La publicación aquí del artículo de Simon Schama, a quien admiro como ensayista, pero cuyas simpatías políticas me parecen más propias de un true believer que de una mente lúcida, pretende ser un guiño de desagravio para todos los colaboradores y lectores de este blog que votaron por Barack Obama para presidente de los EE UU, y a los que pudo resultarles demasiado parcial mi crónica de la toma de posesión. Ahí tienen otra visión, inteligente, bien escrita y permeada por el sentimiento de esperanza que Schama comparte con tantos norteamericanos.

PD: Un buen comentario de Ichikawa a propósito del nuevo “discurso de la austeridad”.

PD2: En The Plank, el blog de The New Republic, hay polémica sobre el discurso. Y un análisis de John B. Judis que suscribo casi punto por punto:

The speech was unusually abstract. It lacked any reference to people or situations in the present. Obama was most vivid in describing moments long past–such as George Washington crossing the Delaware. Of course, an abstract speech can have its use if it is the service of compelling argument. But the concepts, and the argument on which the speech hung, were neither original nor compelling.
Part of the problem was that much of the argument was implied; and what was implied did not ring true. Premise: America’s success in the past was based on people who “struggled and sacrificed and worked.” Conclusion: What we need now is a “new era of responsibility.” What is missing is a middle term, and what is implied is that the reason we are in trouble now is because the present generation has acted irresponsibly. Is that really at the heart of America’s difficulties at home or in the world? It has the ring of Biblical prophecy, but not of truth.