My response to seeing it as recorded was different. The context that he created for talking about Charleston and broader racial history and issues, plus related specific issues such as the Confederate flag and gun control, was what I found remarkable. It was a highly Christian context, in a eulogy that seemed even more specifically evangelical. He spoke with the vocabulary of a member--or a minister--of the church he spoke in, the African Methodist Evangelical church.
His overarching and at times subtle theme was grace. I hesitate to call it a metaphor, since it seemed he meant it specifically in the Christian sense. His definition in fact was the one I learned in Catholic school.
That he ended his eulogy by leading the singing of Amazing Grace--a few minutes excerpted from it in various media--was entirely consistent with the eulogy, even to its beginning as he recited lines from this song. Update: I missed an aspect of this context; fortunately Jelani Cobb did not. President Obama had just stated that the Confederacy fought for slavery, and it was wrong. Then he launched into this song, written by a slaverunner who turned abolitionist.
My impression was that the murders in that church did send him deeper into his own faith. And that faith is remarkably orthodox. Much of it I can no longer share, but I found myself thinking that the logic of it for a real evangelical Christian would be profound. I could even see sincere white evangelicals thrown into a crisis of political faith by his trenchant and clearly sincere lesson from their putatively shared religious faith. It was, as some have pointed out, the most thoroughly religious speech a recent US President has ever given. That alone should change some hearts and minds, if they are at all open.
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