President Obama at NIAF Gala

Comment

Comment by Matteo Daste on November 2, 2011 at 6:25pm

I was sitting three tables from President Obama when he spoke and I truly enjoyed the evening. The President delivered a nice speech to the Italian American community. The overall quality of the speakers was quite good, I was positively impressed by the work done by NIAF.

Comment by Franco Folini on November 1, 2011 at 12:52pm

This a great improvement compared to the Ronald Reagan speech in a similar occasion in the '80. Reagan emphatically mentioned the great Italian hero Gary Bold leaving the entire audience disoriented until they realized he was talking about Garibaldi!

Comment by Matteo Fabiano on November 1, 2011 at 10:17am

Frankly, while they may stroke a collective sense of identity, references to Galileo, Fermi, Columbus and Sofia Loren are pretty cliche. Evidently a celebration gala is not the place and time to address the issues and excellences of contemporary Italy? Or maybe it would be inappropriate in an "Italian-American" context?

Comment by Gabriele Bodda on November 1, 2011 at 9:54am

I wish he had made at least a few references to the present situation of Italy and Italian immigration to the US.  No doubt that's not what that audience expected, and I guess that's fair enough.

 If you're interested in the details of the speech, here is the transcript, from an Italian blog.

Comment by Giorgio Ghersi on October 31, 2011 at 9:07am

...great speech!

Probably applicable to many ethnic groups, nevertheless very useful to explain, for example "back home", "how come" that so many of us are here today, and why we don't feel strangers in a foreign land even when driving by Starbucks or Pizza Hut.

 

(And great, natural speaker: note how he adapts his gesturing to the crowd. He may not have Italian ancestors, but he knows how to please an audience. Also interesting how he forgets Rudy, who might have been the first Italian-American president in 2008, if it wasn't for a more iconic contestant...).