Well, that was a good Inaugural Address. Maybe not the masterpiece that people expected, but some good lines:
"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
"
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.
Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake."
I agree RR. Great speech, although not quite what people may have expected. Very sober and facing reality, rightfully so. I also agree with Kly that Obama does have a whole lot to do and many have high expectations. Change will not come immediately that's for sure. Yet, people, I think will cut him some slack. He's given us some hope and we'll give him time to dig us out.
Oh, and RR, this is one of my favorite quotes from his speech as well.
To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.Oh, and I12...I'm with you kid!!
TIS
I watched it all on MSNBC, but I waited patiently through the goofball mindless pundits (Olberman, the Liberal O'Reilly) to hear the one person there who I really was interested to hear his accuate opinion: Pat Buchanan.
A social conservative, and at times had infamous incidents in public regarding Jews and Immigrants, but otherwise a keen conservative intellectual, of which the GOP has (stupidly) weeded out for the last 8 years, which they did to Buchanan after he opposed the Iraq War.
Anyway, he called Obama's DNC speech back in August the best Convention speech he had ever heard, and he quite liked Obama's Inaugural.
He talked good points of how this Obama wasn't the "teary-eyed nice guy" Obama from two years ago, but more an authoratative figure that raises goals and a vision over the hill, but warns it won't be easy to reach. Indeed his basic foreign policy outlined isn't the traditional "weak-kneed liberal," nor Dubya Hawkish, but more inbetween, like JFK sought: Hopeful and sought peace, but be strong when necessary.
He also brought something that I thought was odd at the time, which was when Obama mentioned Khe Sahn among the battles of which Americans greatly bled for the future, along with Gettysburg, Concord, and Normandy.
Now TIS, you probably remember Khe Sahn, one of the most brutal but forgotten fights during the Vietnam War, and I liked how Obama included it, in spite of occuring in a war we "lost." Buchanan speculated it was Obama's intention, as the first post-Baby Boomer President, to finally put Vietnam behind us, and accept the good out of it into our national mythology.
But the guy also was a speechwriter for Nixon and Reagan, so I sorta assume he knows what he's talking about.
Or as he compared Obama's address:
"A great mix of obvious influences from JFK to Reagan."
