David Brooks article on the Cairo speach. Interesting:

[mucifer]

The Chicago View


By DAVID BROOKS
Published: June 5, 2009

All smart analyses of the Obama administration begin with Chicago. That’s where the top members of the administration were tested and formed. The Chicago mentality is the one they take with them wherever they go.

That means they start with an awareness of diversity. The nation and the world are a bunch of jostling wards that have to be knit together.

That means they are not doctrinaire. Chicagoans like to see themselves as pragmatists, not ideologues.

That means they contain both sides of The Great Tension. In Chicago, there is a tension between the lakefront and the neighborhoods inland. The lakefront tends to be idealistic, earnest and liberal. The neighborhoods are clever, cautious and Machiavellian. In all great endeavors, the Obama administration weaves together both of these tendencies.

President Obama’s Cairo speech characteristically blended idealism with cunning. At one level, the speech was an inspiring effort to create a new dialogue in the Middle East.

Obama came to a region in which the different groups have their own narratives and are accustomed to shouting past one another. Obama, as is his custom, positioned himself above the fray and tried to create a new narrative that all sides could relate to.

In the Obama narrative, each side has been equally victimized by history, each side has legitimate grievances and each side has duties to perform. To construct this new Middle East narrative, Obama strung together some hard truths, historical distortions, eloquent appeals and strained moral equivalencies. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/opinion/05brooks.html


I don't agree with everything Brooks said in his article, especially about Obama needing to pressure more for nations to become democratic (like that works). But, I do appreciate his ability to analyze Chicago and not as a dirty word.

[babylonsister]

1. And he goes for the slam in the last para. Typical Brooks. nt

[mucifer]

2. It wasn't much of a slam. I thought anyway.

[JI7]

3. it was and typical of Brooks' style