BOSTON – This speech was a tall order to begin with.

And President Obama brought all of his signature skill for oratory to an extraordinary moment in history and successfully presented a new and convincing narrative for the role America needs to play in a rapidly changing Middle East.

But Obama fell short on the details of how he will succeed in carrying out that new vision for an even-handed policy of human rights, economic development and an intensified push for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians along the lines of the 1967 borders.

He singled out Tunisia and Egypt as positive examples of the “moral force of non-violent protest” and he vowed to support their economies as they transition to democracy. Specifically, he offered to relieve $1 billion in debt to Egypt.

But he didn’t even mention Saudi Arabia, the country which most dramatically illustrates the difficult situation the U.S. is in while calling for both democracy and stability. The House of Saud in particular presents the greatest challenge in those competing, some would say conflicting desires.

The well-crafted speech was full of optimism for an American role in leading the region toward change and it carried echoes of presidents Kennedy and Reagan.
“Instead of accepting the world as it is,” said Obama, “we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be.”

More than anything else what Obama wrote was a compelling narrative for understanding the enormity of this moment in history.

He began that narrative with his speech in Cairo two years ago in which he reached out to the Muslim world and with the June 2009 demonstrations in Tehran. He punctuated the story line with a poetic sense of individual rights first expressed by a vendor in Tunisia that led to the toppling of a dictator and kindled a brush fire in Egypt where young people used the tools of social networking on the internet to make it a blazing movement for change. And he gave the narrative a climax of the killing of Osama bin Laden and the way in which his death takes the energy out of an apocalyptic movement that was already losing adherents in recent years.

But most of all, Obama set a distinctly different tone in the U.S. relation with Israel, a more challenging tone in calling on Israel to do more to work toward peace. And he balanced that well with assuring the world that Israel was America’s close ally and friend and that it would stand by to protect its security.

All in all, Obama played to his strengths through the power of words. But in the end of the day he still faces the same challenge that has always been there for his administration. That is to translate those words into action.