If the medium were the message, the contrasts could not have been more stark. The American president was polished and poised, his speech broadcast from the elegant surroundings of an ancient Arab university, watched worldwide. Osama bin Laden’s was on an audiotape, crackling and hard to hear, broadcast on Al Jazeera. “Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri have been reduced to a static voice on the radio, a static voice on TV and a static image and message,” Gerges says. “The message no longer resonates with Muslims the way it did in the late 90s and after 2001.”

“We have to put this in a little bit of perspective,” says Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor who runs an annual poll of Arab public opinion. “Bin Laden still has some support, his intense admirers, but the real difference is that the rest of the Muslim world was embracing him out of anger toward America, and now they’re not.” The anger toward America remains, but most people have rejected Al Qaeda as well, Telhami says.

Obama’s speech referenced the future, quoted from the three major monotheistic religions and talked about a new beginning, all delivered with his customary calm. The two voices of Al Qaeda were strident, almost violently so, in their discourse.

Zawahiri taunted Obama, according to a transcript of his audio message distributed by SITE, which monitors and translates jihadi Web sites. “America has put on a new face but its heart is full of hate.”

In contrast, Obama spoke for lowering tensions. “There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other, to learn from each other, to respect one another and to seek common ground,” the president said.

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