President Obama proved once again what we all knew about him: that he can give one hell of a speech. And, he hit it out of the park on this one. Even from my center-right position on the political map, there was much to like in here. From finally taking the hint from former President Clinton and talking America's economy up, saying that we will come through our current crisis, to preaching responsibility of the individual and families. While I have not agreed with the president on much since he took office a little over a month ago, I'd be lying if I didn't say that the performance was smart and charming, and will definitely improve public opinion for Obama, as well as concern over his plans.
As good as this was for Obama and Democrats, is as bad as this ultimately will be for America. The underlying principles of the administration have not changed. The massive spending and handouts, the dependency-engendering provisions, are now the law of the land, and there is much more spending and hand outs to come. Prior to this speech, Americans were starting to wake up and get enraged at the massive overreach of the Democratic party. Consensus was forming that Americans, while in general viewing President Obama favorably, did not view greater government interference in their lives under the guise of help, nearly as favorably. The speech effectively will head this growing movement off at the pass. That President Obama gave a great speech shouldn't be a surprise, but I suspect that the media will treat it as such, and the average man on the street won't know enough about the issues to form anything other than a positive opinion of the man, and by extension, his policies.
And while the speech seemed positive, there were many things within it that were troublesome.
For the first time I can remember, Obama talked positively and at length about small business. He accurately described our nation's entrepreneurs and workers as the solution to the current crisis. And he's right. But then he named better health care and education as the way to fix the ills of small business. Obama's contention that the cost of health care "is one of the major reasons why small businesses close their doors and corporations ship jobs overseas" is blatantly untrue. Obama's contention that health care "is one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget" is true, but the solution he's put forth is for government to double down and "invest" even more in government-run health care which will only cause the budget to increase at an even faster pace.
Article comments
1 - Clavos
Good, well-written article, OA.
You've got some good points in here, particularly as regards the potential negative impact on small businesses by some of the president's proposals.
2 - Ruvy
OA,
The much maligned Hope and Change? commenter said this a number of times - Obama is still running for office.
His speech reflects what I warned you you would get from him; pretty words and nothing more. When you all realize that his pretty words will not keep a roof over your heads or a job intact, you'll all begin to seek uh - "change you can believe in."
The title of your article says it all - "The Obama Show".
From the looks of things, so long as nobody tries to repo the ipod, computer or TV, your country will not have the change it really needs - and will founder without hope.
3 - Arch Conservative
"His speech reflects what I warned you you would get from him; pretty words and nothing more."
Millions of Americans knew this prior to the election Ruvy.
He's been on the national scene for 2 years now and president for almost two months. More than enough time to size him up. Yet those of us who remain critical are told that we're being unfair and we must "give him a chance." It's ludicrous.
First of all the guy's a bold faced liar. In one breath in his pretty little speeches he claism not to want to expand the federal governemnt and then in the next breath he's telling us how the federal government must spend trillions of OUR dollars or risk total collapse tomorrow.
He knows that he has to get this passed quickly while the iron that burns with animosity for Bush and the GOP is still hot and fresh in people's minds.
If he continues to spend this our money like a drunken sailor who hasn't been on leave in four years buying up all the poontang in sight more and more will turn on him as it can only make things worse for our traditional American lifestyle of personal freedom and entrepreneurship.
I'm sure it won't belong before the usual suspects come along with their usual critiques..."oh arch is just a right wing nut with an irrational hatred of the president." Who cares if he's wasting trilllions...........Did you hear that killer speech that he gave last night? Who cares if every thing he does directly gives the federal government more control over our lives......he was president of the Harvard Law Review....Who cares if the economy hasn't really gotten better by mid to late 2010....we can still blame Bush right?
Hopefully people will wake up sooner rather than later and change the channel on the Obama show for good.
4 - Hope and Change?
In the long term this is the best thing that could have happened to the US. It is becomimg increasingly clear that the vision of America has been hijacked by the "ideological terrorists" within..King Barry and his court of Tax Cheats and Anti Semites.
The current administration has the same goal as the Muslim extremist to destroy the will and resiliency of the American people...and turn us all into a bunch of low paid burger flippers and overpaid HUD workers....getting paid to move paper from one side of the desk to the other..
As each day passes..the sentiment is growing...that Barry and his crew are jamming us all in their hybrid car and driving us off a cliff..ON PURPOSE...
In a historical persspective I see this as the beginning of the end of left wing lunacy and the road back to the great country we are....
Their is real hope and change on the horizon...
5 - Matthew T. Sussman
"As each day passes..the sentiment is growing...that Barry and his crew are jamming us all in their hybrid car and driving us off a cliff..ON PURPOSE..."
Nobody in their right mind would have any incentive to do that. Bug off.
6 - Hope and Change?
Matthew...Congrats!!!
You finally figured it out!!! They arent in their right minds! The proof of that is mounting..just this morning we learn more about the state of mind of Joey "Bad Hair Plugs" Biden....
"But what I don't understand from Governor Jindal is what would he do?," asks Joe Biden while on the Early Show.
And that rhetorical question to Governor Jindal on the CBS morning show, was followed with this. "in Louisiana there's (ed: there are) 400 people a day losing their jobs, what's he doing?" asks Biden.
But that claim is wrong, if you look at the numbers from the Louisiana Workforce Commission. "In December, Louisiana was the only state in the nation besides the District of Columbia, according to the national press release that added employment over the month," says Patty Granier with the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
The current administation has one goal...increase the number of democrats and government welfare recipients...The Scamulus Plan will only lead to ...
1. More Government Jobs
2. More private companies beholden to government
3. Expanded entitlement programs
Really can King Barry's supporters be so STUPID that they cannot see what he is doing?...
7 - Ruvy
This is for "Hope and Change?", a fellow I agree with in a lot of ways.
You wrote "the vision of America has been hijacked by the 'ideological terrorists' within..King Barry and his court of Tax Cheats and Anti Semites."
Because I live in Israel, and have to deal with the real enmity of the American ruling elite towards Jews and a Jewish state, I supported Obama. Better a real and open Jew-hater, an honest enemy, than a smiling liar, a false friend who will seduce Jews into marching into ovens for him with smiles and compliments. That is what Bush was, what Clinton was, what Bush's little Shrub was, and that is what McCain would have been. So I did what "was best for the Jews".
HAVING SAID THAT, the painful and bitter truth is that America has lost its vision, dumbed down by a culture that is pornographically addictive and designed to keep folks quiet. That's why I wrote, "so long as nobody tries to repo the ipod, computer or TV, your country will not have the change it really needs - and will founder without hope."
Before there can be real change in America, someone has to shut off the bullshit machine known as "popular culture" so that you all can actually think and reflect. I can only see one way for that to happen - if someone attacks your country with an EMP. The time to think and reflect that you might gain is the positive side of losing computers and electronic gadgetry. On the other hand, typewriters are a bitch....
Other then that, well I'm open to ideas, but I do not see any solutions on the horizon.
In the meantime, you can all imagine how many millions of miles $1.7 trillion (that's the deficit, not the budget!) can go into space if laid end to end as dollar bills rising from Cape Canaveral.
8 - Hope and Change?
Add another $900 million to the tab for Gaza....Rumor has it...in an early draft of the Scamulus plan there were dollars dedicated for US business making Dynamite Vests for export to the mideast...
I guess they figured out it was better just to give them cash...I heard their on sale in Gaza!!
9 - Ruvy
Oh, and before you chime in, Suss, I realize that catering to that bullshit culture of the US, through book, TV, movie and DVD reviews, is what makes Blogcritics go, and what allows me to post my articles and comments here.
10 - Dr Dreadful
Sorry, Obnox, you know how I love to nitpick.
That article on the Finnish education system was fascinating. Mind you, I don't think they've necessarily found the Holy Grail up there: there's more than one way to skin a reindeer.
But I must call you on your blatantly untrue assertion that:
"There is no evidence whatsoever that sending toddlers or infants to public school improves anything."
There are several studies which, while they show children's social skills can be impaired by attending pre-school, indicate that kids do get a head start in language and math through formal early education. A roundup of some of those studies here.
Wait, though. It didn't escape my notice that you said public school. I'm sure you didn't put that word in there idly, but you're still going to have to back your statement up...
11 - Baronius
Obnox, some really great points here. I don't want to say "especially", because you hit a lot of things dead-on, but I was really impressed with your comments on education.
There are some genuinely good ideas about education reform in the Democratic Party. The Republicans are fixated on vouchers, which are a great idea but aren't catching on. Obama could champion performance-based pay, oppose social promotion, and diminish the reliance on teaching certifications. He's shown interest in charter schools. In an "only Nixon can go to China" sort of way, he's well-positioned to take on the teachers' unions.
12 - Baronius
It's a lot easier to learn Finnish history. It was cold, then it was cold, then...
13 - Ruvy
Baronius,
It's a lot easier to learn Finnish history. It was cold, then it was cold, then....
You left out the part about beating the shit out of some Russian and disappearing into the white mists with his bottle of vodka.... Oh, and you have to make sure that the kids know that the "Mannerheim Line" wasn't a bad punchline in some comedian's routine in Helsinki (Helsingförs).
14 - Joanne Huspek
Good job with this article. His speech was the first step down the yellow brick road leading to something scary. I couldn't bare to listen to much of it.
15 - handyguy
Even from my center-right position on the political map...
Sorry, I'm having trouble reading further. A sudden fit of coughing and laughing has overcome me.
If you have a "centrist" bone in your body, you keep it remarkably well hidden.
16 - Matthew T. Sussman
"Before there can be real change in America, someone has to shut off the bullshit machine known as "popular culture" so that you all can actually think and reflect."
Even reading your disclaimer after the fact, I am steadfastly in disagreement with you. There's no reason pop culture thought cannot be meaningful and profound.
In fact, it's entirely necessary to have this field of study in our culture, if for no other reason, to use it as a proving ground for critical thought, so that we can perhaps graduate from it and start tackling actual problems. From the sports media world, Keith Olbermann is a good example of this. Jason Whitlock could be another.
Along the way -- even studying TV shows and celebrity smut and sports -- we do find out important trends about our own lives and others. But for those that zero in on one particular field and never tunnel out of it ... then that's probably not a good thing. Nor is a "nothing else matters but my DVDs" mentality. I don't know many people like this, but that would also be a dangerous mentality.
17 - Ruvy
Suss,
Over in the States, you can't hear what an awful loud racket your raucous culture makes overseas.
There is nothing wrong with a "field of study" - although what is worth studying about the pathetic plots of TV shows like "Friends" or "Seinfeld" leaves me puzzled. Certainly what there is that is worth studying in the plots of a show like "24" is definitely a stretch.
However, I'm not talking about squelching a field of study. I'm talking about shutting down the bullshit machine, just so you can hear yourselves think. There is a world of difference between the two ideas....
And since Amricans will not turn off the TV/ipod/CD/DVD/computergame by themselves, what is needed is an EMP to do it for them....
18 - Hope and Change?
Ooppss He Done It Again!
Senate Democrats expressed discontent Thursday with plans from the Pentagon to leave a residual force of up to 50,000 troops in Iraq, even as the military pursues a substantial drawdown.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters that he is heading to the White House later in the day to hear an explanation.
"I have been one who has called for significant cutbacks in Iraq for some time. And I am happy to listen to the secretary of defense, the president, but when they talk about 50,000, that's a little higher number than I had anticipated," Reid said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also said he's waiting for(to) hear a "justification" for why so many troops would stay behind.
So King Barry promised a retreat fron Iraq....the chimps and idiots vote him in....he now flip flops and will have MORE troops in Iraq than Bushs plam!!!
LOL...LOL...
19 - Ruvy
Hope & Change,
You didn't seriously imagine that the new CFR chimp (Obama) would do things differently than the old CFR chimp (Bush), did you? Don't expect to see lots of troops coming home (and being released from service) either. Those who go home will remain on call. Those who don't will be ready to head west from Iraq for another destination....
20 - STM
Or east
21 - Hope and Change?
Just when thought the "King Barry Vetting Show" was coming to a close...they come back for an encore!!
It seems while Obama was giving the nod as vetter-in-chief to Gregory Craig, no one bothered to vet Craig himself.
White House general counsel Gregory Craig has seized control of Obama's vetting process after a series of nominees with unpaid taxes. But his wife's business may also have avoided taxes. Who vets the vetter?
Authorities have begun a full-fledged investigation into Noyes Graphics. (The spokesman would not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.)
LOL LOL ...hope and change...what a laugh riot!!