Posted on Sun, Jan. 18, 2009

Throughout America's history, when presidential inaugurations have coincided with national crises, the people have looked to their new president for inspiring words of encouragement and hope to usher in better times.

Tuesday will once again be a rare nexus of an inauguration during a time of national insecurity and severe financial distress.

On March 4, 1865, as a catastrophic civil war was coming to a close, President Abraham Lincoln -- uttering indelible words -- addressed a nation weary of war and death: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." Although Lincoln would not live long enough to see the binding of the nation's wounds, his words helped unite a divided nation.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, faced with a severe economic depression and the rise of fascism around the globe, told a nervous nation: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed effort to convert retreat into advance."

President John F. Kennedy presided over a generational change during the height of the Cold War. In 1961, Kennedy urged all Americans to work together during another time of "change" when he proclaimed his famous declaration: "And so my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."

There is no question that Barack Obama has the charisma and oratory skills to encourage a nation beset by war, division, and economic collapse. Obama has an opportunity not only to make history and join the ranks of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy in reassuring a troubled nation but to rally the American people to support his goals.

However, Obama's speech must include encouraging words and specific goals. Vague and lofty rhetoric is not what the American people want to hear after eight long years of being subjected to neoconservative propaganda alien to the American body politic.

Americans who voted for Obama want to hear that their new president will restore the rule of law, that he'll back up his oath to preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution by specifically promising to end the unitary executive, pre-emptive military attacks, torture, kidnapping and warrantless wiretapping.

They want to hear him pledge to restore the image of the United States around the world as a nation that is committed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

These goals, along with a commitment to provide leadership to address global climate change, will make Obama's inaugural address an event that will stir Congress and the American people to action and provide hope for Americans and those around the world who have been mired in misery and despair during the last eight years of the Bush administration.

Leadership, after all, can only be successful when a leader is able to convey his or her thoughts to others in an understandable and convincing manner. Obama excels in the oratory skills and leadership abilities to ensure a memorable inaugural address.

Yet, it is the content of Obama's speech that will matter the most to the unemployed American workers, the uninsured ailing people of America, the dispossessed families of Gaza, the disease- and famine-stricken people of Africa, and the war-ravaged populations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The eloquence of the rhetoric should ensure that everyone listens.

Madsen is a contributing writer to the progressive Online Journal (www.onlinejournal.com).

McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE