One of the things that Obama can do is deliver a great speech. I know these speeches are written by professional speech writers, and tweaked word by word for months. But something about this one seemed a bit harder hitting than usual, and not just an eloquent delivery.
Obama's first term as President, at least the first three years or so of it made me wonder if he was a Republican planted in the White House posing as a Dem. Maybe he was all good talk, and not much more than limp action I was concerned. Or not able to get anything done due to no fault of his own?
But looking back now, maybe he was pacing himself, and knew he had to go slow or else face rejection or all his ideas. Maybe there was a strategic plan in place from the beginning, go slow, very slow at first, and then pick up speed?
Whatever it was, he seems to have grown some balls along the way. And now that he has bagged the second term, he seems to be a lot less concerned with what the other party thinks.
I can see where some (social) conservatives could come to the conclusion that the speech was a big middle finger at them.
We know he got behind same-sex marriage during his campaign which was risky, and was able to get DADT repealed. Obama has courted various minorities which makes some sense since he is one as well, and he knows politics, ....someone is doing the research and number crunching. But I was still stunned by him mentioning gay rights, and then Stonewall in his short 15 min address.
I think his earlier statement backing of same-sex marriage may have influenced some voters who were on the fence about the issue back during the Nov. elections. And his speech today may have influence across other states where the issue is soon coming up as well, not to mention the Supreme Court cases of DOMA and Prop 8.
Obama did not have to bring this up. He could have mentioned Stonewall, and nothing more on that subject, or not even Stonewall.
Is anyone else a bit surprised by this speech? I'm always one that thinks that talk is pretty cheap, and action is all the really counts. I think Obama's inaugural address today is one for the history books. And others' whom I have read comments from have stated that it confirms that we got the right person elected.