Here's the Friday OMG He's not Bush! edition, after Obama's tour de force Cairo speech.
WaPo Editorial: OMG! He's not Bush!
PRESIDENT OBAMA was the first to say yesterday that one speech cannot erase the accumulated hostility and mistrust between many of the world's Muslims and the United States. But his address in Cairo offered an eloquent case for American values and global objectives -- and it looked to be a skillful use of public diplomacy in a region where America's efforts to explain itself have often been weak.
NY Times Editorial: OMG! He's not Bush!
When President Bush spoke in the months and years after Sept. 11, 2001, we often — chillingly — felt as if we didn’t recognize the United States. His vision was of a country racked with fear and bent on vengeance, one that imposed invidious choices on the world and on itself. When we listened to President Obama speak in Cairo on Thursday, we recognized the United States.
Margaret Coker, WSJ: OMG! He's not Bush!
Muslims in the Middle East and beyond praised U.S. President Barack Obama for the tone of his speech Thursday, but they had more of a mixed reaction to the substance of the address.
Mr. Obama won over many Muslims for delivering what many viewed as a respectful address -- peppered with the moral message Muslims receive at weekly homilies and the straightforward talk they rarely get from their own leadership.
Nick Baumann (Mother Jones): OMG! He's not Bush!
Obama's Nine Hard Truths
In Cairo, Obama challenges all parties involved in the clash between the West and the Muslim world.
Michael Crowley:
One year ago today, Barack Obama clinched the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. In doing so, he defied Hillary Clinton's criticism that his candidacy amounted to little more than shallow and flowery speeches. Change, Clinton argued, comes from hard work--not pretty words. Today, in the Grand Hall of Cairo University, Clinton listened from the front row as Obama gave his most elegant speech yet. Perhaps it dawned on Clinton, if it hadn't already, that a great speech can do a lot of the hard work for you.
Charles Krauthammer: OMG! He's not Bush! Grumble... tells' Israel what to do... growl... </bites head off of squirrel> settlements... blame Israel... still mad as hell that Obama won... what's this neocon world coming to? He's undoing everything!
William Galston:
As health care reform enters the phase of serious legislation, it becomes vital to understand what the American people expect and believe ... and how the forthcoming debate is likely to affect their views. Because no one has tracked these matters more carefully and professionally than the Kaiser Family Foundation, I reviewed a number of documents they've published during the past eight months and supplemented their findings with other credible sources. What I found suggests that little happened, during either the campaign or the first four months of the Obama administration, to educate the people about the real choices their elected representatives now face. As the discussion of legislative options becomes more precise, the people will be in for some rude surprises--and advocates of fundamental reform will have a harder time making their case than they now believe.
Paul Krugman:
Health reform will fail without serious cost control, which will require a fundamental change in the way the insurance industry behaves.
Eugene Robinson:
President Obama should be applauded for taking climate change seriously, recognizing that the phenomenon can be traced to the burning of fossil fuels and intensifying the search for viable solutions. In one of its centerpiece initiatives, however, the administration may be digging a very expensive dry hole.