As Obama Speaks, Echoes of the Bush Freedom Agenda

Helle Dale / May 19, 2011

President Obama was true to his advance publicity today as he addressed an audience at the U.S. State Department. The almost hour-long speech had been built up, in classic Obama Administration style, through interviews, social media, tweets, and advance releases as post–Osama bin Laden outreach to the peoples of the Arab world and Middle East. The speech was intended to capture the hope and change of the Arab Spring.

The speech was perfectly timed with prime time in the Middle East and Europe—its target audiences—and once again the Obama publicity machine delivered a fine product. The President spoke movingly of the desperate conditions that brought a young Tunisian fruit vendor to immolate himself in December, igniting protests throughout the Middle East against repressive, corrupt, and autocratic regimes. At a time when new technologies make interaction with the world so much more feasible, from cell phones to satellite TV to Internet and social media, young Arabs are no longer willing to endure a future without hope. The President also correctly pointed out that the peaceful protests have achieved regime change in two countries (with potentially more to come), something that 10 years of violent extremism has never even come close to. (more…)