"Ironically, this quintessentially American -- and yes, conservative -- notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons," Obama said in the first of two speeches about the preacher and his impact on the campaign. He called it an appeal to "the better angels of our nature," but it was the devil in the details that bit back.
Political debate in the age of the Internet has been dumbed-down into a swamp of ignorance, and Obama, like Lincoln, draws on poetic cadence to deliver a message of hope in troubled times. Pretty words can camouflage a multitude of cynicism, but we can hope that they heal our divisions: "As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours: 'We are not enemies but friends. ... Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.'"
John McCain sounded a contrapuntal theme in his concession speech, calling for "the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world." He recalled that it was only a century ago that Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House to the outrage of many Americans (and by no means all of them in the South).
"America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time," he said. "There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States."
It seems fitting that the inauguration celebration takes its theme from the Gettysburg Address, with ringing words particularly precious in the age of terrorism: "that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."