Obama gave a speech today. It was a speech that should have been given many times by many Democrats and honest Republicans over the last 30 years. Obama chose his site carefully. The Kansas town he delivered the speech was where TR delivered his justly famous "New Nationalism" speech. Some of the things Teddy said in 1910: After praising the Civil War vets, TR quotes Lincoln... Here's the heart of TR's message, though the whole speech is still relevent and worth reading: With that as a backdrop, here are the highlights of Obama's speech as I see them. After praising the Greatest Generation and recounting the causes of the economic meltdown... He brings up TR's speech... ... Good spech. Probably better in person than it reads. By most accounts, Obama wrote it himself. He's not quite Teddy, but what he said needed to be said... particularly the part about Republican economics being an absolute failure.
The best part was his talk about his assassination 16 year old US citizens and his continuing raids of medical mar1juana facilities. It sent a shrill up my leg. Dumbasses.
Thanks, rimrocker. I had missed that, and I doubt the media will give it the time of day, unless a bird pooped on him or something. TR was a phenomenal president. The more I read about him, the more I can't believe he actually existed. Where will the next TR come from? I wish I could see it happening in my lifetime.
I don't think that word means what you think it means. However, I'm pretty sure the meaning of your last sentence is unintentional irony.
He gave a great speech about nationalism and what's on the front page of MSNBC is Alec Baldwin being kicked off a plane. This country is ****ed.
I've been curious what he'd pivot to. He can't run the 2008 campaign again, and he really can't run with "Republicans suck" as President. He has to present an alternative vision, and it seems like he found one. I hope he pounds this theme over and over and over again. It has the potential to be a truly powerful message - and one that speaks to a lot of the anger of both OWS people and Tea Partiers (though they won't for him anyway). It's just a message that has a powerful ability to resonate. And maybe more importantly, it's a hard theme for the GOPer to argue *against*. If Europe collapses, it likely doesn't matter. But if it doesn't, and the race is competitive, I love the way he's positioning himself.
I believe I speak for all others in this thread when I say that even though it might be temporarily satisfying, the best thing to do is to not scratch it.
Too much specific policy that too closely allies with one party over another for me, personally, to consider it an objectively great speech. I feel that a great speech needs to transcend ideology and/or somehow bookmark an historical event or era. If this ends up spurring tax policies that end up balancing the budget, reducing debt, raising the standard of living such that both sides end up agreeing with or appreciating the policies, over time, then I would change my opinion of the speech. For some reason I felt his nomination speech, especially the "ownership society/on your own" stuff, was a little more compelling speech. And then McCain's concession speech, just because of the TR/Booker T. Washington reference.
That's a function of one party basically losing its bearings and cynically selling out as openly and obviously as possible to an idea - more power to the powerful - that just doesn't have a whole lot of benefits.