Two raging viruses among Biden's biggest challenges
A dim prospect of national unity does not doom progress on ending America's uncivil war, as Joe Biden outlined in a speech full of allusions to Abraham Lincoln.
The high watermark of inauguration speeches is Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, delivered in 1865 to an exhausted Union, with the end of the Civil War just a month away. Its spare 700 words are inscribed in the Lincoln Memorial at the western end of the National Mall.
Lincoln concluded his speech with the aspiration to “to bind up the nation’s wounds”. Biden reached for the same sentiment – and aspired to Lincoln’s eloquence – in his first speech as President to a crisis-weary nation.
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Simon Jackman is chief executive of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Connect with Simon on Twitter.
