Obama spoke from the heart—albeit somewhat constrained by the political realities at home and elsewhere, and albeit very aware that no matter what he said, he was going to be crucified (perhaps a bad choice of words) by the ususal suspects.

Good thing that the ususal suspects are beginning to get less, and less, and less traction.

Instead, I heard a direct appeal to the mothers and fathers; the students; the bakers; the ordinary everyday people who, just like all of us, are simply trying to get through this life peacefully. “

I said this same sort of thing, much more poorly, in a comment on another post below, so therefore you must be correct.

Yeah, this was not a “leaders, you must change” speech nor a “look Americans at my foreign policy” speech, but a speech directed to finding some commonality with people on the street. It's a long row to hoe, but might as well start today.