Aced

Given all that's gone before, I'm not really surprised that Obama aced his inauguration speech yesterday. One of his greatest assets is his ability to speak authoritatively and intelligently, and he didn't drop the ball on this score yesterday.

What he did do that was perhaps surprising was, essentially, put the boot into the policies and failings of the previous administration. While thanking the Bush administration at the very beginning of his speech, and never making any directly critical statements, he very clearly drew a line under the Bush years. And, damningly, he did so not from a political standpoint, but from the perspective of the rule of law and the founding principles of the United States. It must have been an interesting experience for George Bush, sitting just a few metres away, hearing the depredations of his administration described in such unambiguous terms.

However, Obama's speech served only in part to underscore the problems inherited from the previous administration. To a greater degree it was more memorable for its honest laying out of the difficulties that the United States is facing, and Obama's plans in (extremely) rough outline for dealing with these. These positive aspects were more important and stirring than the rebukes dealt to the Bush administration.

Overall, I thought it was a really impressive performance. Judging from what limited information I've gathered from the media, some have already criticised it for having no stand-out sound-bites or definitive far-reaching policy statements. However, I'm not sure about what would count as such a milestone policy, or that Obama would actually be thanked for staking one out. Instead, I suspect that he'd be on the receiving end of oppositely-aimed complaint had he laid out some specific optimistic target.

While I can't remember the speech in detail, a couple of specific points that stuck out for me merit mention:

without mentioning it by name, Obama suggested that stem cell technology would be allowed to flourish under his administration

Obama was quite specific on engaging with the Muslim world, trying to address its ordinary members rather than its leaders

rather than appeal solely to the Christian base of the US, the speech acknowledged and reached out to other faiths, there was even a welcome nod to "non-believers"

there was a lot of strong language for science and technology, specifically where these mapped onto environmental or economic goals (though no "we choose to to go the moon")

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In passing, while the invocation of the inauguration was overblown theological rhetoric from a known conservative windbag, the benediction, though still religious in content, was much more inclusive and invoked civil rights as much as the Almighty. Not surprising given that it was delivered by a prominent (and elderly) minister and activist, but he carried it off with a lot of dignity and even some humour. Though African American himself, he also mentioned the native Americans, a group whose absence from the US political stage is only rarely remarked upon.