Thursday, January 28, 2010

Obama's State of the Union address takes a harder ton


The president had plenty of reasons to be frustrated Wednesday night, and he channeled all of them during his 71 minutes at the podium. The poker player so often lauded for his evenness was instead pleading and persistent, frank and angry. His words as much as his body language suggested a shift, that this was the time not only to address the populist aggravation but to make it his own. He pressed his forefinger against his thumb and made jabs at the air to accentuate his points. He told the crowd that he "hated" the bank bailout, that he wanted the government to match the public's "decency," that he was tired of "the numbing weight of our politics."

"How long should we wait?" he asked. "How long should America put its future on hold?"

It was the 487th time Obama delivered public remarks as president, but this one felt unique. When Obama took office, his advisers vowed to take advantage of his gifts as an orator, so in his first year he spoke in 30 states and 21 countries, at factories, fundraisers and funerals. But none of his speeches, aides said, had been so meticulously prepared as the one he delivered Wednesday night.

Source : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012705500.html?hpid=topnews

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