Praising America

Another conservative applauds the Speech.  Peter Wehner in the National Review:

What made this speech notable was that the president did not go before a foreign audience and undermine the moral achievements of America, as he has repeatedly done in the past. In fact, he praised the United States for the burden it has borne and the sacrifices it has made on behalf of peace, justice, and stability. Those sentiments wouldn’t be unusual for most presidents to have or express — yet for whatever reasons, Obama has had difficulty giving voice to them. The fact that he did so today, and that Obama’s words must burn in the ears of the Nobel Committee, is a good thing.

President Obama’s Nobel address didn’t add to (or better articulate) what others have said about these matters. But that doesn’t mean Obama’s speech wasn’t impressive. It was, in terms of its ambition, in its willingness to address a morally complicated matter in a serious way, and in the judgments at which Obama finally arrived. He provided -- for the first time, really -- a strong moral justification for his decision to send troops to Afghanistan. Barack Obama is our commander-in-chief. Of all his responsibilities, that is primus inter pares. And it is a responsibility he seems to have fully embraced....