The Race Speech, Rev. Wright effect

Back again, with all the news you didn't have time to read :)

[PASSPORT since i first wrote this, news has broken that govt workers have illegallyobama; this apparently was a big scandal when something similar happened to bill clinton. while i am of course outraged and appalled, i also smell a good opportunity to talk about government spying, the FISA issue, and privacy concerns!]

Viral Politics, in the good sense.
First, let me say that it's ASTOUNDING that Obama's speech on race has been watched on YouTube close to 2.5 million times (I'm adding the two counts of the full text speech plus all the views of the excerpts...but the full speech has been watched 2.3 million times). Just for perspective...the clips of Rev. Wright vary from 15,000 to 125,000 views. Viral video, baby! WOOT! That's pretty amazing, given it's a 37 minute sociopolitical speech!

Polls since the Wright issue broke.
So you might be wondering how much of a hit Barack has taken over the whole Rev. Wright controversy. Right now, it looks from some surveys that he has been affected. But we are going to get a bunch of surveys tomorrow that will show how people have reacted to the Tues speech (many national surveys have a sample over three or four days, so you have to wait for the lag time!). Here's one interesting survey out tonight from FOX, showing that 57% do not think Obama shares Wright's views. And that's a FOX survey, so you can add some points to that for sure. Another interesting look at the responses in the swing states, esp. among independents and republicans, can be found here.

Moving on...to the important stuff
Ok, so Obama gave another speech today on Iraq, while campaigning in West Virginia...this time tying it to the economy. Here's a choice passage: been accessing the passport file of

"Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting for the people of West Virginia. For what folks in this state have been spending on the Iraq war, we could be giving health care to nearly 450,000 of your neighbors, hiring nearly 30,000 new elementary school teachers, and making college more affordable for over 300,000 students. We could be fighting to put the American dream within reach for every American – by giving tax breaks to working families, offering relief to struggling homeowners, reversing President Bush's cuts to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and protecting Social Security today, tomorrow, and forever. That's what we could be doing instead of fighting this war."

More on Rev. Wright:
You might be wondering, are those clips of Rev Wright the only things he ever said anywhere at any time? Good question! Here's some vid of other Wright sermons