Charles Barkley With Larry King Live On CNN

In case you missed it, baller and Barack Obama supporter Charles Barkley was on Larry King Live last night on CNN (9 p.m.).

He gave a good appearance, holding his own with a number of pundits, notably Ben Stein.  Stein was cast opposite Barkley to provide a Republican perspective.

Barkley made several interesting comments, including — and I’m paraphrasing — that he sees America as a situation of “rich against poor,”  that “using race as a factor is idiotic, whether by whites or by blacks,”  that he misses gambling, and that he is planning to run for Governor of Alabama in 2014.

Stein seemed like a weird dope (or on some weird dope), claiming — also paraphrasing — that he hasn’t seen a shred of evidence of racism from either campaign and that, by and large, poor people generally only stay poor for only one generation before joining the middle class.

The Turning Point In The 2008 Presidential Election

How could Senator Barack Obama be so far ahead?  Has he been lucky to benefit from all these uncontrollable external factors?  Where was the turning point?

In my opinion, historians will look at this year’s presidential election and suggest that the turning point (and the tipping point) came when Senator Barack Obama gave his “Perfect Union” speech on race in Philadelphia.  At the time, a few moments after he finished it, I wrote:

This is a towering, monumentally historic speech. I believe it’s the most important speech by a politician so far in our lifetime. It’s certainly the most important speech about race, racism, and racial issues since Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

“Perfect Union” removed race from the equation for a critical mass of people — not everyone, but enough to tip the course of history — by appealing to Americans to set their sights higher than merely race (see also Barkley’s comments, above).

Obama’s message resonated subconsciously with vast numbers of viewers.  I say subconsciously because despite the high ratings, no one in the media knew quite what to do with that speech … and even today it’s not clear to most people how important it was, what affect it had, or even that it had any affect at all.

But it did.  Obviously.

As more Americans become more conscious and aware — perhaps over the next several years and certainly as the new era we are about to enter begins to take shape — that speech by Senator Obama will grow in importance.