Tuesday, January 20, 2009
President Obama's First Speech
Just heard it while getting lunch. I had to turn to the NPR feed because Rush kept making comments and it was annoying me. Obama certainly is a wonderful speaker, and if you are going to be stuck listening to somebody for 4 years, it could be worse. I loved his themes on foreign relations, but I am waiting to see if he actually closes Gitmo, draws down troops "over there" (and moving troops from Iraq to Afghanistan doesn't really count), stops warrantless wiretapping, etc. Since I believe he has only promised to just do the first of these, I am not optimistic.
On the domestic front, his rhetoric was pleasing to the ear but not to the brain. In particular, he said something to the effect that he was going to use government smartly to make sure our economy exhibits all that a free people can produce. That's a whopper a la Mencken's critique of the Gettysburg Address.
Last nitpick: He said he was the 44th person to take the oath, but I think Cleveland's non-consecutive terms mess that up. So that poses an interesting issue, of how that slight mistake got into the speech that will go down in history. I can think of at least three explanations:
============
(A) Obama deviated from the teleprompter. The prepared remarks said this was the 44th time a person had taken the oath, and Obama just switched it a little bit in the moment.
(B) Obama's team knew of the Cleveland technicality, but didn't want to confuse people, and it sounded weird to say a technically correct statement using the 44 number.
(C) No one on Obama's team had enough of an inkling of U.S. presidential history to bother checking that the number of the presidency was the same as the number of presidents.
============
(A) is fine, (B) is a little worrisome but not awful, whereas (C) is scary.
And I'm betting it was (C).
On the domestic front, his rhetoric was pleasing to the ear but not to the brain. In particular, he said something to the effect that he was going to use government smartly to make sure our economy exhibits all that a free people can produce. That's a whopper a la Mencken's critique of the Gettysburg Address.
Last nitpick: He said he was the 44th person to take the oath, but I think Cleveland's non-consecutive terms mess that up. So that poses an interesting issue, of how that slight mistake got into the speech that will go down in history. I can think of at least three explanations:
============
(A) Obama deviated from the teleprompter. The prepared remarks said this was the 44th time a person had taken the oath, and Obama just switched it a little bit in the moment.
(B) Obama's team knew of the Cleveland technicality, but didn't want to confuse people, and it sounded weird to say a technically correct statement using the 44 number.
(C) No one on Obama's team had enough of an inkling of U.S. presidential history to bother checking that the number of the presidency was the same as the number of presidents.
============
(A) is fine, (B) is a little worrisome but not awful, whereas (C) is scary.
And I'm betting it was (C).
Comments:
The Blackadder Says:
I'm not sure A is true either (both because I think a two term President would take the oath twice and because I'm not sure every president actually took the oath).
The real question, though, is whether the fact that Obama didn't say the oath right means he's not President.
I'm not sure A is true either (both because I think a two term President would take the oath twice and because I'm not sure every president actually took the oath).
The real question, though, is whether the fact that Obama didn't say the oath right means he's not President.
# posted by 
: January 20, 2009 at 12:58 PM
: January 20, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Give him a break, Bob; he has a hard enough time remebering how many states there are.
# posted by : January 20, 2009 at 2:23 PM
: January 20, 2009 at 2:23 PM
Blackadder: Do you mean because he faltered when the Chief Justice made the phrases too long?
(BTW I'm not ripping Obama here--I couldn't remember what the guy said either and I panicked when it was clear Obama had forgotten too!)
(BTW I'm not ripping Obama here--I couldn't remember what the guy said either and I panicked when it was clear Obama had forgotten too!)
The Blackadder Says:
Bob, see here for details.
I don't think Obama forget what to say so much as that he stopped because he had the (correct) sense that something wasn't right in the wording.
Bob, see here for details.
I don't think Obama forget what to say so much as that he stopped because he had the (correct) sense that something wasn't right in the wording.
# posted by : January 20, 2009 at 4:11 PM
: January 20, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Obama never promised to withdraw troops from Iraq, though I think Bob knew that already. I wrote an article about this here:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8335
"And what of withdrawal from Iraq, a policy that formed the centrepiece of his anti-war rhetoric? This promise was a fraud from the beginning. Those who peruse the fine print will learn that Obama never promised to withdraw all troops from Iraq. He merely promised to take out combat brigades over a period of 16 months. This means that non-combat military personnel will still remain, as will most of the permanent bases. Moreover, he has made it clear that a “residual force” (i.e. an army numbering in the tens of thousands) will be left behind to conduct “targeted” operations against suspected terrorists. Obama placed withdrawal on even shakier ground when he said that he would be willing to re-invade Iraq if al-Qaida gained a significant foothold there."
Just think of Obama as a slighter darker version of Bush.
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8335
"And what of withdrawal from Iraq, a policy that formed the centrepiece of his anti-war rhetoric? This promise was a fraud from the beginning. Those who peruse the fine print will learn that Obama never promised to withdraw all troops from Iraq. He merely promised to take out combat brigades over a period of 16 months. This means that non-combat military personnel will still remain, as will most of the permanent bases. Moreover, he has made it clear that a “residual force” (i.e. an army numbering in the tens of thousands) will be left behind to conduct “targeted” operations against suspected terrorists. Obama placed withdrawal on even shakier ground when he said that he would be willing to re-invade Iraq if al-Qaida gained a significant foothold there."
Just think of Obama as a slighter darker version of Bush.
# posted by : January 21, 2009 at 8:32 AM
: January 21, 2009 at 8:32 AM
He does give a good tele-prompter speech. But, off the cuff and interviews are going to make me crazy over the next four years. He begins every sentence with "um" or "uh"...actually it is every several words within a sentence.
I'll bet we hear him say uh or um over 100,000 times in the next 4 years. It is as annoying as poeple saying "you know"
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I'll bet we hear him say uh or um over 100,000 times in the next 4 years. It is as annoying as poeple saying "you know"
# posted by : January 21, 2009 at 8:45 PM
: January 21, 2009 at 8:45 PM Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
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