CQ: In Cairo, Obama Knocks it Out of the Park - "There's nothing like an Obama speech high. " [View All]

In Cairo, Obama Knocks it Out of the Park

By Craig Crawford | June 4, 2009 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There's nothing like an Obama speech high. Thankfully, I was up early this morning to hear the live broadcast of our President's 6:10 AM ET address to the Muslim world in Cairo. It was a moment that made good on the promise of this man to begin the process of transforming relations and undermining terrorists.

"You have the ability to reimagine the world," Obama to young Muslims at Cairo University.

For the first time since Jimmy Carter's Camp David accords we have a president with the skills, understanding and commitment to make a real difference in a region that has bedeviled the world for generations. Carter's 1978 brokering of a deal between Egypt and Israel to recognize each other and pursue peace still stands as the only lasting agreement of its kind since those days.

Obama's phenomenal speech gracefully shifted from historical tensions to current conflicts between Muslim nations and the western world. Without taking sides he was not shy about noting the wrongdoing of extremists on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for instance.

Perhaps his most controversial words at home will turn out to be calling Afghanistan a war of necessity, while labeling Iraq a "war of choice." Although Obama has said such things before, his political foes will probably seize upon his decision to say it on foreign soil.

But acknowledging that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake -- or at least seeming to say so -- will probably do more to impress the Muslim world than just about anything else in this great speech.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/06/in-cairo-obama-knocks-it-out-o.html