He's No Ronald Reagan
If the first inaugural address of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan had the soaring grandeur of a Beethoven symphony, Barack Obama's inaugural address had the smallness of something pinked out on a tinny piano in a honky tonk.There were attempts, to be sure, of grand rhetoric in Obama's inaugural speech. They just didn't work very well. There were no great lines that will be remembered in history. No "Ask not what your country can do for you..." and no "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." This is a bit sad, because Barack Obama is capable of much better. During the campaign he had them swooning in the aisles. During Barack Obama's inaugural address, he had them fighting not to snooze on the Washington Mall.
Barack Obama's speech started on a very down note. Barack Obama concentrated on the current economic crisis, the war, and various depictions of misery and despair. "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."
Compare Ronald Reagan's first inaugural speech to that of Barack Obama's. President Reagan became President during a similar time of crisis and he did not stint in analyzing the problem and setting forth solutions. But he also had this to say:
"We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter, and they're on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They're individuals and families whose taxes support the government and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and education. Their patriotism is quiet, but deep. Their values sustain our national life."
To be sure, Barack Obama, who must have studied Reagan's speech, tried something similar.
Comments
Anonymous
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/22/2009
when this guy said there will be no staments remembered well how about " 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." or " 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" and my peronal favorite "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" obama is going to help this nation to better itself. we have had the power to better ourselfs for years and he is helping us realize that.
Anonymous
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/22/2009
Look who`s being a racists. I have at all times thought of every man and woman, no matter what religious,gender,sexual preferences,color,creed, whatever that is to be equal,and I have researched my own personal life and I have NEVER been mean and hateful as this new President and his associates are,like Rev.Wright and Rev.Joseph Echols Lowery.Thank you Obama team,friends,and family, for listening and believing such hatefulness.I pray for you all that feel like you just NOW free and not a slave any more.I pray you will see the truth and see most of us have at all times treated you with nothing but fair and equal.We ALL have rights to make something of our lives and you want us all to pay for something that happened hundreds of years ago. What do you want us to do for the sins of our fathers? Some of us think it was the worse thing to have done to a person, Well I`m Native American and there ain`t no one holding me down,I made something of myself. Hope you do too.
I agree with Barefoot. Obama is setting the goals low..so when something does go right..he'll look like a blooming hero. At least to some people.
Well, if we are who we are suppose to be (government of the people, by the people and for the people) then WE ARE the government because we have the right to elect officials who are SUPPOSE to vote the way the people of their constiuency guide. However, for so long now Congress had turn a deaf ear to the people's voice. Poor Mr. Obama has to have the boldness to come up against those clowns if THE PEOPLE are going to take back the government of our nation.
:)
Aishiteruikioi
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/21/2009
Mark, you have not only blatantly overlooked Reagan's shortcomings but have also twisted Obama's words to suit your own message. You complain that he accuses dissenters of being cynics, yet what evidence do you show to the contrary? Obama's speech may not have had the most memorable one-liners in history, but it is his very combination of eloquence and pragmatism that makes this speech so moving. In this time of fear and economic hardship, nervousness and pessimism, Obama has managed to combine the higher ideals that we all love with the concrete plans and promises needed to reassure us and to rekindle hope. Every word he spoke resonated within me today, and it was all I could do to keep from crying with relief that someone so great was here to help turn our country around at last.
Average Guy
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/20/2009
Reagans turn out may have been smaller then president obamas, but how many states did Obama win in the election. President Reagan won 49 STATES!! tiwce. We'll see how President Obama does the second time around.
Joseph TR
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/20/2009
In response to Andrew:
I am one of those people so enamored with the late great president Reagan. I don't think you will understand what national debt is until president Obama starts throwing bail outs left and right. If you were watching the same speech I was, the only tears I saw were the masses yawning.
This speech the "GREAT ORETOR" wrote himself was not memorable. In fact the best thing about it was the short length.
Andrew Johnston
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/20/2009
"Ronald Reagan helped to bring forth prosperity out of economic malaise by liberating the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people."
He also ran up a staggering national debt in the process while promoting policies that heavily favored the rich and creating a culture in which hate groups flourished. "Obama is not Reagan; therefore the speech was failure" is a compelling argument only to someone so enamored of the former president that he was deaf to Obama's message of hopefulness and his commitment to deliver the change has pledged to bring to America. You might as well argue that apples are not oranges; therefore apples are inferior.
At neither of his inaugurations did Reagan attract some 2 million people to the Mall and move them to tears. Obama was sober, moving, and articulate as he laid out a new course that is decidedly post-Reagan. And post-Clinton, and post-Bush. He delivered the goods American was expecting and needed to hear.
Obama is a true liberal that believes only government can fix things, that government will take care of everyone. I agree with theBarefoot too. We are going to have a "marvelous turnaround" in everything now that Obama is in office. The media will see to that. Note to Elizabeth...it is the difference between capitalism and socialism. Look the words up in the dictionary.....
Comments 1 - 10 (of 12)
Next >>
|
|