Aforequoted (blogs can invent words afterhours) friend e-mailed this around 8:20:

I think I’m also just so fatigued with his endless lectures. Am I alone? So far, he’s not inspiring anybody with this grim intellectualizing. Do you want to rally around this reluctant call to arms. Do you hear trumpets blowing as he holds our flag aloft into victorious battle. How about some optimism? How about calling us to a higher purpose? If he’s trying to convey the opposite of Bush’s clarity, he’s succeeding.
And now the Vietnam comparisons. Why bring up Vietnam? Doesn’t he know to avoid the famous verbal blunder taught by every PR coach in the business? Nixon’s “I am not a crook!”
I hope this is the last major address we have to hear from this guy.
What a depressing 20 minutes. And now we get to hear how we’ve made mistakes again, but have managed to redeem ourselves because we don’t seek world domination.

I’m struck by how hard it is to not feel burdened by an Obama speech. He’s burdened. We should give him credit because he has a tough job, constantly weighing on him. We’ve done a lot wrong in the past. And things are not good. Thank Bush. We have a lot of work thanks to him.