Behind the Inaugural Address

President Obama’s second inaugural address was carefully thought-out and there was a strategy behind it. This is a President who wants the people to win and he spoke up for them.
by Charlie Leck

I have spent a lot of time – an exorbitant amount – thinking about Monday’s inaugural address by President Obama. I have tried to take seriously the criticism of the speech by the more conservative politicians and columnists. In the end, I have decided that it was a nearly brilliant speech, carefully planned and, from a political perspective, nearly ingenious.

President Obama, in the speech, was doing what he should have done four years ago. He is calling his army of followers to action. He gathered around him a very active, vocal majority in this election and he won decisively. Now, he is calling the Obama army to his side, to help him win the legislative battle with Congress.

If you want to understand the genius behind the speech, here are two national columns about that subject that you should read. They say precisely what I have been thinking and they say it better than I possibly could on my own. If this question – about the strategy of the speech – interests you, then you should read these two columns.

Read first, The Obama Majority by Harold Meyerson (I endorse this column as exactly right on!)

Then read E.J. Dionne Jr.’s remarkable column, Obama’s Unapologetic Inaugural Address.

I think you will then understand why Obama made the speech he did. You don’t need to agree with the strategy, but you will see that that strategy was well thought out (in other words, Obama knew what he was doing). I happen to think Obama is doing the right thing in calling his army of followers to his side for the battle with Congress.

Kenneth Baer, a director of the Harbour Group and a former Obama staffer, argues forcefully that President Obama has placed himself in the direct mainstream of American politics as it is today – that this was not a speech from the left but directly out of the new center. It may well be that the average American has finally awakened to the weirdness of the Tea Party and the failures of conservatism – the very same conservatism that gave us wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a crumbled economy (remember the housing bubble and the bank crashes of 2008 that Obama had to deal with when he was inaugurated in 2009).

If you’d like to read the other side of the question, here’s an opinion piece by Stephen B. Young that argues that it was a very divisive inaugural address and one not good for the nation.

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The Speech

It’s no secret that I was prepared for the finest inaugural speech in history. I didn’t get it, but there may be reasons.
by Charlie Leck

I wasn’t really crazy about the speech as I listened to it. Frankly, I was downright disappointed. One of the friends with whom I watched the inaugural said that I was probably expecting too much.

Well, I was expecting a lot. This is one of the finest orators I have ever heard. As he rose to speak, my insides were screaming, “Bring it, man! Bring it!”

This is a guy who is supremely confident in his ability to address big crowds. I was so sure he would stun his audience with an address supremely more dramatic than anything he had ever delivered. Yet, it wasn’t that at all. Bill Safire, a speech writer for Richard Nixon and a former NY Times columnist saw it the way I did.

“Our 44th president’s Inaugural Address was solid, respectable, uplifting, suitably short, superbly delivered, but — in light of the towering expectations whipped up that his speech might belong in the company of those by Lincoln, F.D.R. and Kennedy — fell short of the anticipated immortality.”

Why? Was he already acting too Presidential? Was he being too cautious – too politically correct?
No, I think it was more than that. The speech didn’t have cogent theme – one that would be stated in the introduction and reaffirmed near its conclusion. Nor, as I look back on it, was there anything particularly quotable in this speech and that actually astounds me with surprise.

Obama chose to point back to George Washington as a symbol for his speech. How much I thought he would lean more heavily on Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt. There was gold to be mined in these two later Presidents’ speeches and Obama’s speech writer failed to pan for it.

The New York Times had generally high praise for the speech.

“The speech was not programmatic, nor was it filled with as much soaring language as F.D.R.’s first Inaugural Address or John Kennedy’s only one. But it left no doubt how Mr. Obama sees the nation’s problems and how he intends to fix them and, unlike Mr. Bush, the necessary sacrifices he will ask of all Americans.

"The American story ‘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,’ he said.”

Yes, it was a clear and well delivered speech. There were points when I thought it might take off and soar, but it never did. It was a very good speech and maybe even an excellent one. It was not, however, a great one.

Jeff Shesol, a speech writer for President Clinton made some interesting observations. Among them was this one:

“Of course, the thrust of today’s speech is that an era of dogmatism, ‘petty grievances and false promises”’ has come to an end, and that “a new era of responsibility” is dawning. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Obama clearly understands that change is terrifying to most people, and he stresses, therefore, the continuity of his aims with enduring American principles. “What is demanded,” President Obama said today, ‘is a return to these truths.’”

Well, the speech was about the only thing that disappointed me today – although the Chief Justice’s fumble during the swearing-in also stunned me – and it was a marvelous display of Democracy in action as the transfer of power took place so smoothly.

Michelle Obama and the children were beautiful. The music was very nice. The highlights for me were, as I said in my blog yesterday, the incredible poem by Elizabeth Anderson and the benediction by the Reverend Joseph Lowery.

This is the Day!

What we’ve been waiting for – George W. Bush will exit and Barack H. Obama will make his entrance!
by Charlie Leck

It is early! I’m having some neighbors in to nosh and watch the inauguration on the telly with me. I need to filet some lox and make a quick run to the bakery for a nice fresh coffee cake. I’m praying no one will care to look at my library because I won’t be able to get it cleaned up this morning. Stacks of books and piles of papers and photos just seem to grow wildly here. Someday I really need to attack this mess; however, when I sit here to work these piles are comforting and companionable.

No one more excitedly anticipates the inaugural address as I. I’ve been thinking about it since election night, vain enough to arrogantly wish I was somehow involved with the writing team.

No thunder and lightning from Obama today – no black expressionism – no standing on the shoulders of Martin Luther King, Jr..

Today he rides the historical speeches of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy. He must express strength, courage and fearlessness. He’ll call on us to be involved in the healing and rebuilding of the nation. He calls on us to be team players and to unite for the sake of the nation.

There will also need to be a warning to potential foes and heavy-handed nations. He won’t mention any names, but Korea and Iran will clearly get the message. The implications will be precise – that he won’t make the mistakes of George W. Bush and any military involvements will be sharp and thorough.

It will be very brief. It won’t break records for brevity, but it will surprise us when he utters the final words: “And God bless America!”