Today’s inaugural address was a powerful and hopeful message in a dark time for America and although I am not an ardent believer in Obama’s vision of America, the speech was very well written, beautifully performed, thought provoking, and inspirational.

I’ve been watching and analyzing the similarities and differences between today’s address and the last address in a time of American depression, the end of Carter’s administration. At the time the American economy was in a downward spiral with extremely high inflation, interest rates on home loans above 20%, and Americans recoiling from the gas shortage and crisis that created rationing for the first time in American history outside of wartime. We tend to think today that America’s economy had generally smooth sailing after the recovery from the Great Depression and World War 2, but that was not so. America has always existed in states of boom and bust and the actions of Presidents do not show for 4 to 8 years after they begin their terms for us to see the affects of their policies.

It took six years for Reagan’s administration to pull the economy out of the downturn and into the bull market. It took six years for Bush to get us into a depression. Hopefully it will take less than six for Obama to right the economy again. We can only hope.

Both Obama and Reagan came into office in a period of economic difficulty and have the same challenges of recovering the economy, fighting a large and faceless enemy, and inspiring confidence in the overgrown American government system. It’s a huge and thankless task and it will be very interesting to see what will happen in the future and how Obama will be remembered.

Please watch the two inauguration speeches, that of Reagan in 1981 and that of Obama in 2009 Part 1 and Part 2. Forget what you think you know about these two men and take their messages at face value. Notice the similarities and differences between the speeches of which there are many on both sides. We can’t know what Obama will do, but treat Reagan’s speech as if it were given today. And reflect on these two men, their visions for the American government system, and your own views on what America should do.