I've thought all along that Barack Obama's oratorical skills were important, and his speech to Congress last night reinforced that.

Certainly we don't want a president who is all charisma and no substance, but there's plenty of substance in Obama. And in this economy, with these challenges, Americans will have to sacrifice. To get us to do that, and to move us past the panic we seem to be in, we need a strong leader. We need someone who can counter the ads and the arguments that his opponents will throw at him.

Last night, Obama looked like someone who has that leadership.

The stimulus bill isn't perfect. But it's a strong step in the right direction. And it is a wonderment indeed to see Republicans - who, when they controlled the federal government, ramped up the deficit, took us into an ill-conceived and wretchedly planned war, and pushed for some of the deregulations that got us into our financial crisis - continue to call for more, more, more of the same.

To watch Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell last night was to see the epitome of what Republicans have become: purse-lipped and sour.

The speech itself, I think, was one of Obama's best.

There were lofty goals: Saving or creating 3.5 million jobs within two years, more than 90 percent in the private sector; doubling our supply of renewable energy within three years; dramatically improving education and reforming the health-care system.

The talk wasn't solely about the economy and the stimulus bill. Obama insisted again that the US will not torture prisoners. He said that he will involve "friends and allies" in dealing with the challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that he will "strengthen old alliances" and "forge new ones." He promised to give veterans "the expanded health care that they deserve."

But the bulk of the speech dealt with the economy, and he included a take-our-medicine insistence that we all have to change our ways:

"We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy," Obama said, "yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all of these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before."

"In other words," he said, "we have lived through an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election."

And then there was the inspiration:

"The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and our universities, in our fields and our factories, in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth.

"Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more."

In his peculiarly limp taped response for the Republican Party, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal stuck to the line that the Republican Party has been repeating for years: The answer to the country's problems is tax cuts.

Jindal called the stimulus plan - which only three Republicans supported - irresponsible. "Who amongst us," he asked, "would ask our children for a loan so we could spend money we do not have on things we do not need?"

That, of course, is the crux of the argument. And it's the crux of the difference between the two major parties at this point.

Obama agreed that the new stimulus plan "will require significant resources from the federal government and, yes, probably more than we've already set aside."

But, he said, "while the cost of action will be great, I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade."

"I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves," he said, "that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity, for history tells a different story."

"History reminds us" he said, "that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas. In the midst of civil war, we laid railroad tracks from one coast to another that spurred commerce and industry. From the turmoil of the Industrial Revolution came a system of public high schools that prepared our citizens for a new age. In the wake of war and depression, the GI Bill sent a generation to college and created the largest middle class in history. And a twilight struggle for freedom led to a nation of highways, an American on the moon, and an explosion of technology that still shapes our world."

"In each case," he said, "government didn't supplant private enterprise; it catalyzed private enterprise. It created the conditions for thousands of entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and to thrive. We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again."

We won't know any time soon whether Obama's approach is the right one. But surely the examples Obama cited near the end of his talk - the GI bill, the explosion of technology - are more on target than Republicans' tired rhetoric. And as they sat seemingly glued to their seats, the Republicans in Congress seemed out of touch, as well as out of ideas and hope.