ANALYSIS: Using New Language, President Shows Understanding for Both Sides in Middle East, By Glenn Kessler and Jacqueline L. Salmon, Washington Post, June 5, 2009

Having heard it both live and in clips, I thought it was an excellent speech. Obama has such a clean and clear style of speaking at such moments--very accessible. A lot of the lines were bits you could feel yourself saying on the same subjects. Suffice it to say the man has good speechwriters and knows how to deliver.

I find a lot of the nitpicking analysis on the speech to be silly--it was a speech and not some full-blown doctrine!

As outreach, it was crisp and very open in tone--exactly what it should be. There was no point in announcing policy shifts at a moment like that and it's just not his style.

So I give it a thumbs up and say it accomplished what it was supposed to: make a connection to ordinary people looking for reasons not to indulge in or support violent extremism or religious hatred.