I’m sitting in my living room, drinking a Budweiser longneck, watching baseball on my HDTV, writing this post on my laptop over my wi-fi connection. God bless the USA.

Obama has made his name on the idea that he’ s a different kind of candidate. He’s someone who wants to move beyond the right versus left fights that have dominated the political landscape for last generation. He wants us to believe that he understands and appreciates the differences between liberals and conservatives and has what it takes to go beyond those differences and bring about real change.

Against that backdrop, Obama, responding to a woman in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who pleaded with Sen. Obama to, “Stop these abortions,” Obama replied:

“This is a very difficult issue, and I understand sort of the passions on both sides of the issue,” he said. “I have two precious daughters — they are miracles.”

But politicians must trust women to make the right decisions for themselves, he said.

“This is an example where good people can disagree,” the Illinois senator said. “The question then is, are there areas that we can agree to that everybody can get behind? We can all agree that we want to reduce teen pregnancies. We can all agree that we want to make sure that adoption is a viable option.”

The exchange appeared to be prompted by Obama’s earlier comments that he does not favor abstinence-only education, but rather comprehensive sexual education that includes information on abstinence and birth control.

“Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old,” he said. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.”

Punished with a baby? Wow.

What’s more troublesome is that nowhere in Obama’s platform can I find any reference to the plans he has for reducing teen pregnancies or making adoption a more viable option.

I don’t think this is how the candidate for change endears himself to conservatives.

Most of the bands that I liked when I was in college have broken up. In some cases, they just stopped making music, without even offering me the dignity of actually breaking up.

But now comes word that one of those bands is getting back together. Sixpence None the Richer — specifically Matt Slocum and Leigh Nash — have been in the studio working on a new album. They are planning to tour later this summer, including an appearance at Cornerstone in July.

More details here. Video after the fold.

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I continue to have conversations with people — many of whom I greatly respect — about the candidacy of Barack Obama. There’s clearly a sentiment among a diverse cross-section of America that the Obama candidacy is something special. Despite the recent dust-up over the comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, there still seems to be a lot of momentum behind Obama.

Now, I generally like Barack Obama. I think that, compared to most politicians, he’s a remarkable man, in so much that his life story and his political success represent what the American dream is all about. I also think that compared to Hillary Clinton, Obama appears to be a much more honorable and honest candidate. Whereas the Clinton campaign seems driven by some strange lust for power, Obama does seem genuinely interested in bringing about change.

But that begs the question, “What kind of change?” After all, change is a word that can mean all kinds of things. I’ve heard some argue that the word “peace” simply means maintaining the status quo, so the war in Iraq, to a degree, represented “change”. I’m guessing that’s not the kind of change that Obama is all about.

So I took some time to look at a document that the Obama campaign has posted on their website. It’s entitled, “The Blueprint For Change: Barack Obama’s Plan for America.” Here’s my close reading of that document.

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After listening to and reading the complete text of Obama’s speech yesterday, I guess my overwhelming reaction is disappointment. He had an opportunity to really advance the cause of racial reconciliation and healing, and I think he instead chose to punt.

It’s unfortunate that he was forced into this spot because his pastor’s sermons are now being volleyed around the media. Those remarks forced Obama to defend an indefensible position, while at the same time try to turn the whole ordeal into something positive.

In looking at the text of his remarks, here are my reactions:

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I’m still digesting the Obama speech on race from this morning. In the meantime, here are some thoughts on Obama from others.

Todd Spivak:

Obama has spent his entire political career trying to win the next step up. Every three years, he has aspired to a more powerful political position.

He was just 35 when in 1996 he won his first bid for political office. Even many of his staunchest supporters, such as Black, still resent the strong-arm tactics Obama employed to win his seat in the Illinois Legislature.

Victor Davis Hanson:

 Almost everything Barack Obama has said about his relationship with Wright is untrue. He is hardly ‘not particularly controversial’. No one needs to “cherry-pick” his sermons to find in them hatred; in some speeches that venom is the entire theme. Obama mentions Wright’s AIDs work—never that Wright blamed America for the AIDs epidemic. Obama mentions Wright’s positive work on apartheid, not that Wright claimed the U.S. put Mandela in jail. And on and on.

Rich Lowry:

Now that videotapes have surfaced of Wright’s more scorching diatribes — arguing that America deserved 9/11, exclaiming “God damn America” for spreading drugs in the black community, and declaring the U.S. the “US-KKK-a” — Obama professes shock, even though he attended the church for nearly two decades and Wright was his spiritual mentor. Evidently, Obama wants us to believe they never talked about anything besides the Gospel and the weather.

Thus far, Sen. Barack Obama has asked the American people to consider his candidacy based on his judgment, not his experience, because his experience is very limited.

That’s a reasonable argument to make. After all, I think it’s fair to judge a person by what they’ve done, rather than what they haven’t done. The problem is, though, that Barack Obama’s judgment continues to appear to be suspect.

Tony Rezko has been indicted on charges of fraud, extortion, and money laundering. He was a prominent fundraiser for Barack Obama, raising $250,000  during Obama’s career as a legislator in Illinois. Rezko has also been linked to Obama through a shady land deal, in which Obama greatly benefited from. While the connection between Obama and Rezko doesn’t seem to indicate that Obama did anything illegal, as of yet, Rezko is clearly not the kind of person that a presidential aspirant ought to be associating with. Especially an aspirant who has campaigned on the theme of change. When asked about his relationship with Rezko, Obama said, “I consider this a mistake on my part and I regret it.”

Louis Farrakahn is the leader of the Nation of Islam and has a long history of antisemitism, racism, and general conspiratorial whackiness. Farrakahn has endorsed the candidacy of Barack Obama. Now, while presidential candidates have no control over who may or may not endorse them, they do have control over how they react to that endorsement. When given the chance in a debate to reject the support of Louis Farrakahn, Obama hedged his bets and refused to fully reject the support of Farrakahn and his organization. The best Obama could muster was, “I have been very clear in my denunciations of him and his past statements.”

Rev. Jeremiah Wright pastored the church that Obama and his family have attended for many years. Obama has identified Wright as a spiritual mentor and friend. Recently, some of Wright’s sermons have come to light. There are sermons in which Wright suggest that God should “damn America”, that the U.S. brought the 9/11 attacks upon itself, that AIDS was a government conspiracy against black people, etc., etc. This is the man that Obama held in such high esteem as a spiritual mentor? Obama’s reaction to these remarks from his pastor?

Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.

Again, rather than outright condemning the man for his views and rejecting the worldview offered by Wright, Obama instead rejects statements.

If we’re supposed to be judging Obama on his judgment, then what do his relationships with Rezko, Farrakahn, and Wright tell us about Obama’s ability to judge a person’s character? And what does Obama’s lack of conviction when it comes to condemning hatred, fraud, and racism say about Barack Obama?