MAY AS WELL START DISAPPOINTING THEM EARLY...:

President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address (President Barack Obama Delivers Inaugural Address at US Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2009)

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.

They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

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.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; 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.

As for our common defense, 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. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

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.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.

We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

First, let me plead that I genuinely hope that Barack Obama has a successful presidency. Other than on issues of Life, he does not seem to be out of the mainstream of our rather similar presidents over the last almost three decades. Nor, for that matter, dissimilar to leaders of both parties nowadays throughout the Anglosphere. If he's not as conservative on social issues as we would prefer, he's pretty orthodox on economic, governmental, national security, and other matters.

That said, and even heading in with low expectations, I think it's fair to say that today's inaugural address wasn't just prosaic rather than poetic, as we anticipated, but actually fell flat. Indeed, what seems to have been a conscious decision to drain the occasion of soaring rhetoric and sweeping vision was so inappropriate to the requirements of the day and the role he now assumes that we may question whether he understood either.

The speech he gave was reminiscent of one of those Bill Clinton State of the Union's, where you drone on about various specifics, ticking off a laundry list of items. It can at least be argued that such a speech is suitable to Congress, where you're basically advancing a legislative agenda and/or trying to shape theirs. But an Inaugural is quite a different beast. It is, or ought to be, a president's vision of where we are, where we've been, and where we're going. It's a time for sweeping strokes, not pointillism. And where we usually have a fairly good handle on who a new president is, Mr. Obama has remained unusually obscure through an election season where he studiously avoided ideas, presenting himself and the fact of his race as the primary reason to elect him. So it would have been an especially appropriate moment for him to enunciate the personal philosophy that guides him, to position that philosophy within the flow of American ideas and ideals, and to suggest where that philosophy is likely to lead him and us.

Bad enough to have whiffed on the historical context of the Inaugural Speech in general, he also got wrong what was needed from him at this specific time. While it is a good idea for him to tamp down the unreasonable expectations of the Left, which read into his silence a Progressivism that nothing in his career and candidacy supports, and of the World, which sees in him a departure from prior American presidents, even as he apes his predecessors, the sort of workmanlike tone of the address suggested a role for his presidency that no president can fill. Meanwhile, he eschewed the one role that he is particularly adapted to filling successfully. While it is self-flatting to pretend that you take on the burden of office at a uniquely difficult point in the nation's history and that will only be by your own semi-miraculous leadership that things improve, the reality is that most of the heavy-lifting on both the war and economic fronts has already been done for him. Over the next couple years he will be responsible for the orderly withdrawal of forces from the Middle East, but unless he has the unexpected good sense and moral drive to regime-change Syria, there isn't much left for him to do on the battlefield. Likewise, while he inherits an economy softened by a credit crunch, artificially high gas prices, mistakenly high interest rates, and nativism, the only one of these that hasn't yet been ameliorated is the anti-immigration problem. For the rest he can sit back and reap what's already sown.

More importantly, even if there were some sort of existential crisis of the liberal democratic capitalist West, it's not as if rolling up his sleeves and hammering out legislative Rube Goldberg schemes with Congress would do anything to address that. We've had our share of presidents who descend into the details in that way and they are--without exception--failures. It isn't just that the solutions to life's problems aren't to be found in the innards of congressional actions, but that it is a waste of a president's political and personal capital to try fine-tuning such imperfect devices.

What our successful presidents have done is used their office as a bully pulpit, to summon the national will to do certain things, to pressure the Congress to respond, and to establish broad frameworks to which the eventual solutions should roughly correspond. They have also used their leadership and moral and political authority to move America and Americans to overcome mere crises of confidence and moments of fright, without necessarily tying the words to legislative programs. This is where Mr. Obama could have been useful, but instead exacerbated the problem. Whether rational or not, people across the planet have greeted the coming of the Obama presidency with enormous hope and optimism. At a moment in time where we have little to fear but our funk itself, he should have drawn upon this reservoir of good will and sought to snap everyone out of it. Rather than giving such a downer of a speech and kind of covering his own butt in advance, just in case things aren't better four years from now, he should have reveled in all that is right and good and summoned us all to greater heights. Instead he asked us all to wallow with him in depressing self-indulgence about how tough times are.

One hates to say it, but if you look back through recent presidential history the speech that comes closest to this one is Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech--the defects of which we've analyzed previously. It would not be all that surprising if someone as inexperienced as Mr. Obama already fears that he has taken on a job that it too big for him, as Mr. Carter's speech revealed the recognition that he was in way over his head. But to be treading so close to the edge of despair before you actually have the responsibilities is not a hopeful sign.

In fairness, Mr. Obama is such a neophyte that this grievous error in tone may just be symptomatic of the steep learning curve he faces. But, jiminy-cricket, we'd better all hope and pray he's a quick learner.

N.B. On the bright side, it was certainly more poetic than the official poem, which seemed to have been read off of a Scrabble board for all the sense it made.

On the other hand, it was remarkable that even though Reverend Lowrey was barely coherent, his cadences were still uplifting in the unique fashion of a black preacher. Generally, even when candidate Obama was giving the blandest speeches he could get by if he just imitated those rhythms, but today he speech lacked even that advantage.

I thought maybe I was being unduly harsh until even CNN and NPR correspondents sounded disappointed and then Hendrik Hertzberg just hammered it.

MORE:
-Fox News gives thumbs down to Obama inaugural speech (Scott Collins, Jan 20 2009, LA Times)

After praising Obama for his presence and delivery, [Michael] Gerson attacked the speech itself. "The surprising thing about this speech, however, was that in this extraordinary moment, the speech was actually quite ordinary from a literary perspective," Gerson said. "There were too many 'raging storms' and 'gathering clouds' and other things that any writer could consider cliched. And I don't understand, given Obama's literary ear in so many past speeches, how some of these things got through into an inaugural address. I think it's a mystery."

You knew he'd be appalled. Michael; Gerson wrote better than that in the crib.
-Obama's speech was not inspiring nor memorable (Yael T. Abouhalkah, 1/20/09, Kansas City Star)

President Barack Obama's inauguration address today was not the inspiring, memorable message many Americans had hoped to hear.

Obama didn't cover much new ground. The speech started out as a downer, and didn't get much better from there.

-Absolute power gets blamed absolutely (Spengler, 1/21/09, Asia Times)

Inauguration day brings to mind the reason I don't read science fiction. It's never weird enough. Today, America will place more power than any peacetime president ever has wielded into the hands of a man nobody knows. He has convinced more incompatible constituencies that he takes their side than any politician in American history. And through no fault or merit of his own, he has stumbled into more power than the White House has had since World War II.

Obama's Disappointing Speech (Michael Sean Winters, 1/20/09, America)

President Barack Obama’s inaugural address was surprisingly leaden. It did not soar like his "Yes, We Can" speech after losing the New Hampshire primary, nor did it chart his plans for governance as did his convention speech in Denver. Most strangely, it did not seem to capture the history of the moment the way his election night speech did.

Part of the problem is with the nature of such an address. This was the speech of a head of state, not a head of government, even though the President serves both functions. But, presidential oratory only succeeds in head of state mode at times of national tragedy. After the space shuttle Challenger disaster, Ronald Reagan gave his best speech as Bill Clinton did in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Inaugurals are festive occasions, and as we saw today, the impulse to speak for the nation often leads to the kinds of abstractions that do not make for great oratory. Still, one need not be so opaque about historical illusions: If you want to refer to Washington crossing the Delaware, speak of Washington crossing the Delaware not of "the coldest of months" and "the icy river."

That just has to be an image they added at the last minute because it was cold out. For one thing, the theme was supposed to be Lincoln, no? But also, the whole allusion suggests the WoT, until Mr. Obama switches from "common danger" to "dangers," though the speech had been devoid of "dangers" up until then. Awful stuff.
Barack Obama inauguration: his worst speech (Alex Spillius, Jan 20, 2009, Daily Telegraph)

As soon as the applause had died down, an African American standing man near me on the Mall said to his friend: "I thought the speech was [****]." Another woman said, correctly, that "we had heard it all before at other events".

In a way Obama was a victim of his own success. Having given so many dynamic speeches he had set his own bar very high. What he tried to do at his inauguration was tell Americans that they had to sacrifice to make gains, while making them believe this was well within their capabilities. The emphasis on sacrifice was too weak however.

To the disappointment of many black people in the crowd, he also made but one reference to the enormity of a black man occupying the White House for the first time. Obama has never laboured the issue of his race, but on this historic day the issue needed more.

Jon Favreau, his co-writer, recently admitted that he had been pouring over previous inaugural speeches. That might have been a bad idea. Obama seemed weighed down by the past, and failed to seize the moment.

-David Gergen says Obama's inaugural speech was not 'one for the ages' (Greg Braxton, Jan 20 2009, LA Times)

"It was not as lofty as I would have anticipated," said Gergen, noting that Obama had visited sites such as the Lincoln Memorial for inspiration.

-The Unpoet (Ben Johnson, January 20, 2009, FrontPageMagazine.com)

Barack Obama has undercut any claims of meritocracy with at least one choice: the woman who will delivering his inaugural poem. Aside from the fact that she has known Obama since they worked together at the University of Chicago, one is hard-pressed to find a rationale for this honor. Only the fourth poet to participate in a presidential inauguration, Elizabeth Alexander is no Robert Frost, nor even Maya Angelou. Alexander is an unpoet who arranges words into impenetrable jumbles flecked with juvenile imagery, inappropriate word choice, an obsessive PC view of race and "gender," a dubious take on miscegenation, and an occasional desire to kill whitey.

-A Somber Obama (Tucker Carlson, 1/20/09, Daily Beast)

It was a cheery morning until Barack Obama showed up. Joe Biden practically skipped out of the Capitol building toward the dais, grinning and greeting friends. Aretha Franklin outdid even her own reputation. The Simple Gifts instrumental awed the crowd, dignified, lovely, a vast improvement over, say, Maya Angelou's leaden and banal poetry at Bill Clinton's first inaugural 16 years ago. Even Rick Warren, the cause of so much lefty hyperventilation, turned in a soothing performance, more Episcopal priest than right-wing crazy.

Then came Obama. The new president glided onto the stage as if in a trance, not inhabiting his own body. He stumbled through his oath, ad libbing at one point, then launched into a somber speech almost indistinguishable from a State of the Union address. As for the state of our union, Obama described it as "this winter of our hardship."

What's New Is Old Again: Obama's speech goes for prose instead of poetry. (John Dickerson, Jan. 20, 2009, Slate)

It was a good speech but not a soaring one. This may have been because Obama has given so many strong speeches, he's graded on his own special curve—or because he wanted the speech to be thoroughly conventional.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 20, 2009 1:36 PM