Obama's February 24, 2009 speech

President Obama's speech last night was an eloquent, tough-minded, and ambitious call for hope in a time of economic turmoil. After months of bad news, the nation needed to hear its President offer a balance of candor and optimism. And last night's speech fit the bill. Focusing just on the exordium, I was drawn into President Obama's visualization of the recession through an evocation of potent images:

You don't need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It's the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It's the job you thought you'd retire from but now have lost, the business you built your dreams upon that's now hanging by a thread, the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope.

With a daughter in college, I found that last line to be particularly salient. Moreover, I appreciated the President's encouragement through climatic parallelism.

We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.

I want to spend some time to analyze the design of his remarks. But right away I had to share my near-instant response. He said what had to be said. It was a powerful speech, no matter what the obstructionists say. If you haven't had a chance to read it, I recommend that you take some time and check it out.

Read the entire speech: Transcript: President Obama's February 24, 2009 speech