Comparing Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama's inaugrual addresses.

I have yet to go into great detail about what I thought about Barry Obama's inauguration speech. My thoughts on his address seems to mirror that of others in the media and the political pundits. It was "boring". It was pretty much a recycling of his other campaign speeches he gave during 2008. Obama made it clear that he thought that government was the end all to cure all solution to fixing the economic mess that us and the world finds itself in. I wasn't foolish to expect Obama to admit that it was government policy that created this crisis to begin with. What I noticed was clearly missing from Obama's speech was any mention of American pride. When I listened to his speech, I didn't feel any of the inspiration as an American as a I did when I was eight years old listening to Ronald Reagan's inaugural speech. The contrasts in style, substance and vision between the two is beyond shocking. I was a student at Dallas F Nicolas Elementary school when Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States. Even to this day I can remember listening to his every word. The lesson I learned from Reagan's inaugural speech was that as an American anything was possible. I learned that I as an individual could accomplish far more then what the government could ever promise or actually deliver. Ronald Reagan made me feel proud to be an American. He thought me that it wasn't the government that empowers people, it was the individual themselves. Barack Obama's speech had none of that. At best it had the complete opposite message. Regan taught me about nationalism or love of one's country before I was even nine years old! Reagan wasn't an inspiration to me because of race, like Obama is to others. Reagan inspired me, because he believed in me and this country just because we were Americans.




Listen to Obama's words and vision.







Now listen to the words and vision of Ronald Wilson Reagan.








Tell me which speech was inspiring and why. Something else I noticed when I watched Reagan's inaugural. When he was sworn in, America was in a deep recession much like we are in right now when Obama was sworn in. Notice that President Reagan actually understood the problem perfectly and commented on the solutions to directly address the ailing economy. Obama didn't do that in his address. All he talked about was about was that people need to trust government. This is clearly a tale of two men. One man was great based on his deeds and vision while the other is presented as as being great simply for being elected base on the color of his skin aka historic.