Most of the conservative reaction to Obama’s speech seems to be the usual robotic stuff — moral equivalence! shameful! naive! — but props to Rich Lowry for his reasonably measured response:
I have to go back and read it carefully, so I reserve the right to extend and revise my remarks. But on the whole I thought it was pretty good and I basically agree with Max Boot’s take here. Yes, there were many things about which to cavil, there were missed opportunities, and he betrayed the disturbing weakness of his policy in certain key areas, Iran foremost among them. But the speech was an act of diplomacy and as such, it inevitably was going to skate over some inconvenient truths and tilt its presentation in a way to try to make it more persuasive to its target audience. Fundamentally, Obama’s goal was to tell the Muslim world, “We respect and value you, your religion and your civilization, and only ask that you don’t hate us and murder us in return.” Bush tried to deliver the same message over and over again. The difference with Obama is that people might actually be willing to listen.
I guess the question is whether he sticks to his guns here, or whether the wingosphere reeducation squads eventually force him to “extend and revise” his remarks and admit that the speech was, in fact, a betrayal of everything good and decent. Stay tuned!
