Well, if "solipsism" and "condescension" mark the boundaries of your attempt to interpret Obama's speech, then it's difficult actually to have a conversation. We'd be talking about two utterly different versions of reality; you'd argue for yours and I'd argue for mine. Also difficult to have a conversation if you believe that a sentence like "My own suspicion is that Obama only ever discovered this shambolic God that failed because...he felt that a pew-pounding minority church was a convenient entree into local Chicago politics" belongs in any piece purporting to offer useful analysis.

And your Meir Kahane analogy: a more accurate analogy would point out that what Obama did in his speech was attempt to understand and describe a complex, at times frustrating human being. In your terms, it would be like trying to understand where a person like Meir Kahane came from, and then we might be able better to understand why Kahane believed what he believed. The action of attempting to understand another person is different from agreeing with that person. It's an action some would call compassion.

But, alas, compassionate as we no doubt are, I'm guessing that for the moment our realities will continue not to coincide, so let's postpone that particular conversation for now. I'll ask a question instead: What recent speech by a political candidate of any party in this country has resonated for you the way this one resonated for me (put me in the James Fallows camp, in case you were wondering: "This was as good a job as anyone could have done in these circumstances, and as impressive and intelligent a speech as I have heard in a very long time")?