I am awestruck by Barack Obama’s oratory. We haven’t enjoyed such beautiful stump prose in a long, long time – from either band of the political spectrum. The latest Obama oration is today’s speech in Philadelphia in which he addresses race in America.

It should be clear by now that The Spy does not agree with Obama’s politics. Check that, political philosophy. But I think he did a superb job in describing the racial landscape in the United States.

Bravo.

However… (c’mon… you knew there had to be a “however.”)

One passage especially caught my attention.

“Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

"Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

"A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us."

The significance of these particular comments is that they come from a Democrat. At first blush, that might not seem remarkable. This is a common theme from the Dems, but, therein the irony. In those 50 years Sen. Obama references, who was in charge? Who had the opportunity to keep these things from happening or reverse them once they did? Bluntly, who is to blame?

Since Dwight Eisenhower’s first inauguration in 1953 – 55 years, the Democratic Party had control of the Senate for 38 years (70%) and the House for 46 years (84%). The House of Representatives was in the iron grip of the Democratic Party for the 40-year span between 1954 and 1994.

Senator Obama also said:

“ In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations."

Democrats no doubt are sitting in the public pews, nodding their heads, raising their hands and shouting hosannas to their bright young star. Someone long ago said something germane to this point. It’s found in Matthew 7:3:

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”