Here are some sites which provide analysis of President Obama's inaugural address. Was it a classic to compare with Lincoln, Roosevelt or Kennedy's speeches? History will tell.
• BBC News—"businesslike and sombre"
• TimesOnline—"inspirational"
• guardian.co.uk—"mildly underwhelming"
• New York Times—"some good lines, some not that good"
• TimesOnline—"it wasn’t up to Lincoln’s standards"
• Reuters—"Obama speech heralds break with Bush era"
• The Economist—"a sober speech"
The most detailed analysis of Obama's speech can be found at TimesOnline, which has a pdf in which the actual text is "translated" into what it really means by 2 experts.
Note: You can listen to an audio version or download an mp3 of the inaugural address on guardian.co.uk. The audio would be useful for intensive listening practice in the multimedia lab, for example. You can use the transcript to create exercises.
