Word: understood
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...President announced another clean break with the Bush Administration, on foreign policy. Summoning the wisdom of "earlier generations," he said, "They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please." Take that, Dick Cheney - who exited the scene in a wheelchair, looking grim, as if he were about to foreclose on someone. Obama piled on several foreign policy zingers when he denounced the "false ... choice between our safety and our ideals" - a reference to Bush's harsh treatment of prisoners - and in his message to the world: "We are ready...
...That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood," he said, and yet he reminded us how deep it was, not only with war and loss and economic decline, but with doubt and dread and a "nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable and that the next generation must lower its sights...
...That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet...
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint...
...will be months and probably years before the full scope of Cheney's power - where it started and stopped - will be fully understood. Many Bush critics have traced the biggest failures of the Bush presidency - like the obsession with weapons of mass destruction as a reason to invade Iraq - to the office of the Vice President. But Cheney leaves Washington as the most powerful Vice President in decades, perhaps ever...