I did listen to Rush Limbaugh's comments, and while I agree with a lot of what Limbaugh said I'm not convinced this speech was as lacking in content as he thought. I do think his overall assessment is correct, however, and in an attempt to live up to the impossible hype Obama - who wrote his speech himself instead of following his successful strategy of skillfully delivering empty speeches written by David Axelrod - filled his speech with so many lines meant to be memorable that it's too much and is not memorable at all. The audience sure gave very little sign of being inspired, it was one of the quietest crowds I've seen at an event like this (and don't tell me it was rapture!). They really didn't seem to know how to react to most of what was said. It certainly wasn't the speech they expected. CNN expected that Obama's words on Tuesday would be chiseled in marble; we'll see.
Now for my reaction to the important bits:
"My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition."
I have no doubt Obama's sincerity here. I also have no doubt that Bush left the White House nicer than he found it; not hard when it was trashed when he got there. I bet you won't find any "O"s missing from computer keyboards or inappropriate images left in photocopiers, none of the things you expect when hippies leave a place. Skipping ahead a bit:
"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred."
It's nice to hear someone on the Left admit this once in awhile! Does this mean you will continue Bush's successful and just military campaign against those who threaten our freedom and security, violently oppress their own people, seek weapons of mass destruction and threaten to use them against us and our ally Israel? We will judge you by your actions, Mr. President.
"Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet."I'm sure he's referring to the greed and irresponsibility of businessmen; the government will not call on itself to accept any responsibility in this. Every day does not bring further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. Anthropogenic global warming is a hoax, and a scheme to transfer wealth by playing on people's fears; the evidence we see daily points to natural climatic cycles, especially as we see arctic ice accumulating to levels not seen since 1979. Our energy use does not strengthen our adversaries, but Congressional opposition to expanding our sources of domestic energy certainly weaken our economy.
"These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land—a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights."Could it be, Obama, that you are in part personally to blame for this? You don't help at all when you say that America is "not what it could be" or however you said it (neglecting to point to a time when things were better; slavery? segregation?), or when your wife cites your nomination as a reason to finally be proud to be an American again. Maybe you should call down those in the black community who belittle your achievement by saying we haven't arrived at the end of the civil rights struggle. Even before your inauguration you have done harm where you have had the most excellent opportunity to communicate these ideas. Skipping ahead:
"We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."Except, of course, those whose wealth comes from Big Oil, or Wal-Mart, or anyone else who has built their fortunes at the expense of the poor, or the environment.
"In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted—for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things—some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor—who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.Yes! There is nothing here I disagree with at all. Please follow through on these inspiring words with policies that will not punish achievement. Lower taxes, make government step aside and let the natural market forces that made this country successful in the first place run their course and keep us prosperous. There was never a guarantee of equality in results, that was always conditional to ability and effort as you say here. Equality is in rights; all men are created equal, but what they choose to do with their freedom determines their success later in life. Our early settlers learned first-hand the consequences of heavy-handed government, and wrote limitations of government into the Constitution. Bush continued and accelerated the rapid expansion of the role of government; now it is time for Change, time for the government to step aside for once and let us prosper. Let's skip ahead just a bit:
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction."
"[...] everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act—not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do."Oh. Well, so much for those hopes. Government is going to grow, government is going to provide, government is going to stand in the way. With the public perception of a horrible economy (an illusion by the way, perpetuated and in many ways created by the media, but a very useful illusion for Obama and his socialist friends), people will be increasingly eager to embrace any policy Obama or Pelosi or any of the others suggest that expands the power of government and increases its role in our lives until we find ourselves so completely dependent on the government that there's no way out. Government never shrinks voluntarily, never willingly relinquishes power. It's this bold, swift action that I am the most afraid of. I expect more harm to come to the economy by any action taken by Big Government than anything else. Building roads is all well and good, and definitely a necessary role of government, but transferring wealth from those who have earned it to those who haven't is not. Providing for every aspect of everyone's lives is not the role of government.
There's more in this paragraph that troubles me. "Restore science to its rightful place"? What is that supposed to mean? I have a couple theories. It's possible he means climate science, silencing the critics whose money comes from Big Oil so the religion of global warming can reassert its prominence. However, putting this statement in a sentence about health care makes me think it's about stem cell research. He means that now that those pesky Republicans are thoroughly out of power, we can kill babies again. Well, Obama, science, when not clouded by politics, shows that embryonic stem cells don't do much of anything, while other sources of cells that don't kill babies have been applied in many areas of health research with promising results. Global warming and stem cell research haven't been about science in a long time, but politics; so you're right, science should be restored to it's rightful place, but you and I disagree on where that place is.
Harvest the sun, wind and soil to power our cars and factories? I'd say you're just telling the people who voted for you what they want to hear, but I think you actually believe this. Solar power is impractical on a large scale, and requires huge plants to collect energy - plants that disrupt migration patterns, and have huge "footprints." Wind power isn't efficient, either; also, it kills birds, disrupts migration patterns, and no one seems to want one near where they live. By soil I assume you mean ethanol, which still emits greenhouse gases, requires about four gallons of water to produce one gallon of fuel, and wastes huge quantities of food. If we're just going to burn our food anyway, I'd feel much more comfortable sending it to Africa, or feeding the hungry here. A quick aside, one of the things I like best about Oklahoma (where I'm living this semester for an internship) is that they have the right attitude toward ethanol, they treat it like the vile contaminant it is:
And when you talk about transforming our schools, I guess it would be too much to hope for that you would require a rigid standard of success and responsibility before throwing money at them, abolish this ridiculous idea of tenure, and discourage liberal teachers from pushing their ideology on their students as if it were fact instead of opinion. No, in this case, by Change, you mean take the system further down the path it's already on.
And when you talk about transforming our schools, I guess it would be too much to hope for that you would require a rigid standard of success and responsibility before throwing money at them, abolish this ridiculous idea of tenure, and discourage liberal teachers from pushing their ideology on their students as if it were fact instead of opinion. No, in this case, by Change, you mean take the system further down the path it's already on."What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them—that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works—whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account—to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day—because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government."Yes, the ground has shifted. The Republican party has shifted left, the Democrat party has shifted even farther left, and conservatives like myself feel that we have nowhere to go. Elections have consequences, and now we have Obama. Things have definitely shifted, but that makes the question of whether government is too big or too small more relevant than ever. In very few things does government actually work. As Thomas Paine said, "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." It is harder and harder to tolerate government.
What else does he say here? Let's read between the lines. In this paragraph Obama is promising to raise minimum wage and expand government health care programs and retirement money (thus increasing the tax burden). If a program actually ends it will only be to be replaced by something bigger, farther reaching, and more limiting of our freedom. There will be no holding government to account for how it spends its money, there never is. Mr. Obama, if you want to restore my trust in government, make it smaller! Don't steal so much of my paycheck! Stop telling me I have to burn food instead of gasoline to make my car go, and don't tell me what I should and shouldn't drive!
"Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control—and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart—not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good."
Translation: unless the government is in absolute control of major corporations, controlling the flow of money, we will have a problem. We can't allow an individual to be too successful, because surely his wealth came at the expense of someone else. Obama is promising to transfer wealth from those who earned it to those who did not. Government cannot achieve equal results by raising up those at the bottom, only by pulling down those at the top and spreading poverty equally. If you doubted so far that Obama is promising higher taxes, and for the government to be an ever increasing obstacle to success and personal achievement, this paragraph practically says so straight out.
"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.If we do not protect our safety, how do we protect our ideals? What does Al-Qaeda care of our ideals? Oh, you mean wiretapping of suspected terrorists and other successful methods of bringing down terrorists, the very methods that have kept America free of terrorist attacks for seven years and brought freedom to a nation that has been under an oppressive dictatorship far too long. This was a swipe at Bush. You said it right when you mentioned the "justness of our cause." Our cause has been just this whole time, despite what you and your friends on the left say about holding Bush responsible for "war crimes." As for missiles and tanks, no matter how many participate in an alliance, that alliance has no power without missiles and tanks. The Allied Forces of World War II could not have brought down Hitler and Hirohito with mere justness of cause, it took troops, ships, tanks, planes, and two huge bombs.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint."
"We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort—even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."Fortunately we have won the war in Iraq, and a pull-out of troops is feasible now. You want to know why they weren't excited to see us when we started this campaign? Because we promised to free them before, and didn't finish the job; because no matter how strong Bush was on this, there was always the possibility that a change in President could undo all the progress we'd made. I would be suspicious, too, if I was Iraqi! As for apologizing for our way of life, please tell your liberal friends in Congress, and also your Hollywood supporters to stop doing this very thing. If the track record on your side of the debate was other than what it is, I would be very inspired by this paragraph of your speech.
I'm going to skip ahead quite a bit, to keep this from getting to lengthy:
"Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends—hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism—these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship."
Amen! I agree completely!
"This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed—why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath."Please tell this to those who think the civil rights struggle is hotter than ever.
The last bit of the speech continues like that with a decent reminder of our history and why we're so great, nothing wrong with it at all, although it seemed to me near the end that he gained some personal momentum and started to sound like a preacher at the pulpit. Not very memorable, though, not something I'd think "wow, I'm going to chisel this into marble!" But we've heard the promises from his own mouth, he is going to expand the role and power of government, and transfer wealth to discourage success. And there wasn't a whole lot of cheering from the crowd, not as much as the extra-high expectations warranted. There were no miracles wrought from the podium, no ministering of angels, none of the stuff the media seemed to be expecting to happen.
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