I agree that the Obama speech in Pennsylvania was a masterpiece and is of historic importance.
I have one caveat and two observations for future historians.
First the caveat. It was a great speech up to the point, about 70% through where he says: "Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change."
From that point on, Obama becomes a standard "brain-dead liberal" as David Mamet calls them.
The first observation is that 'the chickens have come home to roost' for Barack Obama. What do I mean?
I have been saying for a long time that the black church and black leaders have disowned the great black accomplishments in our society in recent times. We have many great Americans who are black: Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Colin Powell, Condi Rice and many more. When a black holds conservative views he or she is no longer black. The black community has created a terrible political correctness that defines 'black' as Lefty and rejects all other public positions.
Obama is banned from pointing to these great black achievers and America's justifiable pride. Poor guy.
Moreover, Obama's grandmother, a civil rights fighter was frightened by a black man on the street. Black leaders' dishonesty on this point is beyond the pale. I'd cross the street if I saw three blacks dressed as hoodies in the 12-25 age range, but not three black police officers, three blacks dressed in business clothes, three black women over 25 or one black mother pushing a baby carriage. No stereotype here just black leaders ignoring the high probability of young black male criminality.
These are the 'chicken coming home to roost' that have unfortunately hurt Barack Obama. If he could have ended his speech on the paragraph that I quote above, he would be among the truly great Americans. But he can't because the black community would disown him as they have other great black Americans.
The second observation is that the remaining 30% of his speech was a plea for an historically dead lefty liberalism.
The Left fails to understand that America is one of the most compassionate nations in the world and has achieved great social access for the physically handicapped, the mentally handicapped and the educationally impaired of all ethnicities. We give many times more to charity than any society ever thought possible.
We have tried vigorously and intently to cure poverty, improve our poorest schools and provide health care for the most needy. We have tried for forty years. We have failed for one of two reason: either it can't be done or nobody knows how. Until that sad truth sinks into the brain-dead liberal head, we can not escape the anger of the Left.
We can improve health care a little, with many of the ideas that John McCain has put forth. But it must be cautious improvements because American medicine is the driving force of dynamic change in medicine and health care and has been for the entire 20th Century. We can not give up the dynamics for a status quo.
We can improve education, but we don't know how. More money, the mantra of teacher's unions, is pure nonsense as proven by the Hawaiian schools with most dollars per student in the world. We just don't know how to upgrade our low achieving students. Integration simply didn't work.
Summary: A great speech up to the point where Obama was forced into parroting the historically outmoded liberal ideology where the sad bigotry of the black community has forced him to stand.