The inauguration was moving, Obama’s speech? Meh.
I watched the inauguration ceremonies like everyone else and was deeply moved. Obama was stately, had a grace we have not seen in that office in many many years. The outpouring of public support was a fantastic reaffirmation of the most fundamental aspects of democracy. But just between us, the speech? Meh. Obama delivered the ...
I watched the inauguration ceremonies like everyone else and was deeply moved. Obama was stately, had a grace we have not seen in that office in many many years. The outpouring of public support was a fantastic reaffirmation of the most fundamental aspects of democracy. But just between us, the speech? Meh.
Obama delivered the speech well. He is the Olivier of politics. He could make the phone book inspiring. And on Tuesday, that is practically what he was forced to do. The speech was a strung together hodge podge of platitudes, pale imagery and lank structure. Some of it didn’t even make much sense, for example his reference to a war against “a far-reaching network of violence and hate.” A network of violence? I think a network needs to be of things not of actions or feelings.
But much of it was just bland clichés: calling for a “new era of responsibility” or urging people to acknowledge that we “have duties to ourselves, our nation and our world.” Some play-by-play announcers…er, news analysts…said this language “echoed” that of John F. Kennedy. Yes it did, almost precisely the same faint echo one would have expected to survive across almost half a century of time and space. The man and the moment deserved their accolades. The words paled.
Oli Scarff/Getty Images
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