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Article: The Cairo Speech
- Article from:
- Intelligencer Journal Lancaster, PA
- Article date:
- June 8, 2009
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Intelligencer Journal Lancaster, PA. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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A close reading of President Obama's speech Thursday to the
Muslim world from Cairo shows he chose his words with a watchmaker's
precision.
The speech itself will make no difference, as Obama acknowledged.
Only changed realities will do that. But the speech will be parsed
and hackled, both here and in the Middle East.
Obama uses his middle name to wicked effect; castigating as
bigots those domestic opponents who lean on it, while at the same
time flourishing it as a talisman. He used it again in Cairo.
He also argued with his audience by using an example no other
president has quite been able to wield with such force: The Civil
Rights Movement as an alternative to violence.
But much of his ...