The speech was a little long and my mind wandered in places. But these words matched the moment:
We
remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come
to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our
enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that
precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to
generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and
all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that
greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never
been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path
for the faint-hearted—for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek
only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the
risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things—some celebrated but more
often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the
long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg;
Normandy and Khe Sahn. Time and again these men and women struggled and
sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a
better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual
ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or
faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most
prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less
productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less
inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last
week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But
our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting
off unpleasant decisions—that time has surely passed. Starting today,
we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work
of remaking America.
What did you think of the speech? I'm writing some brochure copy all afternoon; I'd love to yak about the speech in between bullet points.
I loved it but also thought it was just a tad long. I thought the ending was the strongest part – conjuring George Washington. But, an hour later, I can’t remember a specific line that stands out. The passage you quoted is brilliant, but is there a historic “sound bite” that will surface from this speech? Did it need one?
I thought he missed a grand opportunity to set tone early on. Like you, I thought it wandered but my main concern was that he didn’t establish the theme at the beginning. This “new era of responsibility” message came very late in the talk. It’s probably by no coincidence that this is the part where he also seemed to hit his stride. The words seemed to come easier and had more power. He missed an obvious place for some nice rhetorical work when he was talking about the soldiers and firefighters. How nice it could have been if he had set this up as a point-counterpoint. Something like responsibility doesn’t rest with “just the soldier in the field, but also with the father at home … not just with the firefighter rushing into a burning building but parents walking into their child’s school…” That type of thing. Ultimately I wish he had established the theme earlier and I wonder how much more powerful it could have been if he had used the George Washington anecdote at the beginning instead of the end. Hope and virtue – with this metaphoric image of a cold winter – could have then provided him a thread to weave throughout the talk, a foundation to build on and a hook for the audience to put into perspective the remainder of the talk.
There’s no “ask not” line, no.
But this IDEA–“Our journey has never been … the path for the faint-hearted–for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.”
This is a real important fucking idea, it strikes me, and I wonder if I’ve ever heard it expressed quite this directly by a modern American president … or a modern American, for that matter.
A hell of an analysis, Fletch, and I don’t disagree with a word of it. The lack of one clear focus throughout may have cost this speech immortality.
I felt like he was trying to hit as many areas as possible. I agree that it wasn’t the Gettysburg Address or the Emancipation Proclamation, but he spoke to just about everyone who has hopes for his administration whether inside the USA or out.
For me, the most important thing about that speech was simply the fact that this man was standing on this podium, in front of those (it looked like) millions of people taking that oath. I honestly had goosebumps when he said “…so help me god.” I couldn’t help myself – I went “YESSS!!” aloud when he finished the oath.
It wasn’t just me, either. I work in a “work-a-holic” environment where the crack-berries never stop buzzing. Also, I’m in Canada. Today in the middle of the workday, word spread that the inaugural was going to be put on the boardroom TV for anyone who wanted to watch it. by 12 noon, the room was CRAMMED with people. With the exception of a quiet “Boo” when Mr. Bush was mentioned, the room was silent for the entire speech.
The momentousness of the fact that this event took place, for me at least transcended the speech and would probably have done so not matter what he said. I do think there are better speeches to look forward to, perhaps when President Obama (god how I LOVE typing that!!!) is able to focus on one topic instead of trying to talk to everyone (in the world) at once?
Thanks for that perspective, Kristen.
Here’s two more:
1. You can’t please all the peeps all the time. I thought the speech strained and struggled to embrace every last American, but a friend managed to feel “insulted” by parts of the speech; something to the effect of, “I like my country, and don’t appreciate somebody saying it needs to be remade.” (I was all like, whatev.)
2. So the speech was on in boardrooms across Canada … but at Cristie’s charter school in Obama’s hometown Chicago, a school made up of 100% poor African-American kids ages 4-9, the technology went down in the assembly hall and they didn’t get to see the fucking speech.
Whatev! See Amy I told you it would catch on!!!!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the delivery, but I read the speech. I like the ideas in it. He did cover a lot of topics, but there are a lot of topics to cover. I too was struck by the leisure/work like. Three lines that caught my eye were:
–The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.
— The success of our economy has always depended … on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
— … we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
Yes, Chuck. Three great lines that are more than lines, but are great ideas too (especially the first two).
Didn’t see it live, but on the replays, one line that stood out was “…our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed” was powerful. But perhaps this is more to do with the images that went with it on the replay – images of 43 and the grim looking ex-VP looking on – than the line itself.
>>>I thought the speech strained and struggled to embrace every last American<<< I spent the entire 20 minutes of his speech, perhaps selfishly, waiting for him to embrace me. He sort of got me with this line: "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers." But I'm not sure "non-believers" truly describes me. It also would’ve been nice to have a shoutout to the gays, especially since I was sitting in a room full of lesbians who had, quite efficiently, constructed a screen to project a replay of the speech. It wasn’t our best work (a trip to Home Depot would have enabled perfection), but the point is we have a lot of hope that this new administration will help bring us our share of civil rights and we’re ready to get to work – just looking for the right signal.
Well, I think most of the straining was to embrace people who distrusted Obama as a potential enemy–people who believe the second he’s in office he’s going to make a mad dash to the left.
I think–hope?–he trusts progressives to trust him, without giving them specific shout-outs.
BGFG (by geeks for geeks)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-012208-obama-speech-notes-story,0,6175683.story
BGFRFG (by geeks for real friggin’ geeks)
http://www.exec-comms.com/blog/2009/01/20/obama-the-lion-in-winter/