WASHINGTON — The pressure’s on for Barack Obama, orator.
History wants something for the ages in his Jan. 20 inaugural speech. Not just pretty words that melt like gumdrops but something that will settle in the nation’s soul and be worth making schoolchildren memorize 100 years from now.
Americans want something for the dispiriting times they live in.
They have their first extraordinary speaker in decades taking the oath of office. They know how good he has been. Time for great. How tall is the order?
“The great task of Barack Obama is to be a John F. Kennedy or to be a Ronald Reagan — truly inspire the American people and in a few succinct, memorable lines, lay out for the country your new vision for America,” said American University political historian Allan Lichtman.
At least that does not call upon Obama to be another Abraham Lincoln, the unsurpassed cosmic communicator whose words and deeds the president-elect often cites, and probably will again from the stage of the Capitol.
Obama can be expected to hit upon all lodestar themes from the canon of inaugural speeches. Some of them are unity, hope, change, continuity, security and God. (Prosperity, another biggie, might have to wait.)
The historic ascension of a black man to the White House begs for eloquent acknowledgment. Students of inaugural speeches expect that in brief. Just seeing Obama take the oath might say more on that subject than his rhetoric could.
One of the memorable characteristics of inaugural addresses is how forgettable most of them are.
Perhaps not since Reagan declared “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem,” has a line with staying power come from an inaugural speech. Even that thought was only satisfying to the ideologically like-minded, but it showed the change Reagan wanted for his country.
“The number of really plodding speeches is almost countless,” said Leo Ribuffo, history professor at George Washington University. “The ones that stand out: maybe eight, nine if you’re a historian, maybe three or four if we just have a vague sense of the past.”
Count Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kennedy, Thomas Jefferson and one or two more as the acknowledged masters.
Jefferson’s first inauguration, in 1801, was the first that marked the transition between rival parties.
“We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists,” he said, reaching to erase bitterness between parties of the day.
We are not just red states or blue states but the United States, Obama says now. The sentiment is certain to be heard in his speech, if dressed in new words. Can Americans truly rally together behind such a call?
“Isn’t it pretty to think so?” Ribuffo said. “The problem is, all presidents want to bring the country together on their own terms.”
Memorable inauguration moments
“We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists.” Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address, March 4, 1801
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, March 4, 1865
“No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression.” Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural address, March 4, 1905
“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, March 4, 1933
“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy, Jan. 20, 1961
“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” Bill Clinton’s first inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1993
Inauguration by the numbers
$40 million Estimated cost of the inaugural parade, balls, opening ceremonies, giant television screens on the National Mall and other expenses for the Presidential Inaugural Committee
58 Law-enforcement and other agencies working on security
2 million Inauguration subway maps the Metro is printing
0 Number of the free 240,000 tickets that have been distributed thus far for the swearing-in ceremony. They go out this week.
600 Hotel rooms left in Washington
13,000 Military and civilian participants in the inaugural parade, including marching bands
120,000 Passengers that Metro trains can carry per hour on Inauguration Day
4,100 Minimum number of portable toilets available to the public
12,000 Eggs that chefs at the Willard InterContinental Hotel will use for meals from Jan. 17 through the inauguration
The Associated Press
