Analyst: Pres. Obama’s Inauguration Speech Not His Best

Inaugurations with their proud history are usually etched into the memory of those who witness them. But political analyst Morris Beschloss found something missing in President Obama’s address.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect to Obama’s intelligence. His articulation. His ability to relate to the audience. [But] I don’t think this was one of his better speeches. I don’t think it compared with his speech in Denver at the time of the Democratic National Convention. I certainly don’t think it was up to the level of his speech in Grant Park in Chicago.”

Beschloss added, “There was no catch phrase. There were no lines like Roosevelt’s, ‘there is nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Or Kennedy’s oft-quoted line, ‘ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.’ The best and, shall we say, most arousing speaker was Ronald Reagan.”

Beschloss now sees the Republican Party in the “wilderness,” farther from power since the days of Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 defeat of Barry Goldwater.

“I think the only way the Republican Party will gain substantially in 2010 is if somehow Obama does not deliver or if we have a major terrorist attack in this country which we don’t handle properly,” commented Beschloss.