REPLIES TO THE CURRENT QUESTION

Our question last week was:

Wait until later in the week to answer this.  Give your reaction to President Obama's "outreach" speech to the Muslim world, delivered in Egypt.

Here are your answers.  The name of a writer is included only if he or she actually placed a name at the end of the message.  Otherwise, we assume the writer wished anonymity and "name withheld" is inserted.

We received only one reply, probably because we asked readers to wait until the president's Cairo speech to send their thoughts. 

I waited until later in the week, but I could have written my reaction on Monday. In a word, the president's speech was "naive, enervating and ennui causing." The more he says, the more clearly he shows his fundamental lack of understanding of history and human behavior.  Waving his wand and eliminating 2000+ years of history around the world probably drew a few chuckles among those who actually listened to what he said.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.  International diplomacy has been called the "art of the possible" by someone more famous than me; President Obama apparently thinks that it is possible to change international affairs and human behavior with a few words. This hasn't happened yet in world history.  Probably won't happen now.

Final thoughts.  I have quit listening to President Obama speaking because I find it embarrassing to think that so many of my fellow Americans think that he is a great speaker.  He puts me to sleep.  By reading transcripts of his words, at least you can try to follow his thought processes in the subject at hand without nodding off.  

Don Newell
Vancouver, WA