Why Obama Didn't Channel Churchill

George Packer called Obama's speech the "least rousing, most skeptical call to arms I’ve ever heard." Frum explains the tone:

If President Obama’s speech can mobilize the public to endurance and patience, it will count as a success, even without stirring clips to replay before the endlessly fluttering electronic flags over the shoulders of the cable pundits. Who would understand that better than the actual Winston Churchill, who devoted much of his last prime ministership to the successful quelling of an insurgency in Malaya – without delivering a single memorable speech?