i think we give him a good grade. >> couric: give him a good grade, joseph bottum? >> yeah.is was a very american speech. >> lehrer: very american. >> there was much in this speech that john f. kennedy could have said. there was much in this speech that george bush could have said and, in fact, did say in his second inaugural address. >> lehrer: which george bush? >> we're not in favor of war yet war is here. this is a very american thing to do. in fact, the kind of peak moment for these american tropes appeared in that interesting passage where he said that he rejects the false choice between realism that only looks at self-interest and in idealism that would have us go abroad seeking to impose our values on others. he said no, what i believe in... and then he launched into a laundry list of what everybody in the world conceives of as american values. freedom of religion, freedom of speech, economic freedom for financial development, democracy. these are the things that he was insisting somehow transcend the division between idealism and realism. well, that's a pretty ideal

. >> lehr: joseph bottum, do you agree the president naged a delicate bance? well, he certainlgot both elementshere. it was a lovely eech, it was highinded, it was well crafted. it wastterly incoherent, but i'm not sure that anything cld ve solved the problem that h faced. this is, after all, man accepting a peace prize whe he is at war anrhetoric won't really if i can what lic says is broken. >> lrer: that's the coherence. you thk he just underlined rather than alt with? >> he certaiy strove rhetorically to reach me kind of resolution. e speech had elements of reinhold niebuhr'shristian realm in it, we live in a fallen world. violence is metimes necessary oppose violence. and then at the same time, i had kind of standard old-fashned liberal progressive elemts in it. we're geing better, those barbarians used to go to w, people used to war in thname of g, we see beyond that, wee getting better and better and better. those analyses and those justificatio for talking about war are inherent. they won't really together. and the rhetoricallourish that president obam