The speech that Barack Obama gave last night in front of 84,000 delegates and Coloradans was not as inspiring as his speech after the Iowa primary or as brilliant as his speech about race, but it certainly had heavy doses of both. This was his most purposeful and direct speech to date. It had to be. By most accounts, he did exactly what he was supposed to do and exactly what was needed — he went at John McCain like John McCain has been going at him, and he did it with quite a bit more grace, eloquence, and intelligence. This is where McCain will lose every time, and this is where Barack Obama can change the minds that are still open to be changed. It was an amazing, effective speech. I nodded in agreement through much of it. My favorite parts were when he said "we are a better country than this" and his appeal for bipartisan compromise on the issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, and immigration. But in between all the nodding, there was one thought that stayed in the back of my head: We are going to have a black president.

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Boy, are people on the web waxing rhapsodic about Barack Obama's speech in Berlin today or what? It seemed like business as usual to me — Barack Obama gives amazing speech, inspires hundreds of thousands of fawning admirers. The only difference is that this time the crowd — the biggest of his campaign — was made up Germans (waving American flags!) and he spoke about the world coming together, not just our country. Also, there were some fitting metaphors about walls coming down.

Meanwhile, a pouty John McCain said, "I'd love to give a speech in Germany. But I'd much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for president." He was speaking from a German restaurant called Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.

All the headlines imply that all Barack Obama did at last night's address at the NAACP convention in Cincinnati was preach that blacks need to accept more personal responsibility. In reality, what he did in the 20 minute speech was explain how the government, the corporate world, and individuals all need to "do what they're supposed to do" in order to make the American Dream happen. He spoke about the need for better economic policies, health care, and school reform. Of course, he also reiterated some of his points in his Father's Day speech and did stress personal responsibility. He said:

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This Barack Obama-loving blogger has taken a few steps back in recent weeks, disappointed as she has been with what appears to be Obama's pandering to the right (blech!), which he denies. Things like his plan to maintain Bush's

One expects Ralph Nader to say things like, "there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans," which is a really crazy statement for someone to continue to say after the eight years we've had. One also expects Nader to say some things that a lot of liberals might agree with. But now it seems we should expect Ralph Nader to say things like this:

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In Obama news…

Barack Obama doesn't want to make a martyr out of Osama Bin Laden if he's caught; he says he would call for a Nuremburg-like trial.

Apparently, at least one volunteer still doesn't feel comfortable with the fact that some voters think Obama is the second coming of Osama Bin Laden, which seems to be why he or she asked a Muslim supporter wearing a head scarf to move out of the range of video cameras for "political reasons" at a Michigan event. Obama, who posed for photos after the event in question with Muslim supporters, apologized, and a rep said that the volunteer was not acting under "campaign policy." The rejected woman's brother said, "This is not meant to be any slam on Obama… [But] this type of discrimination is occurring everywhere — in the North, South and even at Obama rallies."

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It was high time for Barack Obama to make his way into a Chicago church for a little speech-giving. It should go without saying that it wasn't going to be Trinity United Church of Christ. Instead, Obama chose Chicago's Apostolic Church of God as the venue for his tough-love Father's Day speech, in which he censured absent black fathers. "Any fool can have a child," Obama told the supportive congregation, "but that doesn't make you a father." He acknowledged that "our tragic history" and government failings have contributed to the dissolution of the black family, but he stressed that neither of those things can be used as an excuse. Preach!

It might come as a surprise, but when the Democratic candidates began campaigning for the nomination more than a year ago, I was firmly in Hillary Clinton's corner. Not so firmly that I didn't like and respect a number of candidates, especially Barack Obama, but firmly enough there was little doubt in my mind that I would be voting for her in the primaries. When Stereohyped launched last April, I began the Obamarama feature, not as an outlet for my undying devotion for Barack Obama, but because he was a black, likeable candidate who had a chance (however minuscule at the time, it was at least better than Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton's chances ever were) of becoming the nominee for president. Interestingly, the very first Obamarama was about how both Bill and Hillary Clinton received louder applause at Sharpton's National Action Network Convention — a room full of black people — than Barack Obama did. For well-known reasons, that would be inconceivable now. I fully expected that I would have to retire Obamaramas by Super Tuesday, when he would go back to being a normal senator and Hillary Clinton would become the presumptive nominee. Obviously, I was wrong.

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Oh, those idealistic, young Obama campaign volunteers. Campaigning in the heart of Indiana and Pennsylvania, they probably set out on their missions excited to bring willing voters over to their side. Instead, many of them had quite the opposite experience. The Washington Post heard from a number of Obama campaign volunteers from Indiana and Pennsylvania who said that their efforts often resulted in racist language (even directed toward white volunteers), name calling, and lots of doors slammed in faces.

Voters in Muncie, Ind., told Danielle Ross, a 20-year-old white woman who took the year off from college to campaign for Obama, "'I'll never vote for a black person." People just weren't receptive."

One phone bank volunteer charged with calling her 98-percent-white hometown in Pennsylvania, recalled one person saying to her, after vowing to never vote for Obama, "Hang that darky from a tree!"

Later, Obama's headquarter's in Vincennes, Ind., were vandalized. The Obama campaign downplays these incidents, saying that they are isolated and that support has been overwhelmingly positive. True: the man is winning.

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Bill Maher, a self-professed Barack Obama-supporter, delivered a short-but-to-the-point message to Rev. Wright on his show Friday. It went something like this: "Rev. Wright, you're a dick." Now, I wouldn't call Rev. Wright a dick, because you aren't really supposed to call pastors "dicks" and also because I'm not sure it's an accurate assessment, but I understand where he anger behind the name-calling comes from. Maher wondered why Rev. Wright would go on Bill Moyers and purposefully dismiss Obama's words as those of a politician, when Obama's whole campaign has been about setting himself apart from traditional politicians. I wondered the same thing. But since then, it's gotten so much worse.

Wright's press tour continued yesterday to include a talk before the NAACP and the National Press Conference. There, before loads of media, he said things that, unless he's stupid, which he's definitely not, he had to have known would hurt Obama's campaign. Badly. Although it seems like Wright doesn't realize it or appreciate it, Obama has remained loyal to him throughout this entire ordeal, refusing to "denounce" him or "disown" him, at his own political peril. If nothing else, Wright is too egomaniacal to see how much damage he's causing. This is the thanks Obama gets for not throwing the guy under the bus?

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If you haven't noticed, I've been laying off of the political coverage for the last few weeks. There are a few reasons for this. The first, and most important, is that I'm completely burnt out on B.O. vs H.C. Where it was once exciting and exhilarating, it's now tiresome and sort of sad. Another reason is that there's not much to talk about until the Pennsylvania primary.

Actually that's a not true. There's tons to talk about, as any casual watcher of cable news will tell you, but nothing to further the conversation or inform voters or aid in the political process. Just cattiness, innuendo, and a whole lot of talking heads trying and succeeding at making political mountains out of molehills. There have been actual segments dedicated to Barack Obama's poor bowling skills and what that means about his ability to relate to blue collar workers. Say what you really mean, guys.

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As innovative as he is oratorically gifted, Barack Obama is taking tips from pop radio stations across the country for his next big fundraising push. See, the deadline for first-quarter campaign contributions is Monday, and Obama has decided to offer an all-expense paid trip for five new donors to have a private dinner with him at an undisclosed location. It's all because, says the campaign, they've "rejected the traditional Washington fundraising strategy — including countless dinners hosted by lobbyists — and put our trust in millions of Americans owning a piece of this campaign." If there is any group of candidate supporters who would eat this sort of thing up (no pun intended) it's Obama fans. Lucky gal Bonnie Lochetta of Rushville, Indiana was the first to win the drawing. And all she had to do was pony up $25. According to an email I got from "Barack Obama," "[He's] looking forward to having dinner with Bonnie, but there are still three seats left at the table. Will you be in one of them?" He means, will you donate money before the first-quarter deadline? Not to be outdone, John McCain is offering select donors a ride on the Straight-Talk Express, which is not as dirty as it sounds. So far, I haven't heard of any creative fundraising schemes from Hillary Clinton's side. A free comedy show from Sinbad, perhaps? Actually, that's more like a punishment than a reward.

Barack Obama won Mississippi last night, beating Hillary Clinton by 23 percentage points. Obama got a huge boost from the black voters of Mississippi, who made up half of the voters yesterday. They pretty much all voted for him. And about 70 percent of white people voted for Hillary Clinton. In exit polls, neither group of voters seemed particularly fond of the candidate for whom they didn't vote, which seems to reinforce the increasingly popular assertion that no matter who wins the Democratic nomination, they will have to simultaneously work on healing the party's wounds and campaigning against John McCain. Will the Obama-ites or the Clinton-ites have a harder time warming up to the opposing candidate if their No. 1 loses the nomination? With so much vitriol on both sides I can hardly tell. [NYT]

In case the cover isn't a dead giveaway, Rolling Stone rapturously endorsed Barack Obama in its latest issue. Although a Rolling Stone endorsement seems pretty inconsequential as endorsements go, it does add a little something more to his "rock star cred," as did the fact that while I was in Rome last week most of the Italians with whom I had a conversation wanted to talk about Oh-Ba-Ma. The last time I was in Europe I was frequently asked about 50 Cent. Times, they are a-changing.

H/T JJP