Few
would doubt (even his most fervent opponents) that President Obama is one of
the most gifted speakers of his generation. The tonal qualities in his voice
and innate ability to convey a message leave many Americans in awe of the
president’s elegant delivery. Nonetheless, one should still critically evaluate
the content of his messaging.
In January 2009, Obama delivered a speech
echoing many of the themes of his historic campaign. He emphasized that we are
not a nation of “red states” and “blue states”, but rather the “United States”
of America. The theme hope and change from his 2008 campaign that characterized
his first inaugural address were lost this time around. Admittedly, his elegant
and natural delivery was still very much a part of the fabric of his speech,
but the emphasis of his message took on quite a different tone. President Obama
began appropriately by acknowledging the founders of our great nation, who
established the freedoms we take for granted today with hard fights and a great
deal of bloodshed. But then the speech took a very different turn. Obama
quickly became combative and outlined his liberal attack on the wealthy,
mentioning the various groups and peoples who helped him win re-election
through unfunded entitlements and substantial growth in government spending.
The part that shocked me the most was his failure to even mention the issue
most threatening the future of our nation: the federal deficit. Instead, he
pandered to the entitled sector of the electorate that is the very cause of our
most severe problem in the first place.
The reality that we must face,
however, is that President Obama will be our commander in chief for the next
four years. If his inaugural address is any signal of how he will lead our
nation in that time, I certainly hope that republican lawmakers were listening
up because there are many heated fights that are not too far ahead. I suppose
the first test of what I predict will be an even more dysfunctional government
than any that we have previously seen in American history will be the upcoming
fight over raising the debt ceiling. Until next time…
