President-elect Barack Obama today delivers an inaugural address freighted with the multiple burdens of rising to the historic moment, delivering on the expectations of millions, and recognizing a wealth of sobering precedent.
“Every time you read that second inaugural, you start getting intimidated, especially because it’s really short,” Obama said recently of Lincoln’s “malice toward none” 1865 inaugural speech at the end of the Civil War.
Always a careful student of history, Obama has an abundance of source material to draw from. The 43 American presidents before him have waxed eloquent, humble, cautionary and inspirational in the traditional address.
There also have been a number of duds.
“You know, there’s a genius to Lincoln that is not going to be matched,” Obama said. “People then point to Kennedy’s inauguration speech.”
He added: “Some of the others are not as inspiring.”
The inaugural address often sets a tone for the presidency. It is not a policy speech, but a statement of values and principles, sometimes combined with a call to face hard times or challenges, but always with a reminder of what makes America great.
There is no constitutional requirement for a newly sworn president to deliver a speech. But presidents historically have found the tradition irresistible, since George Washington in 1789 first kissed a Bible and swore to uphold his duties, adding, “So help me God.”
Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy along with slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. provide Obama the most frequent touchstones for historical references in his speeches.
But some past inaugural addresses contain wisdom that is still true today. Amid the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 announced the New Deal — which echoes through Obama’s economic stimulus plan — and said, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
“A host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment,” Roosevelt said.
President Reagan delivered his first inaugural speech amid an lingering economic crisis at home and simmering conflict abroad, with Iran.
His 1981 address referenced problems in the credit markets and unemployment, which still sound relevant today, plus a warning — much like Obama’s lately — that economic woes would take time to fix.
“The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away,” Reagan said.
Kennedy, like Obama a young, modern president who ushered in an era of change and hope, said in his inaugural speech that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”
Among the least-admired inaugural speeches, Ulysses S. Grant in 1869 delivered a bland address, declaring the presidency “has come to me unsought.”
Most notoriously, William Henry Harrison in 1841 spoke for a record-making hour and 45 minutes, in a snowstorm. He died a month later of pneumonia.
