfather and very southern uncles and all those men have attitudes about race that embarrass me. Yet, I love them all unconditionally and they are part of my family and heritage of which I am proud.

I am also tired of being driven by my fears and would rather be — no! insist on being — led by my hopes and aspirations.

It’s become commonplace to say Sen. Obama is an eloquent speaker, but this is truely remarkable for its content and not its rhetorical flourish.

This is the kind of man I want to be the president of the United States. This is the United States I’m proud of.

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