Wm. Kristol takes time to discuss race and tell us that we don't need to discuss it, anymore.

[underpants]

And I didn’t shudder when Obama said he could no more disown Reverend Wright than he could disown the black community. I did think this statement was unfair to many in the black community, and especially to all those pastors who have resisted the temptation to appeal to their parishioners in the irresponsible and demagogic manner of Reverend Wright.

But ambitious men sometimes do a disservice to the best in their own communities. And Barack Obama is an ambitious man.

Oh REEEAAALLLLly Bill? Do tell!!!

The only part of the speech that made me shudder was this sentence: “But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now.”

The last thing we need now is a heated national conversation about race.

What we need instead are sober, results-oriented debates about economics, social mobility, education, family policy and the like — focused especially on how to help those who are struggling. Such policy debates can lead to real change — even “change we can believe in.” “National conversations” tend to be pointless and result-less.

Over the last several decades, we’ve done pretty well in overcoming racial barriers and prejudice. Problems remain. But we won’t make progress if we now have to endure a din of race talk that will do more to divide us than to unite us, and more to confuse than to clarify.

Luckily, Obama isn’t really interested in getting enmeshed in a national conversation on race. He had avoided race talk before the Reverend Wright controversy erupted. And despite the speech’s catnip of a promised conversation on race tossed to eager commentators, it’s clear he’s more than willing to avoid it from now on.

This is all for the best. With respect to having a national conversation on race, my recommendation is: Let’s not, and say we did.

[cloudythescribbler]

1. Wm Kristol & others who similarly consider race "irrelevant" R as irrelevant as they think race is

[nxylas]

2. To quote Jon Stewart...

"Oh Bill Kristol...are you ever right?"

[winston61]

4. No, he is not ever right about anything

How does he keep getting paying gigs? It's like who keeps green lighting all these awful movies with the former Saturday Night Live actors? A mystery of the universe.

[Sam Ervin jret]

3. Anytime I hear or read a white guy say we've got that race stuff "pretty well figured out"

I get the same sensation I feel when I hear a guy say, "ya that birth stuff may be bad, but I had a kidney stone. NOW THAT WAS PAINFUL. Women used to go in the fields and drop babies and go right back to work, how bad could it be?"

HOW THE HELL WOULD YOU KNOW? How the hell would Bill K. know a damn thing about the state of race relations? He's getting along better with his man servant?

And P.S. I've had kidney stones, migraines, and birth. and you men need to shut up about stuff you know crap about. And white men who never knew discrimination in anyway, shape or form are in no position to decide when, where or how the discussion should begin or end.