August 8, 2008
"America is no longer what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children."
Interesting clip. One response is to say it's awfully negative, especially for talking to a little girl. But Obama has 2 little daughters. He should know how to talk to them. Are we not supposed to let kids see that we know that the world isn't perfect?
What's striking to me is that Obama didn't try harder to defend himself against the predictable accusations that he doesn't love America enough — accusations that were especially predictable after the things his opponents said about his Berlin speech. Perhaps Obama was actually being honest and respectful of the child's real competence.
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147 comments:
Sounds like the election will be determined on whether you see the glass half full or half empty. Obama and the Dems obviously see it as half-empty.
Let's face it. Americans are stupid. They can't handle nuance.
How dare that little girl ask Obama such a tough question. Who does she think she is?
I have to agree with dtl, that little girl is stupid.
The entire campaign is aimed at little girls in the first place.
"America is no longer what it could be"?? Hell its never been what it "could be" and I glad its not "what it once was". Where was he when there were riots and "separate but equal" schools? Assasinations, four dead in Ohio? Couldn't have been the 70's or 80's.
Presumably, the golden age for America lasted from 1993 until late 1994, and it has been all downhill since then. There are times when it seems that the candidate and his campaign are still focused on the activist party base and not the average general election voter.
That's what I say, Steve. If the past was so good, why did we do away with segregation and the like? This man makes no sense.
America is no longer what it could be
WTF? Did Obama think we were all better off when? America kicks butt. Obama is a sour puss.
The debate is over how much better are we going to get in the future. Its obvious that today we are all much better off than we were even ten years ago. I would like to hear someone argue that we are not.
Take the Internet for example, How much is having access to virtually unlimited information worth to the average person? What is the value of that asset?
We need to make sure that in the future we have the opportunity to get the next internet, the next new drug, etc.. These improvments are what make America and all of us rich. Unfortunately, Obama's energy and raising taxes plan makes such innovations less likely.
When your party is the party of the "downtrodden," the glass is always half empty.
Here is the pitch....and the rookie on the mound throws a big fat softball right down the middle...Obama swings and he missed! He missed - didn't even get a piece of it!
[Nothing like fumbling the first question you know you will be asked in a job interview.]
Sloan:
America kicks butt... on a curve. America is the student that gets an 83 on an exam when the next highest grade is a 74 so America gets a curved "A"
I've always found it somewhat strange that even though one of the greatest strengths of this country is its ability to change and adapt, when someone comes along and says "We need to change - this isn't right" they are widely accused of being "anti-american." Recognizing your weaknesses is not self-loathing, it's honesty.
Now maybe he was talking complete garbage and there really wasn't any little girl asking him this question, but either way:
1) Why would you cast yourself in such a pessimistic way?
2) Who would be stupid enough to actually say that to a 7 year old child?!
Americans have increasingly become self sufficient for their livelihood. Less dependent on large corporations, more small businesses. Less people on the public dole (that don't want to be). The opening of our communities to people from other parts of the country. Etc...
This is not in line with the leftist dream of Control of the Masses. So it is true that it is not the country it once was, and it is true that our best days are always ahead since we are always growing as a people. But thank God for that!
blue moon-
Except that here, Obama appears to be saying that "we need to change ... back into something that we used to be." Not very progressive. Hey I'm down for slow, conservative, incremental change with a tendancy towards status quo - I just didn't realize that was Obama's position, too.
Or maybe he's just a steampunk fan.
hey, I'm sitting in detroit airport, checking out Althouse, and some dude looks over my shoulder at iphone and sez: I read ann all the time!
I ask: do you comment? He pauses and sez: not really, do you? I don't believe him but say: too often but not in my name.
Then he buys me a drink! How cool is that?
We both found obama's thesis a little odd, btw.
Off to the next plane.
Maybe Obama wants peace and prosperity.
Unlike the wingnuts, he thinks we can do better than war and recession.
You shameless floozy. I bet you told him you were RH Hardin. And showed him a picture of a chicken.
The 8 year moving average of US GDP growth is now the slowest since the Great Depression.
Woo hoo!
"We need to change - this isn't right" they are widely accused of being "anti-american." Recognizing your weaknesses is not self-loathing, it's honesty.
What a dopey comment. The only people I would accuse of being anti-american are the ones who want to change to anti-american policies.
Self loathing is a pervasive disease that manifests itself on the left in this country. They hate the entire idea of America - a land founded on individual freedom and not collectivism or statism. They despise America's attempt to spred this ideology abroad. How terrible we are to bring freedom to the utopias of Cuba and China.
The stock market is almost up 1% a year under Bush.
Woo hoo!
Bush has only let ONE single tiny city be destroyed by a Hurricane.
Woo hoo!
In American. we torture first and give you a trial later (if the Decider deems it so).
Woo hoo!
Neither Bush or Obama should speak off the cuff. Both should stick to memorized speeches.
Gas is only $116 a barrel.
Woo hoo!
Reader:
Airport bar- so did you go for the double shot?
The 8 year moving average of US GDP growth is now the slowest since the Great Depression.
What about the 7 year moving average, or the 9 year moving average, or the 3 year moving average, or the 15 year moving average or the 7.5 year moving average, or the 20 year moving average or even the last year!
You are such a prick, that no one cares which statistic you want to cherry pick for the day to prove in your own pathetic mind that you must be right that America is the worst place in the world to live. Maybe you should move to China, I am sure their 8 year moving average is at an all time high.
I don't believe him but say: too often but not in my name.
LOL! He knows who you are now, though! Have a pleasant flight. Don't forget to bring your own water, food, pillow, blanket, and carry-on luggage. You'll need the luggage to sit on now that seats are an optional extra.
Yeah... who wants the old America where middle class incomes were increasing, the federal budget was balanced and we weren't losing soldiers everyday?
This new America of endless war and retracting middle class incomes is much better.
I was in the Phoenix airport bar and David Carradine came in a for a drink. The policy is to ask everyone of age cards. Carradine was a little pissed off cause he mentioned he was 71 years old.
Sloan:
How is that dopey? -- I've been accused of that many times in my life. "Blue Moon, why do you hate america?"
Reader, that was me.
Was I good looking?
I once got on a flight to Vegas which had Joan Rivers getting on in first class. Her face lifts had pulled her skin up so tight, she had a goatee.
China is more free than America right now.
And that's right. Americans don't give a damn that Bush has presided over the worst economic growth in over 80 years. They only care that Obama recommended that people check their tire pressure if they were interested in reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
Because Americans are stupid.
Record under the Democrats since they took power in 2006
20% decline in home values
20% decline in the stock market
100% increase in the price of oil.
Worst, Pelosi acknowledges these things but says they are worth it to save the planet.
Query: Should we be electing more democrats?
China is more free than America right now.
Oh sorry, we forgot. Freedom = slavery in your world.
dtl:
Yep, that's why the bible study I belong to that has classes in china must meet in hotels rather than churches and is monitored by the chinese FBI. Because it's so free. That's why my buddy was detained at the Shanghai airport for having the gall to have 10 bibles with him, because China is so free that they wouldn't want anyone to be shackled to religion.
Good for China for outlawing cults.
Blue Moon, why do you hate america?"
I don't know. What did you say that caused such a comment? maybe you shouldn't take it seriously and write it off as over the top rhetoric.
Fact: The US government spies on gay student organizations.
On another flight, Robert Patrick the bad guy in Terminator 2 was in first class. I went up to him and said "I think I saw Sarah Conner in coach." He looked at me seriously from under his glasses and said "Fuck off."
Those aren't US government spies, they're peeping toms.
They only care that Obama recommended that people check their tire pressure if they were interested in reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
Obama's tire pressure policy is stupid that's why. It's a signal that he isn't going to do anything from the supply side to reduce the price of oil. The tire pressure comment shows that his only solution is to reduce demand. It's stupid. What is he going to do, have the tire pressure police come and enforce his new tire pressure policy?
Blue Moon - Your friend was a foreigner. Foreigners don't have rights. Only citizens do.
Sloan:
Well, as we've seen with DTL this morning, one man's over the top rhetoric is another man's guide to life.
Free Tibet ;-)
It's interesting to compare Dahlia Lithwick's - prosetylizing for a "truth commision" to investigate the administration if Obama takes office - observation that if McCain wins and gets three appointments to the court, America will be "unrecognizable." I doubt that what she means is that America will be unrecognizable because a 6 vote conservative majority would make this country what it could be once again.
Sloan is right. We need another 8 years of Bush's very successful oil policy.
Oil going from $30 a barrel to $116 a barrel is a huge accomplishment - if you're oilman and Bush and Cheney are.
I'm sure under McCain with our wars against Iran and China, we can get oil to $500.
I once went up to a woman in an airport bar and told her I was Simon the noted legal commenter on the Althouse blog and offered to buy her a drink.
She hit me with her walker.
China is more free than America right now.
Ignorant statement of the day.
And that's right. Americans don't give a damn that Bush has presided over the worst economic growth in over 80 years.
Bush has also presided over the largest increase in government spending. Maybe the next president should learn from that more government spending = less growth.
Obama obviously hasn't learned - he even wants to spend more than Bush (he wants to give us all free appliances and energy efficient homes and rebate checks from oil company profits).
I'd vote for President Hu over George W. Bush any day of the week.
Once I went up to woman in an airport bar and told her I was Mortimer Brenzy the noted commenter on Althouse and if she didn't have sex with me then and there she was a racist.
It didn't work for me either.
I noticed a woman in an airport bar blowing smoke rings into the air from her cigarette. Since I was able to recognize smoke signals, I flashed her some Indian hand signals, and she responded with an Italian salute.
That's right Sloan. And I'm sure a $1 trillion war had NOTHING to do with increased government spending.
Sloan:
Big gov't is here to stay whether the GOP or Dems are in control. People like big government (I actually accidentally typed GIVEornment at first, which is what 80% of the population sees it as -- freudian slip?)
I once noticed a woman in the Vegas airport bar blowing smoke rings into the air. But the smoke wasn't coming from her mouth.
It turned out she had just had some airport Taco Bell.
Join the cult of the O. Resistance is futile. Arbeit Macht Frei! And arbeiting for the government make one even frier. All Hail The One, the Blessed Big Zero of the Symbol!
damn. Get to gate and flight delayed hour due to weather-damaged plane whatever that really means. At least I was able to stake out an outlet in a corridor to juice phone.
Randy I didn't give details.
1 glass wine drank half with food I paid for. What do u take me for? LOL
"Let's face it. Americans are stupid. They can't handle nuance."
I think this should be Obama's campaign slogan. After all, it worked for John Kerry.
dtl - The answer to the question is YES! YES you are the most ignorant, juvenile, clueless little tool posting today! Congrats! Your prize is an brand new crowbar to remove your pinhead from your derriere.
That's right Sloan. And I'm sure a $1 trillion war had NOTHING to do with increased government spending.
The $$$ spent on the war was worth it. At $100 bbl oil we would have had to increase our defense spending by $200 billion per year just to create an effective deterrence against Saddam's regime. Even at $200 billion extra per year, we would still be spending less on defense than we were in 1992.
downtownlad said...
"China is more free than America right now."
To quote Oliver Cromwell:
In the name of God, go!
If the past was so good, why did we do away with segregation and the like?
See, Revenant? See? Totally unnecessary.
In China you have the right to smoke in Hospitals.
In China, you can spit anywhere you want. How cool is that?
In China, you can piss on the side of a busy road in broad daylight and nobody minds.
If only America could be as free.
Trooper is on fire today.
The only problem with the Chinese economy is that they have all these guys trying to deliver takeout on these bicycles, but they don’t have enough yuppies ordering.
See, Revenant? See? Totally unnecessary.
What the hell are you talking about, and what do I have to do with it?
What the...?
Context, please? It'd be nice to hear the question, and to hear Obama's full response.
Obama is talking off the cuff, with long pauses between the words, and it's almost impossible to know what he's talking about.
Particularly, does the second clause in the first sentence relate to the first clause? I think Obama meant it to.
I think he meant to say something like "America is not at this moment demonstrating a commitment to its own ideals. We used to aspire higher. I want us to recover that idealism we once had."
Unfortunately, Obama didn't say what I just scripted, he said something so vague and convoluted as to sound completely idiotic.
One reason it sounds idiotic is that it is unclear what Obama means by the term "America."
In this thread, DTL assumes that "America" means "Executive actions under the Bush Administration," but that is not what America means to most people.
America means us. The social fabric. Families and friends. The people we work with. If we are not what we could be nor what we once were, what exactly does Obama mean to say? Is he assigning collective guilt, or has he confused the stink of grievances that distinguishes his own party with the skepticism of the unaligned citizenry?
This is the kind of thing I was talking about when I pointed out that Obama babbles like an idiot when he goes off-script. He manages to be vague and non-responsive AND commit a gaffe all at once.
There are specific problems that America has, and Blue Moon's right that there's nothing wrong with pointing out flaws. But rather than naming a couple of specifics (the economy or the war) or picking a nice, generic, unarguable answer (e.g. "because too many people in America lack the opportunities they need"), Obama stammers out an answer about how the whole country is a failure and needs to be fixed. Nice going, newbie.
All I can say is that the Beijing Opening Ceremonies were a gazillion times better than Atlanta.
Revenant actually believes the meme that Obama can't speak without a teleprompter.
Boy is he in for a surprise come the debates.
If Hop Sing was awake he would say that my last comment was racist.
Sorry.
Obama didn't try harder to defend himself against the predictable accusations that he doesn't love America enough
That's because the man does not love America enough if at all.
It's easy - Obama hates this country and is too smart to speak clearly about his deep-seated hatred. Simple enough. Can a country survive with a ruling class that hates what it rules? We shall know soon enough.
Let's face it. Americans are stupid. They can't handle nuance.
DTL, you should have quit while you were ahead. This is one of the funniest comments I've seen in a while. But the quality of your trolling quickly reverted to normal, and now you're just boring.
Once I went up to woman in an airport bar and told her I was
RH Hardin the noted commenter and naturalist on Althouse. She was pretty drunk and horny and she leaned over and whispered that she wanted to see my cock.
So I showed her a picture of a chicken.
Can a country survive with a ruling class that hates what it rules?
It seems to me that the past years have had a government that hates ruling. When a party is in power* that has as a core belief that the government is the root of all evil, no good will come from it. As has been amply demonstrated by the past 7+ years.
* read: Holds the Presidency
So does one choose the party that hates the government, or that hates the country?
Joe M. - You bore me. Yawn.
downtownlad said...Revenant actually believes the meme that Obama can't speak without a teleprompter.
But the Savior is better with the teleprompter no doubt.
Anything less than an overwhelming verbal performance by Obama versus Old White Haired Dude will be interpreted as a draw or a loss for Obama in the debates.
The bar for McCain is pretty low.
Once I was in an airport bar and I noticed this woman reading Althouse on her I phone. I told this woman that I was Madison Man the liberal humanist and all around nice guy from the Althouse blog and I offered to buy her a milkshake. She accepted graciously and after she took the first sip, she slapped me in the face and left in a huff.
Who knew that she didn’t like cheese.
The anointed one lacks wit and a sense of humor. But that is understandable. I don't recall other messiahs such as Christ or Budda being known for their comic interludes.
Nevertheless this lack of humor will cause him great pain (and pain for listeners) in a debate setting with McCain.
In China you have the right to smoke in Hospitals.
In China you have the right to smoke a Tibetan.
Once I was in an airport bar and I noticed this woman reading Althouse on her I phone. So I sauntered over to her real cool like, leaned over and said “Hooiser Daddy.”
She turned to me and said Pedro Martinez.
Sloanasauras,
Optimists feel we live in the best of all possible worlds.
Pessimists fear they are right.
Once I was in an airport bar and I said to a very intoxicated woman that I was Trooper York and I wanted to see her GIANTS, and she kicked me in the nuts.
Once I was in this airport bar and there was this really hot chick reading the Althouse blog on her Iphone. So I told that I was AllenS and that I was an indian. But she didn't believe me because she said I didn't look like an indian and I had to prove it because she would have sex with me if I could prove it. I tried to show her the tepee in my pants but she wasn't buying it. She just said "If you are really an Indian, fix my computer."
I didn't know what to say. So I just stood there and let a tear drop run down my cheek.
jdeeripper said...
"But the Savior is better with the teleprompter no doubt."
That's why I don't anticipate him doing any debates at all. His supporters will rationalize it the same way they rationalized his flip flop: he's the most accessible candidate ever, so he's already participated in a much more direct debate with the American people! Why would he need to debate McCain?
It's getting harder and harder by the day to respect people who take Obama seriously, let alone support him. Who will rid us of this turbulent candidate.
“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children.”
Ann asks whether, in giving the 7-year old girl that answer, "Obama was actually being honest and respectful of the child's real competence." How can such vapid, silly mush be "respectful of the child's real competence"? America's past -- "what it once was" -- wasn't some lost paradise that anyone can or intelligently should want to see recreated in the future. Instead, as Lincoln said, since its founding America has been a nation dedicated to certain values and propositions, always imperfectly realized but that each generation seeks to preserve, implement and extend.
So what is this mythical "past" that O takes as the model for the "future" he wants "for my children"? Does he have in mind, say, the 1930s? the swinging '20s? the Eisenhower years? perhaps the '60s? What? Beats me.
O's problem in this campaign is that everyone who thinks that this sort of blather is saying something significant already signed up with Team O a long time ago. He needs to start singing in a different key, but doesn't seem able to do so. I think the reason may be that O himself doesn't see how empty, how foolish, how soured by BDS, this kind of stuff sounds to those who haven't signed up for Team O, and if he keeps it up, never will.
Trooper, I hope you never pretended to be me in any airport bars...
America is NOT what is was, that is for certain. Jim Crow is dad, slavery is over, and personal responsibility is on life support.
I see it as a mized bag. He complains that government is not fracking big enough.
Sheesh.
Trey
I remember someone on NPR calling Obama the greatest orator of our time. LOL.
In the bar is ok especially if we are talking about art so I can steal your opinions and sound like I know what I am talking about.
The men’s room not so much.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Once I was in an airport bar in Minnesota, had so much fun drinking, I missed my flight. Which turned out to be a good thing cause the flight I missed was going to the wrong city.
You betcha!
Besides, if I was going to impersonate anybody on the other team, I would pretend to be Beth cause she gets all the babes. Plus I could talk football.
How is Obama's argument that America is on the wrong path and that he's running to set it straight again, different from Reagan's 'Are you better off that you were 4 years ago?' which infers that America was on the wrong path and he was running to set it straight again??
Oh yes I know, Reagan was a Republican. That's right. And he wasn't a celebrity who was better known for his ability to make great speeches either. And he had so much foreign policy experience too...
oh wait...
Richard Dolan said...
"O's problem in this campaign is that everyone who thinks that this sort of blather is saying something significant already signed up with Team O a long time ago."
And yet we keep hearing the claim - even from his critics - that he's eloquent. I don't buy it. He's mastered the art of speaking without saying anything. To call that eloquence is to really misuse a word that properly refers to the use or quality of "[p]ersuasive, powerful discourse," and "[t]he skill or power of using such."
"How is Obama's argument that America is on the wrong path and that he's running to set it straight again, different from Reagan's 'Are you better off that you were 4 years ago?' which infers that America was on the wrong path and he was running to set it straight again??"
You can't perceive a difference between Reagan's specific statement and Obama's fumbling generalizations?
"Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls, will stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we're as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don't agree, if you don't think that this course that we've been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have. This country doesn't have to be in the shape that it is in. We do not have to go on sharing in scarcity with the country getting worse off, with unemployment growing... All of this can be cured and all of it can be solved. I have not had the experience the President has had in holding that office, but I think in being Governor of California, the most populous state in the Union - if it were a nation, it would be the seventh-ranking economic power in the world - I, too, had some lonely moments and decisions to make. I know that the economic program that I have proposed for this nation in the next few years can resolve many of the problems that trouble us today... And I know that we did give back authority and autonomy to the people. I would like to have a crusade today, and I would like to lead that crusade with your help. And it would be one to take Government off the backs of the great people of this country, and turn you loose again to do those things that I know you can do so well, because you did them and made this country great."
Tell me again how there's no difference between that and what Obama burbled at a child. Obama has tried to use this line of Reagan's before. The difference, of course, is that Obama's version is vague, negative, defeatist, clumsy and ultimately meaningless. Reagan's answer was topical, specific, positive, challenging and graceful. And most importantly, it wasn't ultimately about what Reagan could do to "save America" but how he could, by getting the government off the People's backs, allow the People to work to fix the specific problems with America under Carter.
Oh, and Reagan wasn't saying it to a child either.
I agree with all of you 100%. And by all of you I mean all of you minus the DTL who's on 100% of vanish. Delightful thread. Skipping makes reading a flash. And by delightful thread I mean minus the Zinn inspired Provocation Theater that is the DTL. Ta.
By the way, you can read the transcript of that devastating Reagan vs Carter debate here
Palladian,
Thanks for pointing out that your comments by Reagan were from a debate, not a speech. I think that means that he didn't have notes or a teleprompter.
Don't think The One could do that.
Once I was in an airport bar and I got drunk and missed my flight.
Hey do you any of you work? I know some of you comment while you're at work, or you're retired, or you work from home. But are any of you unemployed (like me)? It's the end of my first week of unemployment and it feels great. Thank you state of California EDD benefits!
I don't work during the summer. I'm vastly wealthy and currently looking for a lanky houseboy not afraid to do windows, clean woodwork including the valuable oak front door and occasionally polish the knob.
It gets a bit tarnished, you know.
I don't work during the summer.
"Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."
Moving from Bush's pidjin english to Obama's gasbaggy leftism is no improvement.
Both require alot of effort to say absolutely nothing.
And please, can we finally, finally eject all children -anyone not old enough to vote- from these meetings, or at least forbid them from asking questions?
Good God in heaven, who gives a shit what a seven year old thinks?
No one. And no one with any intelligence should.
I don't want the President anywhere around the little vermin, not even to read to them ...especially not to read to them. "It's for the children", that feminine trope, that nannyish trump card, has ruined our laws and our country. Time to end it.
"Children should neither be seen or heard from - ever again."
W. C. Fields
Zach:
Yeah at your age, collecting unemployment is like a vacation.
Hope it does not happen to you in 20 years though cause that is when you will be too anxious to enjoy it.
To answer your question, I think most of the commenters here work. Except for Downtown Lad- I doubt anyone would hire that sourpuss.
Hey do you any of you work? I know some of you comment while you're at work, or you're retired, or you work from home.
I work less during the summer than during the school year, and quite a bit of my summer work is from home.
Also, during the school year, my computer access during the day is next to nonexistent. That's why I tend to disappear from these threads for long periods of time during the fall and spring.
Once I was in this airport bar and there was this really hot chick reading the Althouse blog on her Iphone. So I went up to her and told her I was Pogo. She asked me why they called my Pogo. I said it was because the ladies liked to bounce up and down on my stick. She shook her head and said "That's pretty lame."
Then she said "You really are Pogo."
She spent the rest of the night asking for medical advice.
True story.
Pogo said...
"True story."
That's legend-- wait for it...
Oh yes I know, Reagan was a Republican. That's right. And he wasn't a celebrity who was better known for his ability to make great speeches either. And he had so much foreign policy experience too...
Too bad we can't clone him....
But are any of you unemployed (like me)? It's the end of my first week of unemployment and it feels great.
Sorry to hear you lost your job.
Considering you're an Obama supporter, your sentiments as you stated above are hardly suprising.
And he wasn't a celebrity who was better known for his ability to make great speeches either.
His two terms as Governor of the state of California being completely irrelevant, of course.
Hoosier Daddy, I believe zps had noted several times that he hated his previous job. Maybe it was on his own blog not here. I think his reaction to unemployment is therefore totally understandable.
MadMan,
I'm not sure how you get that this administration hates ruling and thinks gov't is the root of all evil.
I mean, I wish. But NCLB, Part D, the regulations, the pork...
Eaugh. And now we have two guys running on the same platform.
Reagan's 'Are you better off that you were 4 years ago?' which infers that America was on the wrong path and he was running to set it straight again??
It implies that the people he's speaking to are worse off than they were four years ago.
Now if, like Obama, you're a leftie, you probably don't instinctively understand that "America" and "the government" are two completely different things. Reagan understood that, and so did his audience. He knew that America was a fantastic control run by a lousy government that was doing more harm than good. That was the theme of his campaign. That's why he joked that the most terrifying words in the English languages were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".
Now obviously what Obama MEANT was that the Republicans have done a lousy job. That's pretty much the only plank in the Democratic Platform, after all, and it is pretty much an accurate one. But the mistake he made was in saying that America was doing bad things, that America was "no longer what it could be" (whatever the hell that means). That's a mistake, in my opinion, because while the overwhelming majority of Americans think Bush has done a rotten job, the majority of Americans -- and the vast majority of non-Democrats -- still think this is a great country. Present tense, not past or future tense.
Thanks for pointing out that your comments by Reagan were from a debate, not a speech. I think that means that he didn't have notes or a teleprompter.
The remarks were from his closing statement. It was almost certainly a prepared speech.
Sorry to spam the thread, but the last line of Reagan's closing statement really outlines the difference in what he said and what Obama did:
I would like to have a crusade today, and I would like to lead that crusade with your help. And it would be one to take Government off the backs of the great people of this country, and turn you loose again to do those things that I know you can do so well, because you did them and made this country great. Thank you.
See that? In other words, "this country IS great; YOU made it great. The reason things aren't going well for you is that the government is in your way." Quite a different attitude from "this country used to be great, but it sucks now and we need the government to make it better", don't you think?
Sadly, quite a bit different from the "compassionate conservatism" of Bush and McCain, too. :/
"The good old days aren't what they used to be.
What's more, they never were."
-- Lee Hayes
Rev:
I read what you posted from Reagan and I agree with every single word.
Then I ask myself how I could have voted against him twice!
I must have been an idiot. Oh well I like to believe I am still learning.
Sadly, quite a bit different from the "compassionate conservatism" of Bush and McCain, too. :/
True. Checkbook conservatism would be a more accurate label.
More like credit card conservatism, given the national debt.
"One response is to say it's awfully negative, especially for talking to a little girl. But Obama has 2 little daughters. He should know how to talk to them. Are we not supposed to let kids see that we know that the world isn't perfect?"
You're kidding right? He subjected his "2 little daughters" to the worst kind of racist haranguing imaginable in the form of his chosen church and pastor. Now you suggest that the fact he has daughters makes his crude remark above to a little girl odd? Come one Ann...
Ann Althouse said ...
What's striking to me is that Obama didn't try harder to defend himself against the predictable accusations that he doesn't love America enough
Why should he defend something that isn't his core belief, which is to say that he loves America. His core belief is that he doesn't love America. How can you grow up like he did, have people like Saul Alinski, Frank Marshal Davis, and Jeremiah, just to name a few as your mentors and say that you have to defend your love of America when these people hate it and they indoctrinated you into that same hatred. You even ended up marrying a woman who holds the same beliefs.
Ann, please. This type of sycophanty really needs to stop. You really want so badly to be on Obama's side that you are willing to even ask the question of whether or not he should defend his love of America when their is historical facts about this mans life that say he doesn't. And yet you call these accusation predictable? Really? I think they are still rather shocking. Or are you already jaded?
Once I was in this airport bar and there was this really hot chick reading the Althouse blog on her Iphone. So I told her I was Trooper York and I told a few jokes and stories and we had a few drinks and it was all going very well. Then a couple of other dudes started talking religion and politics and well, we split.
downtownlad said...
Let's face it. Americans are stupid. They can't handle nuance.
What is your version of nuance, hmmm? A little to the left, a little to the right, oh, oh, right there, don't stop?
Blue Moon-
America kicks butt... on a curve. America is the student that gets an 83 on an exam when the next highest grade is a 74 so America gets a curved "A"
In my 9th grade science class, I had a teacher who graded 'on the curve'.
Then I scored a 95% on the "Final"- where the 2nd best score was 73% and the 3rd highest was 67%.
There was a guy who got a 52% (22nd of 57) on that same "Final" (worth 30% of your grade)- and he also received an "A" for the class.
That's not a curve.
That's a plateau.
What is your version of nuance, hmmm?
Hey, reconciling his actual politics with his claimed libertarianism takes enough nuance to float a dozen Kerry campaigns.
Hoosier Daddy, I believe zps had noted several times that he hated his previous job. Maybe it was on his own blog not here. I think his reaction to unemployment is therefore totally understandable.
Well you know MM, I had a few jobs I really hated. Dirty dangerous jobs where I actually damn near met the Almighty if it wasn't for a safety harness and an alert co-worker. Needless to say it paid the mortgage, car payments, child care and other bills that come with having obligations. Despite the dislike of the occupation, if I had been laid off, the dislike of the job nothwithstanding, my attitude would be not so much like ZPS but wondering if I was going to be able to meet my responsibilities.
Then again, when you're a youngin, with no obligations other than to your own personal whims, I suppose a carefree attitude of living off unemployment is understandable.
Just sayin
Once I was in this airport bar and there was this really hot chick reading the Althouse blog on her Iphone. So I went up to her and told her I was Pogo. She asked me why they called me Pogo. I said it was because the ladies liked the fact that possums males generally have a two-pronged penis.
Although the sexual harassment suit is still pending, the facial fractures hardly hurt at all anymore.
Only when I laugh.
Then again, when you're a youngin, with no obligations other than to your own personal whims, I suppose a carefree attitude of living off unemployment is understandable.
Before I bought a house, I was in a position where if I'd suddenly lost my job, I'd have been forced to rush out and find new employment sometime within the next... three to five years. If you haven't got a mortgage or kids, and are young enough that chronic health problems aren't an issue, you really don't need much money to live on.
One size ...
...does not fit all.
It never did, whatever anecdotals notwithstanding.
(Cringing at certain vergings. Not to mention broad-brushings.)
"Obama and the Dems obviously see it as half-empty."
Nonsense, Bob! Liberals belive the glass os half full, too. But they know they have to work very hard to stop the damn Republicans from stealing half of the content!
:P
Once I was in this airport bar and there was this really hot chick reading the Althouse blog on her Iphone. So I went up to her and told her I was reading that blog, too, sometimes, but I didn't know why, because I'm really a diehard liberal. She seemed to be flattered and said, "that's great, and, btw, I'm Ann Althouse". We got along great for five minutes or so, until the conversation turned to foreign policy. She rushed out of the bar, in a fuming mood, and left me with the check for her glass of wine.
:D
Of all the cheap airport bars in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine. I was reading her blog, shes say's "see anything you like". I say "how do I know you're not trooper york?"
John Kennedy's candidacy was one of confidence, strength and patriotism; pride in the generations that came before yet confident that the time for generational torch passing had come.
Obama is negative; seemingly ashamed of the country in which he lives.
He cannot win the presidency.
Now Pogo, caffiene soldier and Mr. Forward, that's how you play the game. Good show.
Reader, that's why we have Leeleesvalise.com. We fit your style. (Sizes 10 to 28) Just sayn'
Trooper, the "size 10 to 28" thing scared me for a second, because I thought you were talking about shoes. I was trying to picture a woman wearing a size 28 shoe, and I figured that doesn't happen even in the WNBA...
(And then I remembered that you actually ran a clothing store, and it all made sense.)
Before I bought a house, I was in a position where if I'd suddenly lost my job, I'd have been forced to rush out and find new employment sometime within the next... three to five years. If you haven't got a mortgage or kids, and are young enough that chronic health problems aren't an issue, you really don't need much money to live on.
Really? 3-5 years? I was single once too and unless mom and dad were going to send me a weekly check, I still needed money to buy food and lets see, pay for shelter. Granted it didn' take much money but it did take money and at least where I came from, you had to have a job to get it.
In any event that wasn't the point I was trying to make.
You see, in this clip, Obama's just responding to the soft anti-Americanism of having low expectations of your country.
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