Obama After Cairo

Background and analysis by CBS News State Department reporter Charles Wolfson.

The speech delivered Thursday to an audience at Cairo University covered a lot of ground, was intended to reach many audiences, and is subject to all manner of interpretation.

In the first instance the speech was a continuation of Mr. Obama's promise to reach out to Arabs and the Islamic world, repeating a line he has used before, that "America is not - and never will be - at war with Islam." Less than five months in office he has already done that on a number of occasions, either in speeches or in policy moves, such as appointing former Sen. George Mitchell as Special Envoy for Middle East peace negotiations at the beginning of his term in office, or indicating his administration would join directly in nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

These and other steps enumerated in the Cairo speech drew the point more sharply - as if that were still necessary - that the Bush administration has left Washington.

The President called on Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world each to take steps to advance a two-state solution. Even before arriving in Cairo, he held talks with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah whose support he needs to move forward. The message to Hamas was muted, acknowledging it has "support among some Palestinians, but they also have to recognize they have responsibilities." If this administration is to have more success than its predecessor, it will have to find a way to deal with Hamas, which - because it is labeled a terrorist organization - Washington has so far refused to deal with.

To the new Israeli government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Mr. Obama re-stated his administration's view that Israel's continued settlement activity is a key obstacle on the way to making progress in peace negotiations. "It is time for these settlements to stop," he said in words which were received far better by Palestinians and Arab capitals than by the Israeli prime minister and his hawkish constituency.

The speech also addressed ongoing American military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, tensions with Iran, and other issues - democracy, women's rights and religious freedom - over which Washington has often found itself at odds with those who rule the region.

Only when the subject of economic development and opportunity in the region was broached were any specific programs referred to. "We will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries," was one of the few initiatives announced by Mr. Obama.

Evaluating the Cairo speech, Aaron David Miller, author of "The Much Too Promised Land" (Bantam Books) and a former member of the State Department's Middle East negotiating teams, said, "The speech was a window into how Mr. Obama sees the region, not what he's going to do about it."

America's new leader is widely acknowledged as being able to give a good speech, but there is a big difference between laying down rhetorical markers and persuading others to reach political solutions. That is where the rubber meets the road. Perhaps a year from now we'll know better how the speech was really received.