President Obama

It's impossible not to be moved by the events of the day, just as it's impossible not to feel that the swearing in of President Barack Obama is ushering in a new day, a new spirit, for America. So while I should take a little time to reflect, I felt like I had to share a few quick thoughts.

First, I was surprised that Obama's inaugural address was also such a bold statement of American foreign policy. I was struck by the line “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,” and this line that followed in the next paragraph: “Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.” Hearing that my immediate thought was ‘he gets it’, with those few words, Obama showed that he understood America's meaning to the world far better than his predecessor ever did.

The reason that so many people fled the communist states of Eastern Europe the East Germans found it necessary to build a wall to keep them in, the reason their governments so feared foreign books, movies, or even their people talking with Westerners, was never the power of our weapons, but the power of our ideals. They are the reason that America has served as a beacon to the world, especially to those living under oppressive regimes; they more than our bombers, tanks or troops (no matter how well they do their job) we will defeat the threats we face from terrorism and extremism.

And for those who think Pres. Obama will be a pushover, he gave this stern warning: “We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

It was a speech heavy on foreign policy, one that laid out our mission statement to the world for the next four years, it said in no uncertain terms that America is again open for business, or as Obama said “we are ready to lead once more.” And for an early round up of reaction to the inauguration from around the world, check out this post from the BBC, especially the report from the Kenyan village where Obama's father was born that turned out in the middle of the night to see their favorite son become the President of the United States.

One last bit of symbolism sticks with me, the fact that a house built in part with slave labor now has its first African-American resident. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann offered this vignette: in 1961 the New York Yankees moved the site of their spring training camp in Florida because local segregation laws wouldn't let the whole team stay in the same place, 1961 was the year Obama was born. How far we've come.