I was a little bit disappointed with the speech overall. I was not expecting much and he still underperformed. His “thank you” to Mr. Bush in the beginning was not genuine… I guess he wanted that to show.
He said that we are facing a “raging storm”… referring to the grim economic situation. And then blamed it on greed and irresponsibility.
He said we will need “bold and swift” action to fix the economy and restore America. He mentioned infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, and electricity. I agree with that.
He mentioned the ideals of our forefathers and their documents and the sacrifices they made for us. Can’t go wrong with this.
He said we will “forge hard earned peace in Afghanistan”… presumably through war. He spoke strongly on the war on terror… saying that “our spirit is stronger and we will defeat you”.
He said that we are a nation of Moslem, Christians, Hindus, Jews, and nonbelievers. I guess that’s politically correct now to include the nonbelievers? I got a laugh out of that.
He said we were going to “usher in a new world peace”. Of course this is quite a tall order. This goes a little way to offset his hawkishness on Afghanistan and the war on terror.
He then said that our fate will be decided by our courage and we will need to make sacrifices. I’d like some more specifics on what sacrifices if possible.
He made a brief reference to global warming… very brief.
Of course he mentioned a little bit about an African-American in the oval office. Something to do with how far this country has come since the days of slavery. I am surprised he did not say more on this topic. In retrospect I guess I am disappointed that he did not.
I thought he made several better speeches this year. It just did not pack that much punch and the common thread that tied his speech together was not apparent. Unmemorable I would say.
Noticeably absent from his speech were some of the themes he used so much to get elected… Iraq, civil liberties, and human rights.
I was hoping he would say that he would be launching corruption probes into multiple areas… most notably Wall Street the regulation and WMD evidence fabrication. I guess maybe I shouldn’t be the proverbial stick in the mud and just forget about the past and focus on the future.
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You should consider that it was an inauguration speech and not a state of the union address.
And you are paraphrasing, as a whole, it looks a little different.
“We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you. For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus _ and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West _ know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.”
Yes, I was definitely paraphrasing. I was taking some notes while I was watching the speech and then I took those notes upstairs and worked off my notes to create the blog post. It is interesting to see the points that stuck out to me when I first watched it and then rereading the actual words. I was basically focusing on the negative things and leaving out the material that justified them.
I was much happier with what I heard during Obama’s executive orders yesterday… I did not take notes on that one so I won’t go into that now.
I just reread his actual comments from your post…
He’s basically saying that America has the moral high ground because we do not slaughter the innocents. So that makes war on the terrorist justifiable.
Well how many innocent people will we end up killing in the war on terror? And will the friends and family of those dead innocent people not be radicalized themselves?
So I think the more you fight terror the more terrorists there will be.
Doesn’t this whole thing to see my little fishy to you?
By the way… I commented on the second to last blog post…
I agree… but believe that the over all messege that obama is saying and hopefully he will do is reach out, sit down and talk… pull out of iraq and give the people of that country a fair shake, and stabilize afganistain. I think he will go about things more diplomatically and consider more sides of a story than just ours.
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