In less than two days, Barack Obama’s speech on race has been viewed more the 2 million times on YouTube. By comparison, consider that MSNBC’s Hardball averaged about 420,000 in the 7 p.m. hour last November. CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 pulled in 589,000 at 10 p.m.
Another comparison: John McCain’s mesmerizing spaceflight video has been up on YouTube for nearly two weeks, but viewed less than 167,000 times.
More on the speech: From the new issue of TIME, Jay Carney and Amy Sullivan weigh in on “The Origin of Obama’s Pastor Problem.” Also, as noted below, Joe Klein nails the speech’s appeal by describing it as “both unequivocal and healing.”