A heck of an impressive speech (Obama’s, that is)
By Christian Brose I imagine I’ll simply be echoing consensus views, so quickly: For President Obama’s purposes, it’s hard to imagine a better speech than the one he gave tonight. The frank but still optimistic tone, the stern and serious notes (By dropping out of high school you are failing your country!), the moments of ...
By Christian Brose
By Christian Brose
I imagine I’ll simply be echoing consensus views, so quickly: For President Obama’s purposes, it’s hard to imagine a better speech than the one he gave tonight. The frank but still optimistic tone, the stern and serious notes (By dropping out of high school you are failing your country!), the moments of genuine humor that worked rather than coming off as tin-eared, and just the sheer effortless command of the whole thing — all were spot on. Obama reclaimed his presidency tonight. He captured the mood of the moment perfectly while painting a hopeful picture of where we could be. If, that is, this whole thing works out. And on this point — that we’ll be able to simultaneously cut taxes for 98 percent of Americans, increase spending more than at anytime since the New Deal, pay the military more, and cut our budget deficit in half — well, count me a skeptic. Only time will tell.
I even thought the decision to largely exclude foreign policy from tonight’s speech was the right one. That said, for Obama to say that his budget has three priorities — education, energy, and health care — and not to include national security as one of them is worrisome, to say the least. Maybe this was just a rhetorical device that I shouldn’t read too much into it. But still…
As if Obama needed any further boosts tonight, those who hung around to see Gov. Bobby Jindal’s rebuttal witnessed perhaps one of the worst speeches in recent memory. I struggle to recall a moment when there was such a yawning gap between the size of the opportunity and the quality of the performance. The writing, the tone, the delivery, the reading of the country’s mood, the "back to the future" message that government is the problem — all of it was wrong. And that is so depressing. Jindal seems like a whip smart, data-driven guy, with an inspiring story, who is perfectly at ease with big ideas and policy details alike, and who is willing to think creatively to solve the problems that are really affecting Americans now, in 2009. Not the problems of 1980. That guy never even suited up tonight. What a shame.
As for a national debut — let’s just say it was a far cry from this.
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