A truly great speech, obviously. No real time to talk here but one thing I really wanted to say.
We all know how much Obama loves Lincoln. So I found it interesting that he did not quote Lincoln in his speech. Instead, of course, he quoted Washington. Here's the relevant part of the speech:
In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."
Upon thinking about a bit, I realized that quoting Lincoln could be a problem because he evokes the Civil War which creates mixed emotions at best for many Southerners. And of course, Obama is rallying the whole nation (not to mention the whole world) to his standard with his speech, which includes the South.
On another level, though, I find his choice interesting. The quote from Washington lacks a rhetorical climax, by which I mean to say, it lacks an effective rhetorical flourish at the end. The last phrase "came forth to meet [it]" lacks the zip one would like to have the last phrase of such a quote.
This is interesting to me on a number of levels. George Washington was not a man noted for his eloquence. He was loved and revered---both in his own time and now---for his ability to get things done. The quote chosen by Obama was not chosen for rhetorical perfection, though the early parts of the quote do contain powerful imagery. Rather, I think it was chosen because it perfectly fits our current circumstances. In the choice of this quote, Obama opts for an emphasis on substance rather than rhetoric. His "pre-administration," if we can refer to the past three months this way, has been parallel, in a sense, because he has chosen pragmatism over ideology.