redheadedleague

Pundits and analysts keep looking for the "big moment" in Obama's inaugural address. In some sense, I think they are missing the point. This was not a time for lofty, ascending rhetoric, and the President knew it. Hell, the event itself would take care of that. No, he was looking ahead, looking to the very difficult job he's been hired to do. His purpose was not to make everybody drunk with possibility, but to sober us up, prepare the nation for what is sure to be a rough couple of years. And to remind us that, in order to get through this, it's up to the American people to make it happen. After all, he's a president, not a superhero.

Okay, having said all that, a small historical point - most of the "great quotes" from political speeches are not immediately obvious (especially by pundits, who are often failed speech writers and political operatives themselves; kind of like asking the guy who got cut from the team what it takes to be a great athlete.) But having read it a few times, I keep liking this bit:

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.

Not bad.