The old Barack Obama returned last night. A more relaxed, self-confident and optimistic President addressed the House of Representatives Tuesday evening. There was no trace of a head of state exhausted by the midterm election debacle in 2010. Americans got their brilliant orator back; a president who enables them to dream of a better America even in times of darkness.
The crisis-plagued superpower needed that urgently and Obama offered them the American Dream packaged in the brilliant wrappings of “a Sputnik moment.” Few listeners considered how this expensive transformation could be accomplished in the face of a Republican Congress. Obama wisely pre-positioned himself directly in the center, identifying himself as a pragmatic and economically progressive president who was extending his hand across the political aisle.
It was in many ways reminiscent of Clinton’s 1995 speech. Back then the Democrats had just suffered a similar electoral debacle. Then in 1996, Clinton was re-elected.
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