Careful in Cairo
by Graham Davies

Obama's performance in Cairo was largely an exercise in academic speechmaking. He was using the words and tone of a Thinker, not a Warrior.

It was a carefully calculated construction. He had clearly taken advice from a variety of sources to make sure that his religious references were entirely accurate. And his use of quotes from the Koran was very clever indeed. Imagine the horror if George W Bush had ever tried this!

He apologised for some past American mistakes and was careful to say how important is the role of Islam in his own country. He struck a note of thoughtful, but firm reconciliation which could never have been within reach of his predecessor. It was a solid, if somewhat bland, performance.

But the speech did not have a strong, compelling and memorable Micro-Message. There was nothing strikingly new that would inspire the Muslim world to bury the past and move on to the future.

Perhaps this is a blessing. This was not the time for simplistic slogans ("Yes We Khan!!?"). This was never likely to be a speech that changed the world. But perhaps it has opened the door for a a change of attitude.