Every great speech giver knows how, where, why and when to use words - particularly when he's giving a speech to people of different tastes, backgrounds and wants. If it led YOU to believe that the US understands Iran's stance and is ready to do a deal with Iran, then his speech achieved its purpose. After all, that's what the Iranian populace was looking for. Having spent most of my life in the West, I have a tendency to look at these things more from a Western perspective - in that sense, I can tell you that there was nothing new in his speech that remotely hinted at a change of policy. So overall, I guess we agree that it was a good speech both for a domestic audience and the overseas audience - although I'm dying to see some Israeli reactions!
In all fairness to him, he did hint at the NSA mishap right at the beginning of his speech actually. The reason it was included at the beginning of the speech is that the administration knew the US is going to receive a grilling from Rousseff (Brazil's president who went up just before Obama) on the issue, since they intercepted her personal calls! So, he said that going forward, the US is going to do its best to balance its security apparatus needs with the rights of its citizens. I was impressed with the semi-acceptance of wrong-doing - not something you'd ever hear from an IR official!
And on the last paragraph, you're right. If Rohani accepts a deal under which the IR is domestically perceived as the loser, then it's a good situation for us and not a good one for Khamenei & Co. I just can't see how that would happen though. It's like Khamenei signing his own death warrant! Like all other dictators in the course of history they'd rather carry on fighting a losing battle than to surrender - even a miserable life for another two years would be better than committing political suicide now. That's how he'd look at it.
