The Inauguration Speech

In-depth analysis from Jonathan Raban, the only article about the speech that has kept my attention until the end:

Under the guise of noble platitude Obama was able to get away with murder, cloaking in familiar and emollient language an address that otherwise defied convention. There was a hint of this in his ritual bow to the outgoing president, in which he spent five words acknowledging Bush's service to his country and 10 in thanking him for his departure from office. In no inaugural has a president so completely repudiated the policies of his predecessor as Obama did on Tuesday. Look back at the "forbearers" sentence, and see the sting in its tail: "true to our founding documents". Most of the crowd of more than a million who packed the Mall, a few of whom loudly booed Dick Cheney when he was wheeled on to the stage, believed that the Bush administration had done its best to shred the constitution. The distinction between "we the people" (who are loyal to the founding documents) and "those in high office" (who stand accused of abusing them) hung ambiguously in the air. If you wanted to hear it, it was there; if you didn't, it wasn't.

Read the rest here.