More speech stuff -- Obama's Oratory

After reading a couple commentaries on Obama's speech that more or less dismissed it as more of the same -- too "Democrat," "could have been given by Kerry or Gore" -- I went back and re-read the speech. Here are some of my favorite parts, followed by analysis:

America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose -- our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.

I agree that "common purpose" isn't something most people talk about these days when it comes to politics. We're mostly too jaded for that. But I believe that Obama can bring about a new sense of common purpose if he can rally people around more than just the economy.

I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.

But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.

This is one part that Kerry and Gore could not have said. Kerry and Gore were Washington insiders. Obama's "pedigree" is decidedly different than theirs. But beyond that, Obama has also pushed to make the campaign embrace ordinary people. I think he needs to do more of that.

This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit that American promise that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.

I like this contrast. We are wealthy, strong, and culturally rich not just because of the economy, the military, or the marketing of our culture, but because of the "unseen" nature of the American promise.

"We cannot walk alone," the preacher [Martin Luther King] cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."

America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise that American promise and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

This was an effective use of a lesser-known part of Martin Luther King's speech. Some may take issue with Obama's appropriation of scripture for his own uses, but it was okay by me.

In looking this over, I noticed that my favorite parts were mostly from the end of the speech, which seemed to gain momentum as it went on. Also, I don't know how much Obama's policy proposals were the telling moments. The telling moments came in his departure from political speech into more traditional rhetoric.