The Second Inaugural
full text of speech
An inaugural address is the ultimate opportunity, aside from a dire crisis, for a President to inspire our country. President Obama failed in that goal today.
His speech seemed to be mainly plaintive call for unity of American purpose, a paen to the Republicans, to find common cause in the American tradition of shared opportunity. The President has made that appeal before,
With few memorable lines, none of the many themes Barack Obama could have taken. He could, with smiles and maybe even raised fists, have evoked pride in our survival of the difficult times since 9/11. He could have addressed the need for a new foreign policy in a world that will be multilateral, a world with global challenges, whether these are global warming, the poverty of Africa, the containment of nuclear threats in Iran and Korea, or the need to eliminate the vermin seeded in Islam by el Qaeda. My President could have even celebrated the Internet, a global tool for free speech that would have astounded. President Jefferson and Pres. Madison as they constructed the Bill of Rights.
Above all, I wish that he had celebrated the world opportunity itself. There is no word that better describes the drive and intent of those who came here willingly or those of us freed from the chains of slavery by the Civil War.
But, happily, he is the President not I.
