But if the senator's speech had been only about his relationship with his pastor, and with his family, it would have been only a clarification. Like the best of discourses, Barack Obama's only began with the particular before going on to the universal. He wound up speaking not just about the state of race relations but the State of the Union:

"The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through-a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together."

Amen, brother.

Barack Obama went on to explore the origins and consequences of racial resentments, black and white, in this society. Only when we understand the roots of our grievances may we able to outgrow them, rather than forever take refuge in resentment. If we keep feeding those little devils within, whatever racial or ethnic or class or personal grievances they feed upon, they will only grow stronger, more voracious, till they devour us. Instead, they must be rooted out before conciliation, a more perfect union, is possible. Was this a political speech or a sermon? It was both, of course, as the best of each are. (See King, Martin Luther Jr.)

Barack Obama's was an appeal not just to empathy but to reason. Strangely enough, it worked. For at least one shining moment, his voice was heard clearly, gratefully, above the tumult of talk-show anger and political calculation. His message was an old one, and still sound advice: Come, let us reason together.

It won't be long before politics as usual, and political commentary as usual, obscures Barack Obama's moment of truth. ("How many points did his speech score? Did it help him or hurt him?") But for one shining moment, a new light seemed to fall on the country. The light of reason.