Friends, did you listen to Obama’s impressive speech in Cairo? It was a bottler! It is so great to have a U.S. President again that has a brain. It’s even better when his brain is also connected to his tongue.

I have to say that though I have wavered from time to time regarding my opinion of Obama, currently I have positive thoughts about him. Of course, after George W., even a damaged store dummy would’ve looked good.

Obama admitted that America has made mistakes which must be the understatement of the millennium. He also had positive words to say about Islam. While I have no time for any institutional religion, it is nice to see that the usual hate-speak between competing religions was toned down and there was praise for the many fine achievements of the Muslim world throughout history.

Obama quoted from the Koran as well as the Bible. He even made criticisms of Israel, something that the U.S. has studiously avoided over decades. He talked about a Palestinian State which drew applause. He talked about new beginnings, of trying for cooperation rather than competition, of not wanting military bases in Afghanistan, of not trying to create an American Empire. He talked…

Of course, a speech is just that: a tirade of words.

Talk is cheap. Talk is nothing without action. That’s why the image above is an interesting one. It shows in the background one of the most foolish and stupid leaders the world has ever seen. And it shows his successor as a mask.

As time goes by the mask will solidify into a person, one who, like Bush, will be judged by what he achieves (or doesn’t)  rather than what he says. And what Obama achieves will in large part by determined by many powerful forces which operate behind the political front. There are religious forces, capitalist forces, nationalist forces, imperial forces, militarist forces, world forces…the list is long!

Obama can certainly talk the talk. But can he walk the walk? I feel that what happens with the Palestinians in the next six months will be the pivotal issue that indicates whether, eventually, Obama will be hailed as one of the world’s great leaders or be seen as just another American phoney, a stooge, a puppet, a snake oil salesman.

The world holds its breath! So do the Palestinians who’ve been waiting for justice and freedom for sixty years.

P.S. These post-speech words are apt: “The Islamic world does not need moral or political sermons. It needs a fundamental change in American policy,” said MP Hassan Fadlallah of Lebanon’s Hezbollah. I’ll drink to that!