TW: Obama's speech is just that a speech. The reviews are running rampant, many highly predictable but what Obama and the U.S. is trying to do is thread a series of needles. And we should never forget that despite all of our challenges, the evolving world political and economic systems, and our sometime tedious and inane domestic politics, only one nation is able and willing to try to thread those needles. Obama is trying new approaches, some will fail but he is trying and he is VERY good.
The day, if ever, the leader of China or Brazil or Iran is standing in front of an audience in Cairo eliciting such attention and derision will be the day you will know the world has truly changed. We are no where near that day but the world needs enlightened leadership to the extent we can provide that then that day will be very far off.
From Tom Ricks blog at Foreign Policy mag:
"I was interested that the home page of the Iranian news agency has not a word about President Obama's speech in Cairo. I think this is an interesting sign of success for Obama, because it suggests to me that he just flummoxes the anti-American element in the Middle East. Good for him.
I also was impressed by Jeffrey Goldberg's take on the speech:
"An African-American President with Muslim roots stands before the Muslim world and defends the right of Jews to a nation of their own in their ancestral homeland, and then denounces in vociferous terms the evil of Holocaust denial, and right-wing Israelis go forth and complain that the President is unsympathetic to the housing needs of settlers. Incredible, just incredible."
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