What Obama should learn from Kennedy

The desk at the Oval Office last night was supposed to be the launchpad for Obama's renewed commitment to steering our country toward clean energy. By rallying around the terror of the "cloud of black crude" in the gulf, Obama had a country angry and a bit scared about our oily future itching to know what we should do about it.

He failed.

In his 18-minute speech, Barack Obama called for climate change to wean our addiction off fossil fuels, as a third step in ensuring that such an oil disaster would not happen again. He said this from behind a desk, in measured, uninspired tones.

While there are as many contrasts as comparisons, the titanic task of overhauling our entire energy policy is more complex a task than putting a man on the moon. For one, it involves the decentralized work of an entire nation, while a space race requires a group of experts and a handful of rockets, shifting to renewable energy requires all of us to change how we live. Still, in terms of salesmanship, Obama should have taken cues from John F. Kennedy on how to address the undertaking. Let me compare:

Tone:

• JFK used his State of the Union speech to announce the space race. He said this before Congress and he said it before the American people. The scene and setting bespoke inspiration, like a preacher promising damnation should we not enter a space race, but reassuring us that we can save ourselves if we try.
• Obama, instead, sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, a bit like Atticus Finch explaining world news to a child, as if we all didn't know there was a colossal oil leak in the Gulf, and that we needed consoling. You do not inspire behind a desk.
  

Technique:

• JFK established timelines and goals in his speech, which is essential to defining success: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."
  
• Barack Obama did not. He spoke in abstracts and established no goals: "Each of us has a part to play in a new future that will benefit all of us. As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs -– but only if we accelerate that transition. Only if we seize the moment."
• Both, it's interesting to note, did point out that rival countries--the Soviet Union and China--had a head start on their respective causes: the USSR with its "large rocket engines, which gives them many months of lead-time and "countries like China" who are investing in clean energy jobs and industries that should be right here in America." Telling Americans that we're losing will only help if you tell us how to win.
• JFK told us we could fail: we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last.
• Obama did not. He goes so far as to say we're already doing the right thing, thereby telling us that we don't need to change. "...we’ve already taken unprecedented action to jumpstart the clean energy industry. As we speak, old factories are reopening to produce wind turbines, people are going back to work installing energy-efficient windows, and small businesses are making solar panels. Consumers are buying more efficient cars and trucks, and families are making their homes more energy-efficient. Scientists and researchers are discovering clean energy technologies that someday will lead to entire new industries."
  

Writing:

• JFK laid out a clear plan, with clear goals, and then told Congress and the American people that it was their choice. This made us accountable to achieving his goal, and is a smart sales technique. It also left the semantics of political squabbling to Congress, preventing his desire for the space race from being tarnished by political gain. "Let it be clear-and this is a judgment which the Members of the Congress must finally make-let if be clear that I am asking the Congress and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action-a course which will last for many years and carry very heavy costs."
• Barack Obama did not. He invoked the partisan atmosphere of the health-care debate (which left no one really satisfied) and put the burden of choice on him, a president who has no power to create laws because that is Congress' obligation. "So I’m happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party.." If no plan has been made, then no speech should be made. If the choice is not ours, then why do we need to hear it?