What do people make of Obama’s speeches in general. As usual he has high flying and high minded rhetoric but rarely acts on them. Is he just playing the game. Such as when corporations tell their employees how important they are and the company could not function without their hard work but then cuts their wages and benefits or lays them off. Is Obama telling people what they want to think about themselves or appealing to what they like to think are their hopes but are actually afraid of. What do people think.
Yes, Obama is particularly disingenuous in his speeches. It is because he is a Muslim, born in Kenya, who hates white people. I’m still waiting for him to do something about healthcare and DADT, or to rescue GM and save middle class jobs.
The OP is just way to vague to initiate any kind of debate. Some of his speeches are good, and some are not. Some of his speeches are meant to initiate policies, so are just touchy-feely crap that any president has to talk about.
If you want a debate, it would be helpful to be a lot more specific and give some examples of what you mean.
I expect the example will be “everybody knows”.
I think questions should end with “?”.
Would the OP prefer someone who gave poor speeches and accomplished squat?
Because I’ve got a time machine to sell ya. It just goes back to 2001 though…
Lets take the example of health care. When he was running for office he frequently used the example of his mother who had a terminal illness and had the added difficulty of dealing with insurance companies. Before the legislative process even began he made an agreement with pharmaceiutical companies to not allow collective bargaining which would have made medications much more affordable. When the public option was being put forth by some mostly in the House of Reps he actually fought against it. The agreement that was eventually worked out sends many new custormers to insureance companies thus increasing their botom lines. It also does not provide a strong public option which would have given a legitimate alternative to whatever the insurance companies will cook up to replace such things as cutting off people when they actually get sick. My point is that his speeches are usually vague enough to let people read whatever they want in them. To many liberals he sounded like the messiah when running but not only doesn’t act on many of his promises but makes huge compromises before negotiation even begins. This pattern has been exemplified to many times for me to think it is a coincidence. Is Obama appealing to many liberals vision of the way they like to think of themselves but are really rather afraid of. Such as it would be nice if everyone had good affordable health care but then people might actually get good affordable health care. I’m talking about there being more than a little hypocrisy among liberals. I’m not even talking about the right wing nuts who scream about death panels. Does Obama in his speeches fully knowingly appeal to liberal hypocrisy.
And there is the “messiah” bomb. I’m out.
How do you expect anyone to even care what you think when you write like this?
This is a salvageable thread.
I think Obama’s a very good speaker; I don’t think he is absolutely the best speaker in the history of the office, though. He sounds amazing after eight years of George Bush, who was unquestionably the worst-spoken President at least since the invention of machines that can record sound, but he’s not perfect. His speeches are never worse than “good” but he’s never really knocked one out of the park.
His Tuscon speech was pretty darned good, but what strikes me about it is how goddamned LONG it is. Brevity isn’t his strong suit, and a lack of brevity is a weakness.
Many of the responses are just proving my point. You’re more interested in seeing yourselves as superior to others than in having a better society. The poor don’t matter outside of being objects to compare yourselves to. Best to keep them that way.
Huh?
No, we just don’t fancy spinning the wheel for you on which to grind your axe. Your one example given is the HCR process, with your major complaint being Obama’s willingness to compromise to achieve legislative progress.
The problem is that we’ve had that thread before, with much more articulate and prepared debaters taking “your” side who didn’t drop in phrases like “messiah” and “liberal hypocrisy” while trying to make their points. To me, it appears you posed your question with a specific agenda in mind, and are angry that we’re not following your program.
If I copyright “liberal hypocrisy”, can I make tighty rightys give me dollar everytime they say it?
Compromise that keeps the status quo. Critiques of spelling and grammar are ways to keep the professional elite in power. Many of the right wing nut jobs arguments are bald faced lies but in some of it there is a grain of truth.
I, for one, am sick of The Man keeping me down with his dictionaries.
Being raised in a professional middle class household that brings the benefits of better educated parents and access to more resources such as private schools or at least wealthier public school districts provide an excuse to think of oneself as better than others. It’s not the moral makeup of the person but simply that they are who they are that matters. Pointing out the poor english, spelling, grammar etc of the ‘other’ people is a superficial way to downgrade others and makes it easier to treat them as inferior. So yes, language does play a role in social stratification.
Well said. I’d just add that while his lack of brevity is often a problem, I thought it was particularly unfortunate in Tuscon. It seems a bit inappropriate, odd. But undeniably a very good speech.
The poster you were responding to didn’t actually say anything about your spelling or grammar. He implied that you weren’t prepared or articulate.
So let me be the one to criticize your reading comprehension.
OK, now I get it. It’s a parody, right. (question mark left out on purpose)