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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

At A Car Dealership In The South

By The Daily Dish
Mar 19 2008, 3:51 AM ET

A man waiting for a car repair sees the Obama speech on TV. People come and go and watch. Not everyone in this country is like the National Review crowd:

I've watched the speech again since this morning, and it didn't disappoint, but just at that moment I stopped watching it ... and started watching the people around me.  The young black man. The elderly white couple.  The two white women, one college-aged, one in her late-20s.  One middle-aged white woman.  Two white men, one college-aged, one in his late-30s.  One Asian couple.  All of them were watching the speech.  Rapt.  Nodding. 

Gradually, the twentysomething white woman went back to her laptop, but kept smiling when Obama would say something important.  The elderly white couple whispered in their Southern accented way: "He's really good... He's saying good things... He's a good young man..."  The young black man chuckled when Obama said that Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America, but was otherwise simply watching.  And at one point, the middle-aged white woman asked one of the dealership folks, in another thick, thick Southern accent if she wouldn't mind turning up the volume, because she really wanted to hear this speech.

She, this white Southern woman from the suburbs, wanted to hear this speech, delivered by a Black man with a funny name running for President.  And she was nodding. 

But she wasn't the only one.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.



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