Obama's Speech

Watching Obama's Inauguration Day speech at my Mom's place in St. Albert, I was struck by all the usual things - the inauguration of the first black president; the millions of people in the crowd; the departure of the piece of human debris, George Bush, and the hope for a new beginning in a troubled time. But what struck me most was that Obama didn't pull out the rhetorical stops. He held the crowd in the palm of his hand, and he could have roused the rabble to heights never before seen, but he didn't. He gave a sober and compelling speech, and rather than cheering and screaming and fainting, the crowd seemed to hang on to his every word. He didn't deliver any Kennedyesque lines that will be repeated fifty years or a hundred years from now, but it was a great speech nonetheless.

I did like the beginning of the speech when he ripped W a new one, with W just a few feet away from him on the podium. But like everything else, I'm sure that the words just rolled through W's brain without leaving any effect. I thought the best parts came when he talked about: "...nations being judged by what they build, not by what they destroy..., ...Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, and non-believers..., ...Gettysburg, Normandy, Khe Sanh..., and ...we'll take your hand if you unclench your fist..."

Obama came across, like he almost always does, as serene, competent and confident. He is not Superman, and I'm sure he'll make some terrible mistakes, but in my mind, he's exactly what we need right now.