This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 21, 2009 - WASHINGTON -- President Barack H. Obama tried in one inaugural moment to herald a new era based on traditional American values, to create a new conversation that puts aside the "childish things" of hyperpartisanship and to build on and to answer inaugural echoes from past presidents.
Taken together it seemed an attempt to settle past political debates and to reach beyond them to a post-partisan time when government action is based on rock-ribbed values that all Americans share.
It was a tall order for a short speech, for any speech, for any president. The scope of the new president's vision is breath-taking, and the one thing he won't brook is telling him to scale back his ambitions.
From the leaks to the press beforehand and from the structure of the speech, the intended theme seemed to be Obama's call for a "new era of responsibility," one he hopes will "define a new generation" -- a concept and phrase reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's call to the nation's young people to "ask not."
When Obama explained the values this new era is to be based on, he spoke of enduring personal values, not governmental ones -- kindness to strangers, selflessness to fellow workers, the courage of the firefighter.
Obama said that even though the challenges and the instruments for meeting them were new, the values guiding him are old: "hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism."
Who could disagree -- and is this really new? It almost sounded like a recitation of the Calvinist work ethic of a bygone era.
America's greatness is not a gift; it must be earned, said Obama. But it is not earned by taking "shortcuts." Nor is it earned by "those who prefer leisure over work, or who seek only the pleasures of riches and fame," he said.
Rather, it is the "risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things" who bring the country greatness.
Obama took pains, however, to answer an echo -- he called it a "stale political argument" -- emanating from the most famous line of the last president who brought throngs to the mall: Ronald Reagan. Reagan said famously, "Government is the problem." Without mentioning Reagan, Obama said his only measure of whether to use government to solve a problem is if it works to help people.
Obama also indirectly rebuked the 43rd president who sat a few feet away. Again, the rebuke was grounded in traditional American values.
Obama said that the nation should not be fooled into making a "false" choice between security and liberty. In the dangerous times of revolution and nation-building, the Founders wrote a constitution based on the rule of law and human rights, he said.
There was no explicit mention of the prison at Guantanamo Bay or the alleged torture of prisoners in the war against terrorism. Rather, there was the almost religious faith that the same principles that defeated Nazism and communism would defeat the terrorists as well.
More subtly, Obama rebuked his predecessor for having failed to make "hard choices." But Obama's indictment was broader than criticism of one man; he called it a "collective failure." Without adopting the nagging nature of former President Jimmy Carter's calls for America to make "hard choices," Obama seemed to be asking Americans to set aside "childish things."
That biblical reference seemed to refer to greed in the markets. It may have referred to overconsumption in the consumer economy. It clearly referred to the narrow, nasty partisan debates that Obama has inveighed against from his earliest days.
On Inauguration Day, however, his millions of fans weren't ready to put away childish partisanship. When Vice President Dick Cheney showed up on the Jumbotron -- in a scene reminiscent of the scroogelike Mr. Potter of the holiday movie "It's a Wonderful Life" -- the crowd booed lustily.
They also booed at the mention and sight of President George W. Bush. It was the good-natured booing one hears at a sporting event, but it seemed out of place at an inauguration, which blends pomp and formality with the popular witness of millions of partisans.
Obama explicitly described his inauguration as coming at a time of distress, with the nation at war and the economy in trouble. Tuesday's steep fall in the stock prices on Wall Street painfully punctuated the point. Obama clearly tried to tie his efforts to address these challenges to those of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Depression. Obama said he and those gathered before him had "chosen hope over fear."
Obama made reference to the history-making nature of the day -- the swearing-in of the first African-American president. But he didn't bludgeon people with it. He spoke of his father's village in Kenya, of the "lash of the whip," of the "bitter swill of civil war and segregation," of the fact that his father would have been denied service at a local restaurant 60 years ago.
Each of these racial references, though, was turned into a positive point. The Kenyan heritage was an opening to tell the world that America is "ready to lead again" and isn't willing to give up its pre-eminent role in the world. The reference to slaves was part of a passage about how hard work built America. The mention of segregation and slavery was part of an ode to America's diversity, which Obama said made America strong, and his reference to blacks denied service indirectly underlined the importance of this day when the first African-American president took power.
Barack Obama's inaugural address shows that he is reaching beyond the history-making nature of his election. Just as Obama succeeded in making race incidental to his candidacy for president, he seeks to make it incidental to his presidency by creating a new American leadership based on shared American values embraced in a post-partisan world.
History will answer whether Obama's reach exceeds his grasp.
William H. Freivogel is director of the journalism program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and frequently reports for the Beacon on law and politics.
