Barack Obama spoke calmly and reasonably Tuesday about a subject that often lacks both calm and reason in America: race.

Obama's speech was temperate and built on logic, not fiery or built on passion.

It was meant to be calming. It was a speech that attempted to connect the dots of race in American history from slavery to Jim Crow to black anger to white fear — to ultimately the hope of reconciliation.

Where it was strongest was in appealing to the better angels of ...

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