The Age of Responsibility
By ROGER COHEN
NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama made a responsible speech for “a new era of responsibility” that is set to include a “responsible” withdrawal from Iraq. Standing at the west front of the Capitol, he was not at his most uplifting, nor his most inspiring, as he called in sober tones for a new “spirit of service” that will renew America and, through it, the world.
I sat 30 feet away and felt stirred but not transported. Perhaps that was the point. There’s too much work to do for high rhetorical flourish.
The day was bright but freezing. The trombones of the Marine Band glinted in the unforgiving light. The sun proceeded in its slow arc to noon, yet it seemed to grow colder, as if nature itself were stilled.
A shivering crowd of more than one million stretched back across the National Mall toward the Lincoln Memorial. But the Great Liberator, freer of slaves in a terrible war, was passed over in silence. So, too, was the throng.
The symbols, like the national catharsis, could speak for themselves, just as the 21-gun salute to an African-American president contained its own eloquence. This was a spare inaugural speech, devoid of allusion to setting, almost disembodied.
(More here.)
NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama made a responsible speech for “a new era of responsibility” that is set to include a “responsible” withdrawal from Iraq. Standing at the west front of the Capitol, he was not at his most uplifting, nor his most inspiring, as he called in sober tones for a new “spirit of service” that will renew America and, through it, the world.
I sat 30 feet away and felt stirred but not transported. Perhaps that was the point. There’s too much work to do for high rhetorical flourish.
The day was bright but freezing. The trombones of the Marine Band glinted in the unforgiving light. The sun proceeded in its slow arc to noon, yet it seemed to grow colder, as if nature itself were stilled.
A shivering crowd of more than one million stretched back across the National Mall toward the Lincoln Memorial. But the Great Liberator, freer of slaves in a terrible war, was passed over in silence. So, too, was the throng.
The symbols, like the national catharsis, could speak for themselves, just as the 21-gun salute to an African-American president contained its own eloquence. This was a spare inaugural speech, devoid of allusion to setting, almost disembodied.
(More here.)
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