Obama speaks
Thanks to allergy induced nausea (it has NOT been a good week... and it's not even Wednesday), I missed Obama's speech, and I'm catching the re-runs. I was gonna pass it up, since I knew basically what was in it, but I read some liveblogs, and it sounded like there was a lot happening.
Oh, and did anyone catch the Bobby Jindal/Kenneth from 30 Rock thing? Huffington Post has an article that compares them, which I'll track down later. It's hilarious and a little sad. This poor guy is supposed to be the savior of the Republican party.
Pelosi needed to not talk at the beginning. Everyone KNOWS who Obama is, and honestly, nobody wants to listen to her. I sure as hell don't. I want to hear the guy who HASN'T squandered my party's reputation. Also... Obama can't get people to stop cheering for him so he can talk. Pelosi? Has never had that problem.
The rhetoric and wordcraft in Obama's speeches makes me want to tear up from their beauty. He uses lists to dance around concepts, leading people to the concepts as if they'd gotten there themselves.
... American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NICE.
Pointing out the tax cut was nice. Takes the wind of of Jindal's sails, since the only thing he's going to have to say is TAX CUTS TAX CUTS TAX CUTS. Gee, Bobby. Obama already said that. Got any other ideas?
"Because nobody messes with Joe." Dude, that's awesome. If Biden has one reputation, it's for letting people have it with both barrels if he thinks they deserve it. To a fault.
DUDE. Who was the guy at about 14:09 on CSPAN who looked like he was doing a crossword while everyone else was applauding?
Hey, a nod to the fact that fixing the economy is probably going to take more than is set aside in the stimulus. This tells me that Obama does, in fact, plan to go back for more. Krugman should be pleased.
"It's not about helping banks, it's about helping people." Having Obama shouting that over the rising applause was a nice moment.
... Lady checking her cell phone at about 27:00. What the hell. You get to be IN THE ROOM while Obama makes a big speech, and you're checking your fucking cell phone?
Here comes the health care bit.
Pelosi, god damn it. Stop cheering yourself for passing something you should have had the balls to pass a long fucking time ago, without Rahm Emanuel cursing in your ear. Nobody wants to cheer you on. We want to listen to Obama speak. You and Reid need to learn that you squandered any chance you had to being leaders in the democratic party. Seriously, nobody gives a shit about you. So sit down and shut up. There's a -real- politician in the room, and he is talking right now.
Dropping out of high school is quitting on your country. DAMN! Way to tie a good education to patriotism. You know, as long as anything patriotic is automatically good, I think this is a good idea. Let's just tell people that the genuinely good things are patriotic.
Wow. Jabba the Hutt is sitting behind Michelle Obama.
Obama's bringing up the tax cuts for 95% of Americans, checks on the way, again. What now, Jindal? (To be clear, I don't think the tax cuts are a good way to spend our money, but since we've got to do it anyway, we might as well rub the 'pub's noses in it.)
At last, the obligitory "we honor your service" remark. Does that even mean anything anymore? To his credit, he waited 'till almost 45 minutes in to do it. (Cut to guy in dusty looking cammo uniform.)
The strength of our values does not make us weaker, it makes us stronger. I think that's an important theme. It's something I've been working into my writing a lot, recently. It's something that I'd like to see woven into our collective mythology. (Hint, hint, other writers.)
48 minutes in, and we have the heartwarming tales of generosity and dreams. (The first guy, BTW, is awesome.)
Wow. Obama closed on the St. Crispin's day speech: If we do this, then our children and our grandchildren will talk about how awesome we were.
All in all, I'd say that was a very good speech. Amazing the contrast between when Bush used to speak, and the only reason to watch was if you were playing a drinking game. (And the only way you COULD watch was if you were getting yourself too drunk to care about what he was saying.)
I'm going to poke around the internets a bit to see what the various bloggers who I follow are saying about the speech. If I see anything interesting, I'll link it in another post.
Oh, and did anyone catch the Bobby Jindal/Kenneth from 30 Rock thing? Huffington Post has an article that compares them, which I'll track down later. It's hilarious and a little sad. This poor guy is supposed to be the savior of the Republican party.
Pelosi needed to not talk at the beginning. Everyone KNOWS who Obama is, and honestly, nobody wants to listen to her. I sure as hell don't. I want to hear the guy who HASN'T squandered my party's reputation. Also... Obama can't get people to stop cheering for him so he can talk. Pelosi? Has never had that problem.
The rhetoric and wordcraft in Obama's speeches makes me want to tear up from their beauty. He uses lists to dance around concepts, leading people to the concepts as if they'd gotten there themselves.
... American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NICE.
Pointing out the tax cut was nice. Takes the wind of of Jindal's sails, since the only thing he's going to have to say is TAX CUTS TAX CUTS TAX CUTS. Gee, Bobby. Obama already said that. Got any other ideas?
"Because nobody messes with Joe." Dude, that's awesome. If Biden has one reputation, it's for letting people have it with both barrels if he thinks they deserve it. To a fault.
DUDE. Who was the guy at about 14:09 on CSPAN who looked like he was doing a crossword while everyone else was applauding?
Hey, a nod to the fact that fixing the economy is probably going to take more than is set aside in the stimulus. This tells me that Obama does, in fact, plan to go back for more. Krugman should be pleased.
"It's not about helping banks, it's about helping people." Having Obama shouting that over the rising applause was a nice moment.
... Lady checking her cell phone at about 27:00. What the hell. You get to be IN THE ROOM while Obama makes a big speech, and you're checking your fucking cell phone?
Here comes the health care bit.
Pelosi, god damn it. Stop cheering yourself for passing something you should have had the balls to pass a long fucking time ago, without Rahm Emanuel cursing in your ear. Nobody wants to cheer you on. We want to listen to Obama speak. You and Reid need to learn that you squandered any chance you had to being leaders in the democratic party. Seriously, nobody gives a shit about you. So sit down and shut up. There's a -real- politician in the room, and he is talking right now.
Dropping out of high school is quitting on your country. DAMN! Way to tie a good education to patriotism. You know, as long as anything patriotic is automatically good, I think this is a good idea. Let's just tell people that the genuinely good things are patriotic.
Wow. Jabba the Hutt is sitting behind Michelle Obama.
Obama's bringing up the tax cuts for 95% of Americans, checks on the way, again. What now, Jindal? (To be clear, I don't think the tax cuts are a good way to spend our money, but since we've got to do it anyway, we might as well rub the 'pub's noses in it.)
At last, the obligitory "we honor your service" remark. Does that even mean anything anymore? To his credit, he waited 'till almost 45 minutes in to do it. (Cut to guy in dusty looking cammo uniform.)
The strength of our values does not make us weaker, it makes us stronger. I think that's an important theme. It's something I've been working into my writing a lot, recently. It's something that I'd like to see woven into our collective mythology. (Hint, hint, other writers.)
48 minutes in, and we have the heartwarming tales of generosity and dreams. (The first guy, BTW, is awesome.)
Wow. Obama closed on the St. Crispin's day speech: If we do this, then our children and our grandchildren will talk about how awesome we were.
All in all, I'd say that was a very good speech. Amazing the contrast between when Bush used to speak, and the only reason to watch was if you were playing a drinking game. (And the only way you COULD watch was if you were getting yourself too drunk to care about what he was saying.)
I'm going to poke around the internets a bit to see what the various bloggers who I follow are saying about the speech. If I see anything interesting, I'll link it in another post.