Jacob Heilbrunn, HuffPo: Obama's Ennobling Speech

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-heilbrunn/obamas-ennobling-speech_b_808351.html

Jacob Heilbrunn
Author, "They Knew They Were Right: the Rise of the Neocons"
Posted: January 12, 2011 09:34 PM

Obama's Ennobling Speech

President Obama's speech in Tucson will trigger much commentary, but in speaking many words, he really uttered the last one. There was a finality to Obama's speech, a lapidary effect that endowed it with humility and gravity. It would be hard to think of a more moving and dignified speech, particularly when set against the foil of Sarah Palin's creepy and self-absorbed effusions earlier today.

In essence, Obama returned to his earliest and most deeply felt theme, which is that optimism, not hatred, civility, not rancor, hope, not despair, should guide and elevate America, no matter how heated or turbulent political issues may become.

But for all the weight and gravity of his talk, Obama had to compose himself at the end of his talk, when he spoke of Christina-Taylor Green skipping through rain puddles in heaven. Perhaps you could even say that there was something angelic about Obama's exhortation to follow the better angels of our nature.

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