Tonight's Speech

In tonight's address to a joint session of Congress, Barack Obama will not underplay the seriousness of our economic plight, but will emphasize that we can and will survive and prosper. The White House has released this excerpt from tonight's speech:

But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.
The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.

It sounds as though Obama is giving voice to his inner FDR. It helps that Obama will go before Congess with strong favorability numbers in the polls, as in these results released by the Washington Post and the New York Times.