One year had taken him from a self-professed unifier to a historically divisive president; from the man selected to solve the country's problems to the person often disparaged as their cause. He squinted against the lights and stared hard at the audience for his first State of the Union address, looking a little grayer, a little older than when he assessed the country in the same venue last February. A circus of cameras and power brokers stirred around him, yet he stood alone at a single microphone, quieting the crowd with a series of somber nods.
It had been, Obama told the audience, "one of the most difficult years in the US history" -- and it had been one of his most difficult years, too.
But Obama's most revealing remarks came in a quieter moment, inside a Washington area church on Jan. 17. "I have a confession to make here," he said. "There are times where I'm not so calm. . . . There are times when progress seems too slow. There are times when the words that are spoken about me hurt. There are times when the barbs sting. There are times when it feels like all these efforts are for naught, and change is so painfully slow in coming, and I have to confront my own doubts."
Ten days later, as he concluded the State of the Union, Obama closed not with a confession but with a resolution: "We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment to start anew". He stepped away from the podium, shook more of the same hands, walked back up the same aisle and exited the chamber through the same doors as a year before. But this time it was into year number two.
For more go to: Obama's State of the Union address takes a harder tone - washingtonpost.com
Click on this link for the White House release of the speech
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