OOPS, HE did it again. Staring down at over a million frigid spectators at the Capitol, Barack Obama didn’t deliver a speech for the ages.
The usually ebullient president-elect was grim, his face drooping under the weight of the Herculean task that lay ahead. His speech had few applause lines (and little applause) and no memorable one-liners. On a day when everyone expected Lincoln’s flowery poetry or Kennedy’s uplifting rhetoric, he painted a somber picture of “raging storms,” imploring us to “set aside childish things” and face up to a generational challenge as our forefathers had done — a “new era of responsibility.” And so the most anticipated inauguration address in modern U.S. history was quickly written off by some as “fluff” and “uninspiring.”
But that’s probably what Obama was going for. Grandiloquence in his predecessor’s second inaugural brought him nothing but charges of hypocrisy and insanity (how exactly would we “end tyranny?”). And soothing words would only set stratospheric expectations for the American people that would plunge with the dreary stock market numbers.
So Obama decided to just tell it like it is in his inauguration speech. To tell Americans where they came from, where they are now and where he is taking them. Yes, there was some vivid imagery, but those who praised the address did so for its plainness, honesty and directness. As he said himself in a recent interview, “If you play it straight with them ... then I have enormous confidence that the American people will rise to the challenge.”
Playing it straight was not an inauguration innovation for Barack Obama; it is his defining oratory quality. Remember his Democratic nomination speech at Invesco Stadium? When a feverish crowd of 80,000 expected another “I Have A Dream” speech, Obama deftly used the occasion to address criticisms about the vagueness of his policies. He laid out “what exactly change would mean,” issue by issue, in programmatic style. It wasn’t a speech for the ages but it was an honest speech for the time.
And remember his race speech? Instead of sweeping the race issue under the rug by disowning Reverend Jeremiah Wright, he grabbed the issue by the horns and wrestled with it, talking bluntly about a racial “stalemate” in our yet to be perfected Union. It was the most candid assessment of race relations in decades.
Obama can afford to play it straight because, in his case, the man is the moment. Think back to Obama’s key speeches — the Democratic nomination speech, the Berlin speech, the election victory speech, the race speech or even the inaugural.
I bet you can’t recall many era-defining lines from them the way you can with speeches by Kennedy, FDR, Reagan, and Lincoln (no, “yes we can” doesn’t count). All you can remember is his clear, resolute voice, his articulate nature, his coolness under pressure and his presidential stature. All you remember is Obama himself.
That’s because Obama is the moment. He doesn’t have to sermonize about diversity when he is the son of a poor Kenyan immigrant and the nation’s first black president. He doesn’t need to lecture about hope when we know his story is impossible without the American dream. He doesn’t need to ramble on poetically about equality when we understand his array of experiences that span from Chicago’s South Side to Harvard. The man makes the speech.
Obama has probably figured this out. That’s why his speeches are so similar, but the moments themselves seem so unique. Biographer David Mendell writes that Obama’s message has remained remarkably consistent, linking Americans through a common bond of humanity and collective salvation through equality, change, unity and hope, and peppered with references to the Bible, Dr. King and the founding fathers.
What changes is the moment that Obama places himself in – the setting, the time, the tableau. It’s not a coincidence that Obama chooses symbolic locations for his addresses – announcing his candidacy where Lincoln gave his famous “House Divided Speech” or accepting the nomination at Invesco Stadium. Or that he spends so much time in his speeches placing his audience in a particular time – be it his sweeping review of race relations or his generational overview in the inaugural.
So if you’re expecting a poetic Lincoln or a florid Kennedy in Obama, forget it. Since he is the embodiment of his message in a way no president has ever been, Obama knows he’s got the moment down. So, while there are some poetic lines in his speeches, this special quality gives him an unprecedented latitude to play it straight – to tell Americans where they are in history, to grapple with uncomfortable issues like race or to unveil grim realities like our wasteful ways. Obama simply captures moments; he doesn’t need to create them.
And that’s what he did in his inaugural. He spoke plainly and honestly about the crisis America was in, how Americans had dealt with such situations in the past, and what they needed to do now. It wasn’t a speech for the ages, but it was perfect for the time. It wasn’t the poetry experts yearned for, but the straight talk we needed. It wasn’t ground-breaking, but it hit all the right notes.
And it’s exactly what we should expect from a president who plays it straight.
Prashanth Parameswaran’s column usually appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at p.parameswaran@cavalierdaily.com.
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