Opinion: Obama's (Mostly Good) Speech Misses a Beat

(June 16) -- There's a quote usually attributed to someone prominent in France's 1848 Revolution, who, seeing the mob rush past, said, "There go the people; I must follow them because I am their leader."

The story is made up. But it's survived because it illustrates the schizophrenic view we have of -- well, people like Barack Obama, who last night could have heard pundits urging him to 1) lead us -- yet follow our lead; 2) display candor -- yet assure us we'll succeed; 3) act tough -- yet show "heart."

Nobody could possibly play so many roles perfectly. In his 20 minutes last night, Obama wasn't bad. But he could have done better.

Let's look at how he reconciled some of those roles.

Lead us -- yet follow our lead: People don't need to know every detail of a president's plan, but they need enough to know there is one. Last night, Obama presented a concrete-enough plan to sound like a leader. Moreover, he used a classic Obama tactic: creating a crusade from calamity. Starting with the collapsing economy, then with the broken health care system, and now with an exploding oil well, the president proposes another gimongous idea: the transition away from fossil fuels. He not only sounded like a leader last night -- he was one.

On the other hand, Americans are clear about what they want: 60 percent want him to get tough on BP and 71 percent think he hasn't been tough enough. "We will make BP pay," he says. A little later he tells us that when he meets with BP's chairman he will "inform him" to set aside "whatever resources are required" to compensate victims. He's careful to tell us the new director of the agency overseeing drilling is "tough."

Display candor -- yet assure us we'll succeed: Obama uses the usual caveats: that efforts "will never be perfect," that problems at the Department of the Interior "ran much deeper" than the administration thought; that his energy plans include "costs." But in the end, he assures us that because we have the "capacity to shape our destiny" we "know we'll get there." Well ... how? This is just the assumption of every White House since Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech; that it's risky to be less than relentlessly upbeat. They may be right. But that's not candor.

Act tough -- yet show "heart": While Obama sounded stern talking about BP, there was one surprising place where Obama's speech fell down. It's the matter of "heart."

That, of course, has been the steady drumbeat of criticism for six months. "This is a heady president. The people want heart," says one Democrat. "Too cerebral," argues someone else in a long New Yorker article about the problem.

Their point: that Obama, so yes-we-can inspiring in 2008 is now, in the words of former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, "bloodless."

To someone like me, who reads many Obama speeches from beginning to end, the "heart" attacks are -- for the most part -- wrong. He and his writers have created dozens of stunningly moving speeches. One example: his passionate Martin Luther King Day speech. It got almost no coverage, and deserved a lot.

But last night, the few one-sentence examples of suffering weren't richly detailed enough to become compelling.

I talked to one person last night who wondered whether Obama needs a crowd to become passionate. But Obama and his writers are too skillful not to know that presidents can move listeners from the Oval Office. Ronald Reagan's classic Farewell Address was full of moving story and detail; he gave it in the same room.

Over the past few weeks it's been possible to hear survivors of the Deepwater Horizon rig describe the way they were blown across the room by its explosion, stumbled in the dark for a way out, certain they would die. We've heard of shrimpers who fled a devastated Vietnam 35 years ago, painstakingly rebuilt their lives -- only to see them devastated once more.

Obama heard those stories, too. While it's fashionable to say that the Oval Office insulates its inhabitants from real life, they actually get to see a lot. In a speech suggesting many sensible things we need to do, Obama would have done well to make real the hardships we need to remember.

That would have done more than answer charges that he doesn't "care." They would have reminded Americans why they should care.

And that would have helped win support for the clearest evidence that the "heart" attacks on Obama are wrong: his programs.

Bob Lehrman is former chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore, and author of "The Political Speechwriter's Companion: a Guide for Writers and Speakers" (CQPress2009). He teaches speechwriting at American University, which in May named him Adjunct Professor of the Year for 2010.


To submit an op-ed or letter to the editor, write to opinion@aolnews.com.