Muhammad Ali once claimed he had written the shortest poem in the English language: “Me We”. This was President Obama’s “I We” speech.
The speech was brilliantly structured around “I” and “We”.
Obama began by retelling the story of 9/11: very simple language. Throughout this section he talks of “we”, the American people, “united in our hour of grief” .
The six key sentences at the heart of this front section all begin with “we”:
“We re-affirmed our ties to one another”…. “we were also united in our resolve to protect our nation”…. “we went to war against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies”
He goes on to say that over the last ten years since 9/11:
“we’ve made great strides”… “We’ve disrupted terrorist attacks” “we removed the Taliban government”
Then he sets up the problem; the problem that America has been living with since 9/11: “Yet Osama bin Laden avoided capture…”.
You can almost feel the pause, the intake of breath from Obama, as he dwells on that festering problem. And then, the opening phrase of the next paragragh:
“And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority…”
In one paragraph break Obama launches himself centre scene and into the next Presidency. The “I” takes over – just as we expect from our leaders.
“I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden”
“I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action”
“Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation.”
Well, as we know the troops did their job: “they killed Osama Bin Laden”.
Now Obama returns to “we”. This is crucial. He has set up the shared problem, he solved it, and now he must re-involve his audience.
“Yet his death does not mark the end of our effort”
“The American people did not choose this fight”
“We will never tolerate our security being threatened”
“We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation”
And finally
“Tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to…. one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”
It was masterful. For control, for brevity. But above all for demonstrating how to use the very structure of a speech to deliver the message.
This was truly Obama’s Bin Laden Moment: “I We”.
