Honest

"What I love most about politics is how genuine everyone is," said no one ever.

We probably don't need to tell you how rare it is to listen to a speech or a debate without feeling as though you're getting the wool pulled over your eyes. Most politicians are quick to say the "right" things…which can sound super rehearsed and super canned.

But Obama's speech was a little different.

He didn't shy away from the dark parts of our history. He highlighted Jim Crow as being directly responsible for a lot of the lingering prejudices today, and while he touted affirmative action and other corrective measures, he also spoke about white resentment for such policies. Then, instead of insisting he would be the best president ever because he had all the solutions to fix those problems, Obama passed the baton on to the rest of us. He said change wouldn't come in a single administration, and it had to be a conscious and consistent choice.

Obama talked about the U.S. Constitution in a way that illustrated how decidedly imperfect it was, not to infuriate patriots everywhere but to point out the work we still need to do to achieve perfection.

Although Obama loves his country, he didn't love the faults in it, and he wasn't afraid to be honest about that in order to inspire the rest of us to act accordingly and do our part to make things better.