First, he ought to speak from the Oval Office more often. He's exceptional at speaking directly to "me." He was firm, personable and direct.
That said, I was disappointed in the content. I might have set my expectations too high, but on a sheer policy and politics level, he really missed a big historical opportunity here to outline bold new goals considering the events of the last 50 days. Instead, he only made a weak pitch for the Senate to pass the House bill. Invariably, this bill will be neutered and then filibustered vigorously.
"The time to embrace a clean energy future is now," the president said. "For decades," he repeated with emphasis, "we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires." And so this challenge requires the urgent act of... the Senate passing the House bill? I don't get how passing the House bill matches the urgency of these words. And I understand the frustrating realities of the Senate hackery, but I would like to have seen the president swing well beyond the fences here rather than accepting the more realistic bird in the hand.
Boiled down, the specific action items in the speech amounted to:
1. Escrow
2. Pass the House bill
3. Pray
There are currently 75,000,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. And the president used his first Oval Office address, in the middle of this national and environmental emergency, to announce an escrow account, a request for Congress to pass a bill that was written months before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and, you know, let's pray.
Ugh. Maybe I'll calm down in a few hours and reevaluate, but my snap reaction right now is: disappointment.