In 50 minutes last night, the president of the United States used his first speech to a joint session of Congress as a launching point, a chance to transform the bulk of his entire campaign platform into the core of a bold first year agenda. In one of his most compelling arguments to date, he laid out a blueprint going forward, rich with clarity and powered by an ever-accruing political capital.
What was most impressive about the speech was not its cadence and tone, but the framing used to sell its contents. Obama couched his unabashedly progressive agenda as critical to the country's long term economic future. Where President Clinton became famous for taking Republican ideas and wrapping them in Democratic arguments, President Obama called for some of the most liberal policies in a generation, and did so using the voice of a fiscal conservative.
He argued that investments in education were critical if the next generation is expected to compete in a global economy. He saw health care reform as critical relief to businesses that are buckling under the weight of providing for their employees in a badly broken system. And he argued that renewable energy policy was a national security issue, not an environmental one.
The president seems to recognize, as Lyndon Johnson did some 45 years ago, that there is exceptional power behind the mandate he's been given. Johnson knew, upon taking office, that he could use the legacy of President Kennedy to push through a bold new program, but that such a mandate might recede at a moments notice. So he asked his advisers to "push ahead full-tilt" and, in doing so, sparked the political flame that would ultimately have him sign into law the most sweeping legislative program since FDR's New Deal.
Obama, too, sees that the scope of his crisis is wide enough to drive a revolutionizing agenda through it, but that his time may be limited. With sky-high popularity, a self-destructing opposition, and a hulking majority in Congress, he understands the opportunity before him.
And so, he has called for health care reform by the end of the year; a sweeping energy policy, equipped with a cap and trade system and major increase in renewables; a substantial investment in education; an expansion of veteran's benefits and a restoration of civil liberties; an overhaul of regulations; an unprecedented level of transparency, and an end to the war in Iraq.
He knows what recent polls have told all of us - that the American people want the policies they voted for in November, that they want him to clear the hurdles put in his way by the Republicans, that they want Republicans to work with Obama, as long as the result is the Obama policy. They want him to have his chance.
If he succeeds, if at year end, all Americans have access to health care, if the economy is moving toward recovery, driven by renewable energy construction and technological innovation, if homeowners are saved from foreclosure and banks returned to stability, if new classrooms are built and new investments made in education, then by year end, President Obama will have fathered his own Great Society, and in record time.
Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:
We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.
Here is a model separation agreement:
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.
We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).
We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .
You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.
So what part of Econ 101 says that if you are living dangerously close to edge and up to your eyes in debt . . . the answer is to spend more money you don't have?
a leader to protect them with the ability to educate and provide health care for their families...
a leader that believes in diplomacy first and war only for the the last resort...
a leader that can provide oversight and regulation from the tyranny of neoconservative politics...
What we have experienced as a nation the past eight years was not democracy...
Denial is now the mantra for neoconservatism.
We now have a leader that can think, he can speak and he brings something to the table other than fear and division!
And now I am supposed to pay for swine odor control in Iowa and tatoo removal? I thought Obama said no "earmarks." Sorry but I am not stupid; sounds like earmarks to me. And under the radar is the the Dominican Republic about to get full state's rights without going through the Constitution. This party of Democrats is completely trashing our Constitution and in this case, the 23rd Amendment.
Gosh, I am not just disappointed, I am angry at this so-called President. He is presenting class warfare all over the place.
What on God's Earth are you talking about?
shame
Write a letter and tell the President set John Conyers loose. Will not change anything but I am sure you will sleep better at night. Unless you think of the precedent it says. Dem are running the show today but will they forever?
WHAT???????
This is a joke, right?
Earth to jobman, come in, please......
What exactly happened? Why did they not work then, but will work now.
I am just wondering.
You may want to keep in mind that only a little over half the country voted for him. The sad reality is that Obama still thinks he's campaigning. All I heard last night were the same promises and campaign rhetoric that we've been hearing for months. I also heard a lot of $$$. Not sure how that's going to work out, but I guess is doesn't matter if you can keep the masses happy with promises of universal health care, and bailing their asses out. 2010 2010 2010 2010, I just keep saying it to myself. Hopefully it won't be too late to save the country.
Civic discourse is needed, even when we don't agree with the views of the people that are asking.
Gdogs - Yes, you are correct, Obama won the majority. It's very astute of you to notice that fact. And as such, he is governing for the majority of the population. As for making promises, he is delivering on his promise to pull the troops out of Iraq. He delivered on an economic package. He is just getting started. He has accomplished more positive legislation in a month than Shrub has accomplished in eight years.
Obama is the face of real leadership!
Have you read the stimulus Dear? Aint no more producers coming out of this society.
It takes incentives to get production and those incentives as seen now will be non exisitant in a few short years. Just like my company after its sale to our customer in Hong Kong. Yep, customer in Hong Kong as well as 55 other countries. They are to keep my employees unitl 2010 before they transfer the business. I started the business on my kitchen table 30 some years ago and will sell now while the individual owner value is still there. Source? Wall Street........
TS
TS
Green energy isn't as profitable as oil because we fail to take into account the true costs of oil production. What do you think Iraq is about? Your tax dollars to keep oil coming ... a trillion dollars, and we're all distracted by prices at the pump. And the damage to health and environment ... The truth is there is no such thing as cheap energy; we've just been paying for it twice -- at the pump and in our taxes. Makes it look cheap. Makes Exxon shareholders happy. If we're going to nationalize something, maybe it should be ...
We aren't going to "pay for all of these bad mortgages." Banks' role is to keep credit flowing -- help people refinance their homes, which they can't do right now because their home values have dropped too far; and help businesses keep going so there are fewer job losses.
We are going to pay for our excesses of the last decades one way or another. If we elect another W because he tells us we don't have to sacrifice, or because he tells us some bad guy in another country did all of this to us, then we deserve what we get. I surely hope we're smarter than that.
The core problem of the economic crisis, isn't the nature of the Free-Market. The problem, that is the core of the economic crisis, is that Wall-Street runs the Market and not Americans.
We have Political Democracy (arguably, lol), but we have Economic Plutocracy. We need a Change that enables the people to be independent of their government, not subsidized by their government. And I have such a plan that will enable EVERY AMERICAN to become a PROPERTY-CAPITAL OWNER, just like the current Top Ten Percent.... Here it is...
Capital Homsteading for the 21st Century: Economic Justice in an Age of Economic Plutocracy
-http://cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm
The Just Third Way: A New Paradigm for Wealth Creation, Distribution and Ownership
-http://cesj.org/thirdway/paradigmpapers/pressclub-nkmgdb-ppr.htm
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Thanks!