Obama vs. King

Barack Obama, trying to raise the ghost of Martin Luther King Jr., last night delivered the week's third best speech at the Democratic National Convention. King's "I Have a Dream" speech 45 years beforte was soaring, nonpartisan, and appealed to our better angels. Obama's, despite the grand setting, was workmanlike, a little mean, and sought to tell Americans that the country is in dire straits. The best thing about it was that Obama was there as the Democratic presidential nominee, a symbol of how far the nation has come on the road to racial reconciliation.

Obama's key selling point is an idea, a hope. He is a symbol in a suit, and there is great pressure now to vote for that symbol and expiate one's sin. But look inside the suit and you will find an articulate, inexperienced, intelligent liberal.

Is that what we really want in a president during these dangerous times?