Shields and Brooks: Will Obama's Oil Disaster Speech Change Minds?

OIL SPILL -- June 15, 2010 at 9:50 PM EDT

Shields and Brooks: Will Obama's Oil Disaster Speech Change Minds?

After President Obama's Oval Office address on the ongoing Gulf disaster, columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks joined Judy Woodruff to review the substance of the primetime speech.

"I thought the windup was stronger than the pitch," Shields said. "I'm just not sure beyond the president's energy plan, which is before Congress, what he's asking of us other than to be aware, be committed, understand what people [along the Gulf Coast] are going through down there."

Brooks said the president appeared "confident, clear, crisp." His "delivery and presence were quite strong; it's just the content that I found a little lacking."

Brooks said he had hoped the president would share more details about the government's plans to remedy the effects of the spill, saying he didn't think it was forceful or effective enough to change Americans' minds or sell any skeptics on his energy bill. Watch their full discussion:

The PBS NewsHour welcomes your original comments. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its Web site or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or e-mails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.