He’s going to share some “unfiltered thoughts” as though this is something he wrote in response to Obama’s speech when in fact it is a well-researched piece that was in development for at least a few days in advance (I doubt all that Napoleonic historical detail right down to the Arab linguists just casually spun out of his head).

And that really gets at the shortcoming of this speech for me: You could have written your response to it a few days in advance. I’m with Thabet on this: zero substance.

I hope that the speech as a symbol of respect to Muslims is successful as such throughout the ‘Muslim world.’ I hope this is dramatic ‘public diplomacy’ on the part of Obama that works. I hope Ali is right that Obama’s direct populist engagement is empowering to the workers and the students and everyone else. Other than my interest in these responses in others, I’ve felt little personal engagement with this event. I’m glad others here at TI have been interested enough to post about this.