Here's an essay by Sam Harris in the Huffington Post about What Barack Obama Could Not (and Should Not) Say.

From the end of the piece:

Despite all that he does not and cannot say, Obama's candidacy is genuinely thrilling: his heart is clearly in the right place; he is an order of magnitude more intelligent than the current occupant of the Oval Office; and he still stands a decent chance of becoming the next President of the United States. His election in November really would be a triumph of hope.

But Obama's candidacy is also depressing, for it demonstrates that even a person of the greatest candor and eloquence must still claim to believe the unbelievable in order to have a political career in this country. We may be ready for the audacity of hope. Will we ever be ready for the audacity of reason?

Harris repeatedly tries to make an argument that runs through his talks and writing...that religion on the whole does more harm than good (he argues that religion did more to promote slavery in the US than to ultimately dissolve it). I don't think this is an argument that even matters, so I think he's on weaker ground there. But I agree with his larger point, and there's still lots of interesting stuff in the article, so have a look.