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 That, it seems to me, was the core message of the president's speech on Libya. America is simply incapable of watching a slaughter take place - anywhere in the world - and not move to do what we can to prevent it. It is against our nature to let evil triumph in such a fashion. The Libyan example was particularly vital because a rare constellation of forces came together to make turning away even harder: European and Arab support for preventing mass murder; UN permission; America's "unique" capabilities; and an imminent massacre in Benghazi. 
 
 Obama the Niebuhrian put the moral in realism. Yes, we could not do this everywhere all the time; but we could do this when we did; and that was good enough. There was some sleight of hand here. Citing the UN Resolution as an external reason for war - when the US lobbied hard for it - was a touch too neat. But essentially Obama was challenging those of us who opposed this decision to ask ourselves: well, what would you do? If the US had insisted on looking away, America would have seemed morally callous, even compared with the French. The mass graves of Benghazi would take their place alongside the horrors of Srebrenica. And the impact on Arab opinion, especially on the younger generation that is so key to the future, would be fatal to America's long term interests. 
 
 I do not know whether the last is actually the case, or whether most young Arabs are understandably focused on the regimes they labor under rather than the murderous nutter in the North African desert. But secretary of state Clinton was in the region at the time and believed otherwise. And, yes, one appreciates that doing nothing represented a choice as well as doing something. And it too would have had unknowable consequences. 
 
 Was I persuaded? Not completely. The major objection - what happens now? - was not answered affirmatively by the president. It was answered negatively: there would be no military effort at regime change, as in Iraq; NATO, not the US, would soon be leading the mission; and, er, it may last a while. It is way too soon to celebrate a new model of international cooperation; but it seems striking to me that the rationale Obama invoked was very much GHW Bush in Kuwait rather than GW Bush in Iraq. That left Saddam in power for more than a decade. And yet Obama spoke as if Qaddafi's days were obviously numbered. I sure hope they are. 
 
 It wasn't Obama's finest oratory; but it was a very careful threading of a very small needle. That requires steady hands and calmer nerves than I possess. But this president emerges once again as a consolidator and adjuster of the past, not a revolutionary force for the future. And one hopes that the notion that he is not a subscriber to American exceptionalism is no longer seriously entertained. 
 
 He clearly believes in that exceptionalism - and now will live with its onerous responsibilities. 
 
 (Photo: Dennis Brack/Pool/Getty.) ||||| I knew pretty early on during tonight’s speech that President Obama had rejoined—or joined—the historical American foreign policy mainstream. It was when he mentioned Charlotte (the city, not the spider): 
 
 At this point, the United States and the world faced a choice. Gaddafi declared that he would show “no mercy” to his own people. He compared them to rats, and threatened to go door to door to inflict punishment. In the past, we had seen him hang civilians in the streets, and kill over a thousand people in a single day. Now, we saw regime forces on the outskirts of the city. We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi – a city nearly the size of Charlotte – could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world. 
 
 When American presidents want to justify foreign interventions, and are worried the American people aren’t quite with them, they often reach for a strained analogy or comparison that will bring the situation abroad home to their fellow Americans watching on the tube. Obama’s awkward interjection explaining that Benghazi is “a city nearly the size of Charlotte” is a classic of the genre. As Obama said it, I recalled Reagan explaining Nicaragua was as near to Texas as Texas to Washington, D.C., or some such thing, and similar clunky and earnest attempts at homespun appeals by George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. I found this reassuring. 
 
 As I found the rest of the speech. The president was unapologetic, freedom-agenda-embracing, and didn’t shrink from defending the use of force or from appealing to American values and interests. Furthermore, the president seems to understand we have to win in Libya. I think we will. ||||| Halperin’s Take: Six reasons why Obama’s Libya address was strong (even if it was a bit repetitive and didn’t address every future contingency): 
 
 1. He believed every word of it. Presidents always give better speeches when they help write their remarks and strike out any sentences that don’t match what is in their hearts. Go through Obama’s text, and you won’t find a single line that fails to reflect his views. 
 
 2. George W. Bush could have delivered every sentence. This doesn’t mean that Bush was an unambiguous success as a national security president–far from it. But Obama’s vision of how to engage the democracy moment in northern Africa and the Middle East is in the strong bipartisan tradition and current centrist positions of American foreign policy. 
 
 3. It explained how America must balance its interests, values, and military capacity. Obama exploded the false choice between those who say America should never intervene when the nation is not directly threatened and those who insist intervention in Libya leads logically to intervention in Syria, in further regional hotspots, and in areas of human oppression across the globe. With passion and meticulous detail, Obama justified why use of force was the right move for America in Libya, but not (for now) in other places. 
 
 4. He emphasized both unilateral action and coalition building. The right has accused Obama of being too beholden to international coalitions, and the nation is split between those who don’t want the US to ever subordinate its military to another country and those who think America shouldn’t act like an outlaw cowboy. In his speech, the president reaffirmed his work with partners around the world, but he also trumpeted the actions he has taken independently during the Libya crisis. 
 
 5. He looked the part. In delivery and tone, this was one of Obama’s best moments as commander-in-chief since he took office. He was calm yet forceful, verbally elegant yet conversational, and above all, tough. 
 
 6. He boxed in Republican detractors. GOPers who want to score political points on the president’s policy will have to work harder. Obama’s actions are still, of course, subject to criticism and analysis, but his case was so thorough and well reasoned he left little room for the kind of glib cheap shots that have passed for critique up until now. ||||| I’ll have more in tomorrow’s Morning Jolt, but I feel tonight a lot like the night of Obama’s speech announcing the Afghanistan surge to West Point. On paper, I agree with a lot of what Obama is saying. But he’s stringing together a lot of pretty-sounding phrases without really getting at the questions most skeptical Americans have: why intervene here and not in other places? Obama’s caught himself between his comments that clearly suggested regime change (Qaddafi must step down) and a strict adherence to a U.N. mandate that doesn’t include regime change. What is our goal? What do we do when America’s national interest and a United Nations rule conflict? And why are we worrying about what the U.N. says, anyway? Obama seems to be indicating we say publicly that we’re not pursuing regime change militarily but pursue it through non-military means, which seems like a fine (and perhaps odd) line. (If you’re trying to knock a brutal terror-sponsoring dictator out of power, knock him out of power! Don’t do it halfway!) Finally, what have we signed ourselves on to? Can we trust the Libyan rebels? What are we trying to replace Qaddafi with? 
 
 In the end, Obama’s speech amounted to, “Look, I realize none of you understand my decision making, but at the end of the day, you can rest easy knowing I’m right.” 
 
 He thinks he’s reassuring us.
– Last night, President Obama delivered the Libya speech that some have long been calling for. How did the world take it? A sampling of reactions: Jim Geraghty wasn't impressed with the way Obama's "pretty-sounding phrases" were strung together "without really getting at the questions most skeptical Americans have: why intervene here and not in other places?" Ultimately, he writes in the National Review, "Obama’s speech amounted to, 'Look, I realize none of you understand my decision making, but at the end of the day, you can rest easy knowing I’m right.'" Yes, Obama used some "sleight of hand," like "citing the UN Resolution as an external reason for war—when the US lobbied hard for it," writes Andrew Sullivan in the Atlantic. "But essentially Obama was challenging those of us who opposed this decision to ask ourselves: Well, what would you do?" Even so, Sullivan wasn't completely persuaded: "The major objection—what happens now?—was not answered affirmatively by the president." OK, so the address "didn't address every future contingency," Mark Halperin admits. But, writing in Time, he offers six reasons the speech was still "strong," including Obama "believed every word of it" and "George W. Bush could have delivered every sentence." The latter, of course, meaning that "Obama’s vision of how to engage the democracy moment in northern Africa and the Middle East is in the strong bipartisan tradition and current centrist positions of American foreign policy." William Kristol was reassured by the speech: "The president was unapologetic, freedom-agenda-embracing, and didn’t shrink from defending the use of force or from appealing to American values and interests," he writes in the Weekly Standard. "Furthermore, the president seems to understand we have to win in Libya. I think we will."