Indeed. And it is worse than that. Yet again Obama reverts to the "above partisan politics" New Politics pol that simply does nothing for forwarding the fortunes of the Democratic Party. Here is a part of Obama's speech:

What you learn when you spend your time in these neighborhoods trying to solve these problems is that there are no easy solutions and no perfect arguments. And you come to understand that for the last four decades, both ends of the political spectrum have been talking past one another.

It's true that there were many effective programs that emerged from Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. But there were also some ineffective programs that were defended anyway, as well as an inability of some on the left to acknowledge that the problems of absent fathers or persistent crime were indeed problems that needed to be addressed.

The right has often seized on these failings as proof that the government can't and shouldn't do a thing about poverty - that it is a result of individual moral failings and cultural pathologies and so we should just sit back and let these cities fend for themselves. And so Ronald Reagan launched his assault on welfare queens, and George Bush spent the last six years slashing programs to combat poverty, and job training, and substance abuse, and child abuse.

Well, we know that's not the answer. When you're in these neighborhoods, you can see what a difference it makes to have a government that cares. You can see what a free lunch program does for a hungry child. You can see what a little extra money from an earned income tax credit does for a family that's struggling. You can see what prenatal care does for the health of a mother and a newborn. So don't tell me there's no role for government in lifting up our cities.

But you can also see what a difference it makes when people start caring for themselves. It makes a difference when a father realizes that responsibility does not end at conception; when he understands that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one. It makes a difference when a parent turns off the TV once in awhile, puts away the video games, and starts reading to their child, and getting involved in his education. It makes a difference when we realize that a child who shoots another child has a hole in his heart that no government can fill. That makes a difference.

So there are no easy answers and perfect arguments. As Dr. King said, it is not either-or, it is both-and. Hope is not found in any single ideology - an insistence on doing the same thing with the same result year after year.

Can't we all just get along? There is an essential dishonesty in Obama's approach. HE acts as if there is only the need to find common ground because Republicans really DO care about poverty and the common man and the Common Good. There is little difference between Democrats and Republicans on such issues says Obama. We're just "talking past each other."

Obama may have an approach that works for an activist, but it sinply is inexcusable for someone who wants to be the standardbearer for a political party. A standard bearer for a political party argues why his or her party has the right ideas to combat the problems we face. He argues why voters should pull the lever for his or her party, why voters should trust his or her party, why his or her party should govern.

Obama does none of this.

I repeat again, Obama seems not to like the actual business of engaging in politics. At least not when it comes to politicking for the Democratic Party. Whatever other talents he may have, it is clear that as party standardbearer, Obama appears to be tone deaf.