Thoughts On The Presidents Address To Congress
* It is simply unbelievable what a dynamic speaker Obama is. When Obama is rolling, there's damn near no stopping him. You just can't listen to the guy and not feel good.
* I loved all of Obama's talk about encouraging innovation. This, I believe, is the strength of his plan. I have doubts (which we'll discuss) about the short term benefits of Obama's Deal (as I shall henceforth refer to the stimulus package), just like the New Deal proved pretty much ineffective in the short term. However, just as the New Deal was an outstanding investment in America's future, this has the same potential. IF we use this money to encourage innovation--better cars that reduce our dependence on foreign oil, a more efficient energy grid, infrastructure improvements, educational improvements, etc.--then the long term benefits to America--which are desperately needed--will be tremendous. For the first time in years, we're seeing a forward-looking plan from the government instead of just short term, "what will keep me popular now" thinking.
* I had to wonder, though, what Obama's union buddies were thinking as they heard him speak of innovation, of learning new trades, of going back to school. With all due respect to the folks who brought us the weekend, but the modern union is against, well, pretty much all of these ideas. There's nothing that screams "status quo" more than unions. Obama certainly isn't making any friends amongst the unions with this, and I'm happy--check that, I'm THRILLED to see him not just cowtowing to them, as I feared he would.
* Good job staying positive Barack!
* Nancy Pelosi, if you don't sit your dumb ass down and stop standing up and clapping at every other sentence, I'm going to reach through the TV set and strangle you. God I hate that arrogant bitch.
* There are no two Americans more thrilled than Kyle and I were to find Team Obama going through the budget, line by line, and removing wasteful spending (on that note, my first thought when I heard Obama mention cutting spending on "educational programs that don't work" was, "Bye bye abstinence education!"). It's far past time that someone sat down, took a hard look at everything we're spending money on, and asked the question, "Do we really need to spend money on this?" Good for them. While I'm certainly not a liberal "making money is bad and means your evil" kind of guy, I'm okay with taxing the rich more. I don't support this because they have more money than most people do; it's every good capitalist's job to try to make as much money as possible, plain and simple. I'm okay with this because if we're learned anything over the last year, it's that not only have many of the elite of the country taken home ridiculous amounts of money to fail miserably at their jobs (See: any car Executive Officer, any bank XO, any mortgage XO, etc.), but they have been ridiculously pompous and arrogant about doing so. It is time for the haves to give back. (I can't believe that I'm writing these words. But, sadly, it's become painfully obvious that far too often that instead of the most rewards being given to the most deserving, the most rewards have been given to the Old Boy's Club who just watched each other's backs instead of doing what was best for their companies and shareholders, which in turn is what's best for the country. It's time to break up that Club and invite the best and the brightest back in. Look at it this way Kyle: instead of Francisco d'Anconia, I want Dagny and JG back in charge, and am cool with taking Franky's money from him.) THAT BEING SAID, I still don't see how Obama is going to do all the things he's promised to do and not raise taxes for anyone making under $250k. I love what you're trying to do Obama. I really do. But that math just don't work in my head.
* Joe Biden...wow. He might be the living personification of the goofy dumb kid in class. Was he texting the entire speech? Writing his grocery list? He kept looking into his lap the whole time like he was playing on a Blackberry, and looked disinterested most of the time. The only good part about it was he obviously shared my feelings on Pelosi: every time she'd stand and applaud after about the third time, he kept shooting her the, "Bitch, quit making me have to stand up, I'm busy surfing the web for notes on Jessica's weight!" look. I kept waiting for Obama to turn around and sternly say, "Joe, give me the Blackberry. Give it to me Joe. Joe...give me...there. Now we're going to talk about this when we get home. Now you will sit there, and you will pay attention, do you understand me?" Good to know he's in charge if anything happens to Obama.
* Credit to the Republicans: they did a much better job of being enthusiastic and respectful of the Commander In Chief than the Democrats even thought of being to Bush. Almost everyone stood, almost everyone cheered enthusiastically, and I didn't notice any of the Hillary Clinton "I'm just fake clapping because a camera is on me while looking disgusted" bullshit in the crowd. Way to be respectful of your leader, whether you agree with him or not.
* Next, to the Republican response, from their "rising star", Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. His speech can be summed up pretty succinctly: he was AWFUL. Just awful.
Look, I'll give you guys the benefit of the doubt. Barack Obama might be one of the best orators in the history of the world. I realize what high praise that is, but I think he's literally that good. So anybody following him--even if they're damn good--is going to look bad by comparison. So unfortunately, Bobby J was set up for failure from the beginning. I sympathize Bobby, I really do.
That being said, your speech was pathetic. First of all, there was way too much storytime. Look dude, I know you want to be President in 2012 and want to pimp yourself, but I don't need five full minutes on your life history. The President just gave an outstanding speech outlining what America needs to do; we're in a time of crisis, and he got in there, hit numerous points, and did so succinctly. So I'm not interested in your life story following that, I'm interested in your response to what he said. Second, I have to give mad props to the pure, unadulterated greatness of Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket on this one. The whole time he was speaking, Kim and I both thought that the way he spoke was odd, though we couldn't put our finger on exactly what it was. Well The Ticket nailed it this morning: he talked exactly like Kenneth The Page from 30 Rock! EXACTLY! From the simple sentences, to the soft, country boy, "please take advantage of me" tone of voice. Not exactly what you're looking for in a future President.
And finally, to his message itself. Republicans, I understand that you feel you have to argue with anything a Democratic president says. I understand that you two idiots (dems and repubs, of course) have convinced yourselves that in the modern world, you have to hate each other, and that there can be no compromise. I understand that you think that. Well, here's your problem. You've tried since Reagan to sell yourselves as the anti-government party; the party that wants a small government, little interference in people's lives, and as much money in the people's hands as possible. And hey, I'm all for that. That's what I'm interested in. I support that.
Here's the problem: that's not what you've been doing. You've spent tons of money, you've spent way too much time and effort trying to ram social issues down our throats, and you failed miserably at your job as caretakers of this country. It's not all your fault, to be sure, and you've gone through some remarkable challenges while you were in charge of the country. But the fact of the matter is, YOU FAILED. You didn't lower the deficit, your tax ideas didn't stimulate the economy, and the government didn't shrink while you were in charge. You didn't do what your supposed goal is. These are the facts, and they are irrefutable.
As such, the people voted you out, and wanted to try a new path. And the guy they choose has taken some of your ideas: no new taxes for people making under $250k should be a Republican's dream come true! Encouraging innovation in the private sector is what your party has championed for years! These are all ideas you should get behind. So if you don't get behind those ideas, and instead throw our ridiculous and uncompromising criticisms--like insisting that the stimulus should be nothing but tax cuts, when you didn't even do that when you were in power--then you're just proving one thing: that you're not really the group that wants a small government with most of the money in the people's hands. You're the group that supports the Old Boy's Club: you want as much money going to your rich buddies as possible, and you don't give a shit about anyone else. You want to be in charge because you want to be in charge, not because you think your ideas are for the best of the country. You want the title, not what's best for the country.
Let me put it this way: I sure as fuck don't want to see the Governor of Louisiana up there bitching about how big the Federal government is, while telling stories about Katrina, when ALL THE WORTHLESS STATE OF LOUISIANA HAS EVER DONE SINCE KATRINA IS BITCH ABOUT NOT GETTING ENOUGH HELP FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! I couldn't believe my ears as BJ was talking. Really? You want to bitch about the Federal government being too big, when your state just sat on their asses and did almost nothing while waiting for the government to do everything for you? Really? That's how you want to show that a Federal government is bad? FUCK YOU!!!!! THERE WOULDN'T BE A NEW ORLEANS RIGHT NOW IF IT WASN'T FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! AND AS A FEDERAL TAXPAYER, I'M FUCKING OKAY WITH THAT BJ!!!!!!!
...
So in conclusion, I wasn't a big fan of the Republican response, and I don't find myself a support of Bobby Jindal going forward.
* I don't want to end on a negative note, so let's accentuate the positives once again. I like what I'm hearing from Obama. He's far less Liberal than he seemed on the campaign trail. I think he does have good ideas and intentions as to what we need to do to fix our country. I think he's a dreamer and is only going to be able to accomplish half of what he wants to accomplish, but I'm okay with that. It's been far too long since we've had a leader who had lots of good ideas for the future, and that's what we need right now: a man who's interested in what we can do, and not what we can't.
Excellent work Mr. President. Now go make it happen please.
* I loved all of Obama's talk about encouraging innovation. This, I believe, is the strength of his plan. I have doubts (which we'll discuss) about the short term benefits of Obama's Deal (as I shall henceforth refer to the stimulus package), just like the New Deal proved pretty much ineffective in the short term. However, just as the New Deal was an outstanding investment in America's future, this has the same potential. IF we use this money to encourage innovation--better cars that reduce our dependence on foreign oil, a more efficient energy grid, infrastructure improvements, educational improvements, etc.--then the long term benefits to America--which are desperately needed--will be tremendous. For the first time in years, we're seeing a forward-looking plan from the government instead of just short term, "what will keep me popular now" thinking.
* I had to wonder, though, what Obama's union buddies were thinking as they heard him speak of innovation, of learning new trades, of going back to school. With all due respect to the folks who brought us the weekend, but the modern union is against, well, pretty much all of these ideas. There's nothing that screams "status quo" more than unions. Obama certainly isn't making any friends amongst the unions with this, and I'm happy--check that, I'm THRILLED to see him not just cowtowing to them, as I feared he would.
* Good job staying positive Barack!
* Nancy Pelosi, if you don't sit your dumb ass down and stop standing up and clapping at every other sentence, I'm going to reach through the TV set and strangle you. God I hate that arrogant bitch.
* There are no two Americans more thrilled than Kyle and I were to find Team Obama going through the budget, line by line, and removing wasteful spending (on that note, my first thought when I heard Obama mention cutting spending on "educational programs that don't work" was, "Bye bye abstinence education!"). It's far past time that someone sat down, took a hard look at everything we're spending money on, and asked the question, "Do we really need to spend money on this?" Good for them. While I'm certainly not a liberal "making money is bad and means your evil" kind of guy, I'm okay with taxing the rich more. I don't support this because they have more money than most people do; it's every good capitalist's job to try to make as much money as possible, plain and simple. I'm okay with this because if we're learned anything over the last year, it's that not only have many of the elite of the country taken home ridiculous amounts of money to fail miserably at their jobs (See: any car Executive Officer, any bank XO, any mortgage XO, etc.), but they have been ridiculously pompous and arrogant about doing so. It is time for the haves to give back. (I can't believe that I'm writing these words. But, sadly, it's become painfully obvious that far too often that instead of the most rewards being given to the most deserving, the most rewards have been given to the Old Boy's Club who just watched each other's backs instead of doing what was best for their companies and shareholders, which in turn is what's best for the country. It's time to break up that Club and invite the best and the brightest back in. Look at it this way Kyle: instead of Francisco d'Anconia, I want Dagny and JG back in charge, and am cool with taking Franky's money from him.) THAT BEING SAID, I still don't see how Obama is going to do all the things he's promised to do and not raise taxes for anyone making under $250k. I love what you're trying to do Obama. I really do. But that math just don't work in my head.
* Joe Biden...wow. He might be the living personification of the goofy dumb kid in class. Was he texting the entire speech? Writing his grocery list? He kept looking into his lap the whole time like he was playing on a Blackberry, and looked disinterested most of the time. The only good part about it was he obviously shared my feelings on Pelosi: every time she'd stand and applaud after about the third time, he kept shooting her the, "Bitch, quit making me have to stand up, I'm busy surfing the web for notes on Jessica's weight!" look. I kept waiting for Obama to turn around and sternly say, "Joe, give me the Blackberry. Give it to me Joe. Joe...give me...there. Now we're going to talk about this when we get home. Now you will sit there, and you will pay attention, do you understand me?" Good to know he's in charge if anything happens to Obama.
* Credit to the Republicans: they did a much better job of being enthusiastic and respectful of the Commander In Chief than the Democrats even thought of being to Bush. Almost everyone stood, almost everyone cheered enthusiastically, and I didn't notice any of the Hillary Clinton "I'm just fake clapping because a camera is on me while looking disgusted" bullshit in the crowd. Way to be respectful of your leader, whether you agree with him or not.
* Next, to the Republican response, from their "rising star", Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. His speech can be summed up pretty succinctly: he was AWFUL. Just awful.
Look, I'll give you guys the benefit of the doubt. Barack Obama might be one of the best orators in the history of the world. I realize what high praise that is, but I think he's literally that good. So anybody following him--even if they're damn good--is going to look bad by comparison. So unfortunately, Bobby J was set up for failure from the beginning. I sympathize Bobby, I really do.
That being said, your speech was pathetic. First of all, there was way too much storytime. Look dude, I know you want to be President in 2012 and want to pimp yourself, but I don't need five full minutes on your life history. The President just gave an outstanding speech outlining what America needs to do; we're in a time of crisis, and he got in there, hit numerous points, and did so succinctly. So I'm not interested in your life story following that, I'm interested in your response to what he said. Second, I have to give mad props to the pure, unadulterated greatness of Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket on this one. The whole time he was speaking, Kim and I both thought that the way he spoke was odd, though we couldn't put our finger on exactly what it was. Well The Ticket nailed it this morning: he talked exactly like Kenneth The Page from 30 Rock! EXACTLY! From the simple sentences, to the soft, country boy, "please take advantage of me" tone of voice. Not exactly what you're looking for in a future President.
And finally, to his message itself. Republicans, I understand that you feel you have to argue with anything a Democratic president says. I understand that you two idiots (dems and repubs, of course) have convinced yourselves that in the modern world, you have to hate each other, and that there can be no compromise. I understand that you think that. Well, here's your problem. You've tried since Reagan to sell yourselves as the anti-government party; the party that wants a small government, little interference in people's lives, and as much money in the people's hands as possible. And hey, I'm all for that. That's what I'm interested in. I support that.
Here's the problem: that's not what you've been doing. You've spent tons of money, you've spent way too much time and effort trying to ram social issues down our throats, and you failed miserably at your job as caretakers of this country. It's not all your fault, to be sure, and you've gone through some remarkable challenges while you were in charge of the country. But the fact of the matter is, YOU FAILED. You didn't lower the deficit, your tax ideas didn't stimulate the economy, and the government didn't shrink while you were in charge. You didn't do what your supposed goal is. These are the facts, and they are irrefutable.
As such, the people voted you out, and wanted to try a new path. And the guy they choose has taken some of your ideas: no new taxes for people making under $250k should be a Republican's dream come true! Encouraging innovation in the private sector is what your party has championed for years! These are all ideas you should get behind. So if you don't get behind those ideas, and instead throw our ridiculous and uncompromising criticisms--like insisting that the stimulus should be nothing but tax cuts, when you didn't even do that when you were in power--then you're just proving one thing: that you're not really the group that wants a small government with most of the money in the people's hands. You're the group that supports the Old Boy's Club: you want as much money going to your rich buddies as possible, and you don't give a shit about anyone else. You want to be in charge because you want to be in charge, not because you think your ideas are for the best of the country. You want the title, not what's best for the country.
Let me put it this way: I sure as fuck don't want to see the Governor of Louisiana up there bitching about how big the Federal government is, while telling stories about Katrina, when ALL THE WORTHLESS STATE OF LOUISIANA HAS EVER DONE SINCE KATRINA IS BITCH ABOUT NOT GETTING ENOUGH HELP FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! I couldn't believe my ears as BJ was talking. Really? You want to bitch about the Federal government being too big, when your state just sat on their asses and did almost nothing while waiting for the government to do everything for you? Really? That's how you want to show that a Federal government is bad? FUCK YOU!!!!! THERE WOULDN'T BE A NEW ORLEANS RIGHT NOW IF IT WASN'T FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! AND AS A FEDERAL TAXPAYER, I'M FUCKING OKAY WITH THAT BJ!!!!!!!
...
So in conclusion, I wasn't a big fan of the Republican response, and I don't find myself a support of Bobby Jindal going forward.
* I don't want to end on a negative note, so let's accentuate the positives once again. I like what I'm hearing from Obama. He's far less Liberal than he seemed on the campaign trail. I think he does have good ideas and intentions as to what we need to do to fix our country. I think he's a dreamer and is only going to be able to accomplish half of what he wants to accomplish, but I'm okay with that. It's been far too long since we've had a leader who had lots of good ideas for the future, and that's what we need right now: a man who's interested in what we can do, and not what we can't.
Excellent work Mr. President. Now go make it happen please.
Labels: Barack Obama, Economy, Politics
posted by Michael Pondrom at 12:38 AM
3 Comments:
Consider this an addendum. I just got done reading several responses on the WSJ, which most had a similar thing: "I can't believe he's spending all this money, he's crazy, he can't afford it."
Look guys...I agree with you. I think this is an overlyambitious spending proposal during this time. I'd rather let some of these businesses "die"--as in be bought out by successful competitors, and be restructered into parts of winning firms--then bail out every business that comes to Congress. I also have doubts--as I raised above--about whether government spending can succeed in bringing us out of a recession. And by "doubts" I mean, "it's not going to work". I think well thought out government spending won't hurt us, but I don't think it will save us, either (key words being: well thought out).
But here's the deal guys: I don't know if you were paying attention, but Congress passed an $800 billion dollar stimulus bill. I've got news for you guys: the money has already been spent. You don't borrow money from a bookee, realize a week later that he might break your legs, and then bring it back and say, "Here's your money back; we're cool, right? I don't owe you that interest, do I?" No. Once you sign and take that money, for all intents and purposes it's spent. It's gone. You're in the hole. What matters, is what you do with it.
And that's the point to this: quit bitching about whether or not we should spend this money. Once again, here are the facts, and they are irrefutable: Barack Obama has $800 billion dollars, and he's going to go spend it. There's no use in crying over spilled milk, because he's got the money. Let's look at what he wants to spend that $800 billion on. So far, I like more of what he's saying than I dislike, so I'm happy. Let's focus on that and make the most of it, instead of blindly taking ideological potshots at him. Let's try to do what's best with the money we have.
Mike, I think the problem here is we don't have the money. We're borrowing it from places like China and Russia. What concerns me here is the level of debt we will end up with at a time when our economy seems to be grinding to a halt. If those foreign governments for whatever reason start calling the debt or stop buying new issues the whole thing is going to lock up. Not to mention that the real price tag on the whole thing only increases as our debt load increases because eventually our debt rating will get downgraded and we'll have to pay higher interest rates. You are right, the money is spent, I'm just scared about where it all ends.
Agreed on Bobby Jindal - minus he f-bombs. You know me.
I can't stand listening to Obama speak. His cadence annoys the crap out of me and I disagree with him so much of the time that my blood boils just listening - because I keep thinking, "Please, spit it out and quit pausing after every third word." I really don't get the whole sensation with his oratory skills. By comparison, in his time, I thought Clinton (who I thought was a massive idiot) was a very good speaker. I give that example in an effort to dispel the thought that I don't like Obama's speaking just because I disagree with him ideologically.
One other item I'd love to hear more from you on: Unions. Everything I've heard Obama say is so pro-union it makes me sick. Card check - really?!? The terms in the spending bill require the projects pay the highest prevailing wage and appear to be prejudiced toward using union labor over non-union. I just haven't see evidence of him doing anything other than empowering organized labor. I'll not get on my soapbox about the evils of the UAW - this is your blog, not mine.
Thank you for giving us a scorecard on the whole thing.
No disagreement on the debt issue--it is a huge problem (literally), though, as I said, America knew when they elected Obama that they weren't electing him to shrink the debt. We got what we asked for.
See, I'm surprised to hear you say that. I'm the opposite of you: I never understood why everyone thought Clinton was such a good speaker. I couldn't STAND listening to him speak--the good old boy country thing always drove me nuts. Just a preference for two different styles, I guess. You can't blame him too much for having to pause, though, since part of the reason was fin Pelosi (censoring for you buddy ;-P ) standing up and interupting him every other word.
I was actually surprised when I dropped the word "union" in my search engine above; a lot of hits came back. My favorite blog about unions can be found here. I think I covered my feelings about them in general pretty well there. I'm glad you brought this up, because Kyle and I were discussing the Card Check issue the other day. What a crock of shit (sorry Ryan, there's only so much I can do when discussing unions). I'm sorry, but as far as I remember it, anytime I've voted publicly it's been secret. Why should voting for a union be any different? It's just another example of the mob-like intimidation that unions love to employ.
As far as Obama and unions go, that was probably my concern #1 with him during the campaign, which I wrote about several times. Being a Chicago union guy, I fully expected him to be 100% Pro Union in anything he does. Thus, when he is only 85% pro union, I'm willing to count that as a victory.
The Card Check thing is a big deal; I (along with obviously many) am watching that anxiously. God willing, Americans will keep one of their most sacred rights: the ability to vote freely without pressure or coersion. It's really that simple.
And, my friend, feel free to throw your opinions out here, or link to posts in your blog, whenever you want, ESPECIALLY when bashing unions. :-)
On a personal note...I am now officially closer to 30 than I am to 29. Enjoy your last two days buddy.
PJ
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