Obama's Inaugural Address

Amid all of the rhetorical flourishes in Obama's speech yesterday, there were some bad signs Obama would not actually work in the interests of the people who elected him. The parts that jumped out at me were the GOP-style remarks about people (the non-elites) taking "responsibility" and for reviewing programs as to whether or not they work.

This is bad, and it is NOT progress. Moreover, while Obama tried to channel FDR, he failed miserably:

Yet what was most notable was Obama's inability to speak in the frank manner of Roosevelt 76 years ago. What characterized the new president's inaugural address above all was an appalling lack of concreteness about anything.

All by design, of course.

There was more channeling of Ronald Reagan than there was of FDR:

"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works... Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward," he said. "Where the answer is no, programs will end." Again, there was no specificity about what programs will be terminated, but in the past week he has indicated his intention to radically cut back bedrock social programs, including Social Security and Medicare, as a means of attacking the government's fiscal crisis.

"Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill," Obama continued. "Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched." He allowed that the present crisis showed the need for a "watchful eye" and voiced the belief that the "reach of prosperity" should be extended by offering "opportunity to every willing heart." There is nothing here that could not have been lifted from the speeches of Ronald Reagan or any of the other right-wing politicians that have ruled on behalf of Wall Street and corporate America for the last three decades.

I have always been wary of Obama, and this speech doesn't give me much optimism.