Nathan Moore's Thoughts
Take Him at His Word
Blue Collar Muse has put together a good analysis of Barack Obama’s victory speech, dissecting his words, and taking them at their plain meaning (a speech admittedly I was unable to watch – Seinfeld was on instead, and the parallels were startling).
Tuesday night, Barack Obama spoke to a waiting country and a wondering world. Found in his words are a myriad reasons to reject what he stands for. The election is over and Obama is President. Some say the healing must now begin and we must unite behind Barack. Obama himself appealed “…to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn — I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.”
Of course he needs our help. He needs our money. About a trillion of it.
Obama’s words are empty. His promise is hollow. His dreams are nightmares. To be my President, he must deny everything he confesses to believe in. He must repudiate his stated policies. He must realize the paradise he seeks is found in the principles and promises of others. As the President, he may invoke the imagery of Lincoln, King and Kennedy but his appeal to their memory defiles their legacy.
Go read the rest . Remember, there are 56 million Americans who feel this way. Barack Obama only got 2 million more votes than George W. Bush did in 2004. If he wants us to “heal”, then he needs to come to us. We are not the ones obliged to come to him.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Nathan – I would take your critique of Obama’s speech more seriously if you had bothered to listen to it yourself. I understand that you are disappointed with the results of the election, but I’d think that if you want to be a well-informed political commentator, you’d go to the primary source of the information, rather than someone else’s interpretation of it.
I listened to both McCain’s and Obama’s speeches, and I thought that McCain’s speech was excellent and intelligent and classy. I wish he’d been that classy throughout his campaign, because I do believe he is a greater person and politician than he appeared in the last couple months.
Anyway…I keep hearing people who are anti-Obama lament that the American people are looking for handouts and will expect the government to do everything for them. I don’t know – that stereotype MAY hold true for some Obama supporters…but it comes nowhere near characterizing all the Obama supporters I’ve encountered.
I’ve heard from several people who say that their favorite moment in Obama’s speech was when he said that Americans would have to make sacrifices. People are looking for a sense of community, rather than the individual looking out for him/herself. People WANT to help each other. I am sorry if “community” sounds too much like “communism” to you. Sense of community and chipping in to help one another is NOT socialism.
Also, a question – if there is such outrage that Obama would unfairly take from the wealthy to “spread the wealth around,” then why did the wealthiest of the wealthy tend to vote for Obama?
People are genuinely patriotic and feeling good. I haven’t seen so many American flags in NYC since Sep 11…it’s pretty nice to see this outpouring of community in response to something that isn’t a tragedy.
And I think it’s great for democracy.
If you had bothered to watch the speech, you would have seen how many people were genuinely touched by the moment…and NOT because they were “drinking the kool-aid,” but because their faith was renewed in our political process and in our country. People were moved because they recognized how much of this campaign was propelled at the grassroots level, and also because they recognized the historical significance of this election.
This might make you gag, I’m sure, but “hope” wasn’t just a buzzword that night – you could really feel it in the air. People were so happy, for real reasons.
You can watch Seinfeld all you want, but Obama is still going to be your president.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I went back and read the speech. I was just done for the night on Tuesday. It doesn’t look like he said anything all that surprising – or specific. Besides, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who pays as much attention as Sarah and I do.
This is a recurring theme – the whole “hope” thing. Hope is an emotion in the absence of concreteness – you have hope when everything else has been exhausted. He is providing hope through promises of a more involved federal government. That is not a good thing.
As for the grassroots…well, yeah – grassroots and outspending McCain on TV ads by a factor of four worked rather well.
Whatever substance he addressed during his campaign always involved the federal government giving someone something. You really don’t think that mattered? I can understand that, and simply detest people who vote that way. I cannot get voting for someone based primarily on a feeling, “hope” or otherwise.
Nice move with Rahm Emanuel, too. As if that doesn’t fly in the face of the entire theme of Obama’s campaign.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
We have elected an intelligent, driven man to lead our country. He has a loving, beautiful family, he genuinely listens to his advisors, and he has the respect of our allies. This doesn’t sound like hope based on nothing to me.
Re: Rahm Emanuel vs. “the entire theme of Obama’s campaign”
Not sure what you mean by this, Nathan. What do you think the theme of Obama’s campaign was? Are you talking about Washington outsiders vs insiders or something? That wouldn’t apply to Obama – he’s consistently sought to surround himself with whomever is best equipped for the job. He picked Joe Biden as his running mate. I believe it was actually Sarah Palin who was pushing the whole “Washington outsider” thing.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Nevermind. Emanuel is ball-busting operator, not terribly interested in unity. I’m sure you knew that.
Obama is in fact intelligent. That is a means, not a virtue. He is driven – to power. Michelle Obama is further left than he is, and so lovely, in fact, that we heard virtually nothing from her for the last six weeks of the campaign.
Don’t get too excited about “respect from our allies”. We have respect now. What you mean is “liked”. There is a legion of difference between being respected and liked. I’d rather be respected.
And – Joe Biden is simply Dan Quayle with media support, who says stupid things on a more regular basis. But he gets a pass. If Joe Biden is evidence of Obama’s good decision making, we are all certainly doomed.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
And why do we have respect now?
You are saying that Bush instilled respect of the USA in other world leaders?
November 6th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I got to bet that Biden knows that Africa is a continent and not a country and after supporting Sarah Palin i would never get on Biden as being dumb or stupid! Do you wear blinders little Nathan? I see some serious tunnel vision with you sir!
November 14th, 2008 at 4:33 am
I am an American from a midwestern, Republican family who has been living abroad for two years, working at an international lab with people from all over the world. My impression of other country’s views of the US is anything but respect. People from all over overwhelmingly reject the US’s actions and attitudes under Bush, and are excited about a new start.
You can see some evidence of this in the Economist’s reader poll — by no means scientific, but still interesting — that their readers all over the world preferred Barack Obama 5 to 1.