Wednesday, February 25, 2009

did not watch president's speech

i do occasionally watch him on youtube though. what i have been doing is reading what other folks write about president obama. what strikes me is- any other president up to now would have gotten his (hasn't been a her yet) 100 days. not president obama. the media expected him to have everything cleaned up in less than a week. hell, they thought he should have been working on the job BEFORE he even swore and reswore the oath. can we cut the man some slack here?

seriously. he rolled back some egregious civil rights violations here in america on day 1. and he isn't a progressive. he never claimed to be one. he's a democrat. not as conservative as rightwing bill clinton- but a democrat. he is not a leftist but he seems to be a decent human being. let's see what he does. i intend to back him fully. i intend to continue voting as left as i can in every election. it's symbolic. do i truly believe that voting is more than that? no. but until i am denied the right- i will exercise it as a symbol.

listen, here's the deal- the folks i posted about below- and the other rethugs- are mobilizing to take STATE and LOCAL elections back. if they get congressional seats they will be pleased- but they want governorships people. we cannot expect president obama to shoulder all 3 branches of government and our individual states too. contrary to the msm's belief- he is not superman or a messiah. he is a human being with failings and shortcomings and talents and feelings. WE have to remain vigilant. WE have to take responsibility for our own areas and communities.

millions of us play spectator politics because it doesn't interest us or it's negative or whatever. it's how we got into this mess in the first place. you don't have to be a political junkie to be involved. you have to keep your eyes open and hold people accountable. president obama shouldn't be above criticism but neither should we judge him by the same yardstick we did the criminals who held the office most recently. he should take his own lumps and be held accountable for what he does and doesn't do. but we should give the man more than a month and a half for christ's sake.

anyhoo- happy morning cuppa :)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

It was a marvelously charismatic speech. After the first 10 minutes or so, the Repugs were caught up in the moment, at times, beating the Dems to their feet, applauding with no signs of condescention whatsoever. They're most likely asking each other today, "Who the hell spiked the Kool-Aid??"

It was a great moment in American history!

Unknown said...

I fail to understand how you see voting as simply symbolic, especially after an election has brought this drastic change to Washington D.C.

I have blogged that there is no such thing as a political messiah. I have blogged that Obama is nothing more than another politician, but a good one.

The change we have gotten from voting, is not exactly what I wanted, but it is the difference of night and day, and voting made it happen.

The Future Was Yesterday said...

"can we cut the man some slack here?
"


As you know, I swore to keep my mouth shut (a rather remarkable feat) for the first 100 days, with one caveat: He not bring that asshole God and his attendant "religion" to work with him, and make it part of his agenda as did his former partner in crime.

Not only did Obama do exactly what Bush did; He went one size bigger!

"neither should we judge him by the same yardstick we did the criminals"

That bullshit goes out my door right now. He has a job to do. He either does it right, or he doesn't! There is only ONE yardstick in the white house for ALL.

I listened to his speech. His delivery was flawless, inspiring, and compared to what he replaced, pure music for the ears. But it held all the old tired talking points of The Stench of The Union Addresses back to the beginning of SOTU addresses. Like every other President, he dusted off the template, polished it up a bit and gave it to us.

While he said one thing, his minions, at his direction, were doing the opposite.

Take your bullshit and walk, black boy. You're nothing but another liar.

billie said...

voting, to me, is symbolic because we continue to get the same candidates over and over- literally and figuratively. if you take a look at congress- either house- or even your state and local governments- always the same candidate whichever party. no new ideas- no new visions. chasing money and power.

that's not to say that some of our elected officials aren't trying hard. there are a few out there who do go into public service and start out with good intentions- but end up getting sucked into the wheeling and dealing.

my thought is- yes, we are seeing change. we will see some change- especially to our economic situation. but in the grander scheme of things- the monied interests are still going to run the show and the polar ice caps are still melting. no one is going to change that.

and that's why i don't see votes as much more than symbolic.

landsker said...

There have been a few TV clips in Britain of the new leader.
He does seem to have better speeches than the last few leaders, but then speeches are not going to restore jobs and prosperity.
It`s great the way the audience applaud every sentence, no matter what he says....:).
I`m guessing, but maybe they like the sound of applause!

However, with the markets and asset prices still falling right around the globe, it still seems the game is beyond his control.