The president stresses the urgency of change
Health care, energy and education reform.
Oh, and economic recovery.
But mainly, economic recovery.
President Obama sought to portray — and largely achieved, I believe — a sense of urgency about the changes required to alter the short-term and long-term direction of the country.
His delivery was not what we have seen in the past — the smooth, thoughtful, patient laying out of problems and solutions. Maybe it was nervousness at the stakes; maybe it was a conscious choice on his part. I think it was probably some of both. The urgency he felt was the urgency he expressed.
He was driving the lesson home: Things are tough. Things must change.
On foreign policy, he drove it home too. America does not torture. America does not shy from confronting its challenges. America will protect itself.
Time will tell whether he — and we — can pull it off. It is very much in question. I don’t think he was reassuring, and if he was trying for reassurance, he failed. But if he was trying to portray a sense that he understood what is at stake, that he understands the importance of this moment and this challenge, he succeeded.
He is usually cool and ice. Tonight he was more fiery and hot, more so than he ever appeared on the campaign trail.
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65 comments Add your comment
CommunistAJC
February 24th, 2009
10:24 pm
Bookman writes: The president stresses the urgency of change
Um, didn’t we get that language for 8 months with his campaign last year? I don’t know, something about change we can believe in. Anyhoo, none of these clowns in Warshington, as Rove calls it, understands anything about the economy. IF they did the we’d never have another recession. These clowns got us into this mess. Leave the private sector alone. It can and has always fixed itself since what, the 1700’s?
Bacrock Hussein Obama: CHAINS WE CAN BELIEVE IN!
Taxpayer
February 24th, 2009
10:33 pm
If those clowns on Wall Street had not been so greedy and had simply let the people that knew the limitations of a simple equation handle things, then maybe things would have turned out differently. Anyway, I have confidence in the man I voted for, President Obama, and I think he’s doing all the right things needed to get this nation back on the right track. That minority party can come along if the want to — or not.
Davo
February 24th, 2009
10:33 pm
Who was that whack-a-mole sycophant behind Obama?
Oh yeah…Pelosi.
rcs
February 24th, 2009
10:40 pm
The urgency is to get it passed now while he still has high approval ratings and congress willing to go along with him. Once the gig is up and people realize it’s the same old tax and spend mentality, his programs will have less chance of passing.
TnGelding
February 24th, 2009
10:45 pm
I repeat:
Come on folks, think! We’re facing the biggest economic challenge since the Great Depression. Can’t you understand that and also understand the need to get our fiscal house in order once the crisis(-es) is/are over?
(Futures are down after the speech. Bummer. I still look for an up day tomorrow.)
Mike
February 24th, 2009
10:48 pm
Jay -
““The people who say they like vanilla and the people who say they like chocolate aren’t as smart as I am, because I like both equally. Or pretend I do.””
What nonsense. I never claim to like both equally. I claim to find mindless partisanship and moronic name calling the lowest form of debate. Unfortunately, that’s what your blog offers and that is why you get the same 15 people a day making the same silly comments. You sure are defensive. I guess you are mighty proud of the “community” that you have created here.
Ever wonder why it doesn’t grow? Ever wonder what you are doing with the platform you have been given? Ever think about how disgusted Henry Grady would be with what his paper has morphed into?
I doubt it. My guess is that you don’t really care about the base level of discussion here or the fact that it provides no value to your advertisers whatsoever. My guess is that you don’t really care about how you get to your few hundred posts a day, just as long as it provides the pretense that you are generating web traffic and that you can hold onto your job until you can retire.
I mean who cares if you are actually contributing anything meaningful to your community or to the AJC’s reputation and future. Just as long as you can keep drawing a paycheck, the rest is irrelevant.
RW-(the original)
February 24th, 2009
10:59 pm
Of course he stresses urgency for his programs. His motto is “The only thing to fear is not enough fear” and what’s up with his whining about what he “inherited?” He didn’t inherit this job he asked for it. He was in the Senate for four years before taking the job, although considering his attendance there maybe he didn’t know, and he begged for TARP 1, along with having his very own tax cheat that now runs the IRS in on how it was handled, to be funded on Bush’s watch.
L.D.
February 24th, 2009
11:00 pm
That’s all well and fine that he stressed ‘change’ again. What this boils down to is what that ‘change’ really is.
If he’s honest and tells the American public his idea of ‘change’ to solve the economy is basically to sit the Government right on top of the private sector and suffocate it so he can ‘change’ things, then I’m sure that the hard working taxpayers of this country would tell him to keep the ‘change’.
Really how his success tonight is perceived boils down to: if you are already pro-big government and believe that, rather than slash taxes for EVERYONE in the private sector and make more money available for people to use in the free market to help turn business around, that the only solution is to spend trillions of dollars nationalizing everything while raising taxes on the “uber-rich” who for some clearly logically undefined reason “deserve it” as though they do nothing with their money like create business and employ people, then yeah, you’d probably think Obama was spot on and said what you wanted to hear.
But..if you get it, really get it, that no, the government cannot fix things without dumping the burden on EVERY American taxpayer for years and years and centralizing control over everyone’s lives in the hands of the very people that had a bigger hand in creating this mess in Washington than some of you want to believe, then this speech tonight was a telling sign that this ‘change’ does not bode well for the future of people that still believe in the free market ideals the country was founded on and that have worked for the past 200+ years. Perhaps that notion is too archaic for the ‘progressives’ who are celebrating all this talk of ‘change’. But you know what they say about change for change sake.
Mrs. Godzilla
February 24th, 2009
11:07 pm
Jindal swings….and it’s a miss.
Greg Mendel
February 24th, 2009
11:09 pm
“His motto is “The only thing to fear is not enough fear” and what’s up with his whining about what he “inherited?”
If you aren’t scared, you’re deluded. What he inherited was certainly not divulged to him by George Bush before he declared his candidacy. It wasn’t divulged to the American people until it became a crisis, because Obama’s predecessor was as unprepared for the meltdown as he was for every other self-inflicted crisis he faced or caused.
The Professor
February 24th, 2009
11:11 pm
WOW!!! Did anyone see Piyush Jindal response to the POTUS??? Sarah Palin is smiling.
Mrs. Godzilla
February 24th, 2009
11:13 pm
CBS (commie pinko liberal media that just hired a goon who says Obama is dangerous)
Snap Poll
Stimulus going to help me?
Before
62%
After
79%
Davo
February 24th, 2009
11:13 pm
For all the airy-fairy of Obamas speech, Jindalls response was pretty pathetic. To say he was pandering to anyone who would listen is an understatement. If this is the best the republicans can do then they should pack it up and let the libertarians take over.
RW-(the original)
February 24th, 2009
11:16 pm
Greg,
Give me a freaking break. First off we aren’t even in as tough a spot as we were when Carter got booted and a US Senator should have had some clue as to what challenges we did face, This duel role you guys have created for President Bush, that he was the dumbest man in America but still duped all of you, is a little tiring. Not to mention how it portrays those of you that make that claim.
RW-(the original)
February 24th, 2009
11:22 pm
Mrs G.,
You should have seen the the Frank Luntz dial-o-meter polls drop like a stone from both Democrats and Republicans when PresBO said Biden would be in charge of tracking the Porkulous spending.
Greg Mendel
February 24th, 2009
11:22 pm
“If he’s honest and tells the American public his idea of ‘change’ to solve the economy is basically to sit the Government right on top of the private sector and suffocate it so he can ‘change’ things, then I’m sure that the hard working taxpayers of this country would tell him to keep the ‘change’.”
If YOU’RE honest, you’ll admit that the private sector has failed. Saying that doesn’t please me. I’ve worked in the private sector all my life. But it failed. Failed to the point that the government is the only entity left to save it.
I support free enterprise. But it has killed itself. It killed itself because government left it to its own devices. It killed itself with its own unrestrained greed.
Greg Mendel
February 24th, 2009
11:26 pm
“This duel role you guys have created for President Bush, that he was the dumbest man in America but still duped all of you, is a little tiring.”
Didn’t dupe me. He duped you. Actually, you duped yourself. Same thing happened with Nazi Germany.
getalife
February 24th, 2009
11:30 pm
Well, the doom and gloom is over.
Except from the gop.
RW-(the original)
February 24th, 2009
11:32 pm
Greg,
I don’t rely on government so I don’t have to worry about being duped by them. Sorry to burst your bubble.
RW-(the original)
February 24th, 2009
11:34 pm
getalife,
Obama did take some advice from the Big Dog and try to add the “hope” back into his doom and gloom message.
How was Mardi Gras?
E Jay
February 24th, 2009
11:36 pm
I’ve been watching the discussions here for a while, and I have a question? Would Republicans rail against the stimulus bill if the money went to support businesses and corporations in red states? Like, for instance, the $300 million to purchase gov’t vehicles. Would Richard Shelby call it pork if the vehicles purchased were Mercedes from Tuscaloosa, Honda’s from Talladega, or Hyundai’s from Montgomery?
RW-(the original)
February 24th, 2009
11:45 pm
E Jay,
Maybe you should make up your mind whether you want to know if conservatives here would be against that particular spending or whether you think we believe Shelby would be against it under your caveat. Care to revise the question?
Greg Mendel
February 24th, 2009
11:49 pm
“I don’t rely on government so I don’t have to worry about being duped by them. Sorry to burst your bubble.” — RW
Really? I bet you “relied” in 2000 and 2004. Too bad, eh?
How do you like the Bush legacy so far?
E Jay
February 24th, 2009
11:55 pm
I’m sure the Republicans here would still be against it. Do you think Shelby’s position would change? After all, the money would be an investment in his state.
Swami Dave
February 25th, 2009
12:01 am
**Taxpayer:**
I would disagree with many of the decisions that this administration has made. I will continue to challenge what I consider to be mistakes / bad policy and support better options more apt to promote immediate & long-term improvements to American and its citizens.
**TNGelding:**
I would remind you that Reagan inherited a much worse economy (historically labeled “stagflation”) with interest rates at 21%, inflation over 15%, and unemployment above 10%. Interestingly, it was the policies of Jimmy Carter (-yes, that would be that same Jimmy Carter who just last week endorsed the stimu-spendu-lus package-) that led to that very economic recession. -It- was actually the -worst- recession since the Great Depression (even with Bush’s recession that Obama has driven lower with his election and subsequent actions in office). Unfortunately, this administration seems to be traversing full steam following the same failed policies from the Carter era.
….and yes, if recent history is any guide – this administration speaks and the market slides further down.
-Swami Dave
(Don’t blame me – I didn’t vote for -THAT- one!)
Swami Dave
February 25th, 2009
12:15 am
**E Jay:**
I cannot comment on what Richard Shelby would support or oppose.
I would hope that he would have supported an alternative that would replace government spending with simply allowing Americans to keep more of what they earn. In that fashion, Americans could use their own money to buy the Mercedes from Tuscaloosa, Hondas from Talladega, or Hyundais from Montgomery. They might even have bought a Ford, GM, or Chrysler product if they so desired.
In that fashion, it would be individuals stimulating the economy based on their choices and decisions instead of having their money (and market influence) directed through the manipulations of government. THAT more than anything (breaking the constraining / manipulating influence of government) would serve to limit the campaign contribution / influence-peddling that is one of our challenges today. Currently, businesses and organizations spend their efforts and attention trying to gain favor with politicans and government instead providing goods and services worthy of their customers.
-Swami Dave
RW-(the original)
February 25th, 2009
12:25 am
Greg,
I’m not sure what part of my not relying on government you don’t understand, but there’s a lot of things about you mindless robots I don’t understand so I’ll chalk it up as my problem. Deal?
Swami D,
The old formatting is dead and gone. It’s HTML these days and as an added bonus you have to guess which codes Jay B will accept from one post to the next since he ain’t telling. (Not to insinuate that he even knows)
L.D.
February 25th, 2009
12:28 am
Greg,
What this boils down to again is the view held by liberals like yourself that ONLY government can solve this. History proves it’s patently not true. This economy has always managed to right itself when given the chance and when money has been released back to the individual in the form of tax cuts, which for the guy writing this column and those that share his views are curse words.
I’ve asked this before and have never gotten a good answer from anyone that thinks government is the “end all be all” such as the columnist that writes here: how does growing the government and raising taxes improve the economy? Since those two things are what’s going to happen here with this president, and since liberals seems so fond of saying that it was tax cuts that were responsible for this crisis(without providing any actual proof of it), then really this speech tonight was pure gold and there’s actually nothing to worry about. But the real answer to my question is: it doesn’t improve the economy. Never has, never will. Tax cuts did in the 80s’ by making more money available in the private sector to grow the economy after 4 disasterous years of Jimmy Carter, tax cuts grew the economy again after 2001, they would do the same here……but that’s only if logic and history are applied to one’s way of thinking about solutions to the crisis. That clearly is not going to happen in Washington anytime soon, not with this batch of democrats in charge.
Unless that’s Obama’s aim here: to grow the government at the expense of the free market and the private sector. And for those of us who have studied the man’s own stated influences and philosophies, it clearly is. If you, like so many other liberals, want to pin the blame for the crisis solely on the private sector(and Republicans) and absolve Congress of any responsibility, then this new bigger government philosophy is a dream come true, and you’ll never again have to worry about the private sector ‘failing’ again.
It’s really sad to see the demonization and the end of the free market/private sector principles the country was founded on that has helped us become the envy of the rest of the World. But hey, so long as there’s “change”, right?
E Jay
February 25th, 2009
12:31 am
Thank you Dave. I appreciate the response. For me, it seems like everyone in Washington is playing politics. When Republicans were in control, there was no problem with spending money if it helped their constituents. Now the Democrats seem to want to follow that same path. That’s why I’d love to see the two party system become history.
TnGelding
February 25th, 2009
2:04 am
Swami Dave
February 25th, 2009
12:01 am
And Carter inherited it from Nixon/Ford. But you’d better recheck your figures. Unemployment didn’t rise to over 10% until Reagan. But it isn’t as bad as now. Was the banking system about to collapse? Had the housing market already collapsed? Did he inherit a budget with over a trillion dollars of deficit spending. Had Jimmy ran up $5 trillion in debt? Did Jimmy have troops in over 100 countries fighting 2 “wars?” Was the health care system sucking up 16% of GDP? Were GM and Ford teetering on bankruptcy? Had the stock markets dropped 50%? I lived through it and I remember being quite comfortable, but we had a 6% mortgage and lived within our means.
TnGelding
February 25th, 2009
2:10 am
Joe the Plumber’s Apprentice, meet Joe the Bidin’! As in biding my time as VP.
TnGelding
February 25th, 2009
2:30 am
L.D.
February 25th, 2009
12:28 am
Was it the tax cuts or the tremendous deficit spending that grew the economy under Reagan and Bush ‘43′? If they had cut spending as much as they reduced taxes, then my question would be moot. Reagan never recovered from the one year, 1983, that revenue decreased and it took Bush 3 years to get back to the Y2K revenue. In contrast, Clinton raised taxes AND cut spending, either one of which could have caused a recession, but GDP and revenue grew. It’s not what you do, but where and how you do it.
AJC/DNC Management
February 25th, 2009
5:25 am
Obama promises universal EDUCATION THROUGH COLLEGE…
Water it down, load it up, subject it to the same lax standards that K12 languishes through.
A college education ain’t worth the paper your diploma is written on.
Hey, but the teacher’s unions get a bunch more money, yay!
ew
AJC/DNC Management
February 25th, 2009
5:28 am
Anybody want to tell me there isn’t any bias in the pinko media?
PMSNBCer Says “Oh God” Before Jindal Reponse
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/02/msnbc_oh_god.html
AJC/DNC Management
February 25th, 2009
5:40 am
The list went on. How much of this can we believe? Personally, I’d like to believe all of it. Obama seems like a decent guy. More to the point, he’s the president at a time when it matters. But I can’t. He lost me in the first five minutes. Americans, he said, are “the hardest-working people on Earth.” And he said it with a completely straight face.-Carlson, CNN
When even the Communist News Network knows you are lying, you’ve really done something.
WoodstockDave
February 25th, 2009
6:23 am
Change? Sure, he changed Bush’s $400 billion deficit into a $1000+ billion deficit. Then, the following week, he said we needed to do something about the deficit.
Doesn’t the Idiot Messiah even remember what he’s done from one week to the next?
catlady
February 25th, 2009
6:39 am
RW–I am always surprised when folks say they don’t rely on the government. Really? So how do you get from one place to another? (Hint: govenment roads). How do you get your water, and have your poop swished away? (Hint: government sponsored sewers and water plants) (Probably. I have a well and septic tank, but when I go to work I use the government-provided ones) How do you get medical care? (Hint: government-subsidized medical training for your doctor). How about your food, air, and water purity? (Hint: monitored (to the extent it is) by the government.) I could go on and on. Your statement reminds me of those who say “Illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes.”
Joey
February 25th, 2009
6:39 am
I did not watch Obama or Jindal. Neither was going to be able to change my position, which is, wait it out. Hope and pray that any bad decisions are not fatal to the country. Be ready to become very active during the 2010 elections.
Nothing either said last night is going to change anyone’s mind. Both excited their followers and agitated the opposition.
To keep us busy let’s build a coal power plant or the Northern Arc, buy a bus for MARTA, go to a Gwinnett Braves game.
WoodstockDave
February 25th, 2009
6:43 am
Obama wants to raise taxes on small business, on investment, and on the incomes of the most productive job creators.
The Idiot Messiah can’t really be that stupid, can he?
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 25th, 2009
6:52 am
Exactly where are all these “productive jobs” from these “productive job creators”?
The folks on Wall Street that Obama wants to tax more seem to only be productive at moving money around (and sending it Switzerland and the Caymans), and sending jobs to China, India, Pakistan, etc.
You “Joe the Plumber” and “Pete the Peanut Pooper” types ain’t gonna get your taxes raised. The food stamps and the welfare cheese will keep on comin’.
Joey
February 25th, 2009
6:59 am
On a lighter note: NASA’s $270 million Global Warming satellite crashed into the ocean near Antartica because of sabotage by NASA Global Warming Beleivers. Rumours abound that the conspriacy fostered in order to protect the carbon offsets and sequestering industry. Some suspect that the sabotage was funded jointly by Al Gore and the UN.
Concerned Mom
February 25th, 2009
7:01 am
I’ve been reading you guys for months and what stands out is that rather than sticking to the subject, you tend to follow the rabbit hole to snarky land.
As for the president’s speech, I felt that it was incredibly naive. Great television, but naive. While I applaud his challenge to each American to get at least a yea of college under their belt, I could help but wonder how the population is going to afford it. Even community college can be costly to a person who is out of work.
And health care reform is nothing but a sound bit–regulate insurance and drug companies, and a great deal of the problem would go away. But The presidend focused more on the paperwork aspect of medicine and while that is an issue, it’s not the major problem. If he’s going to go after the bankers, then I suggest he put the country’s efforts into investigating the waste in the insurance and drug industries.
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 25th, 2009
7:17 am
Piyush is on Today right now. Trying to salvage his 2012 chances, I guess.
Taxpayer
February 25th, 2009
7:18 am
I heard Obama wants to reach out and help the Republicans in their quest to make a contribution by helping us become more energy independent in a way that both the Republicans will accept and the rest of us can “live” with. To that end, Obama has tasked the Republicans with finding a source of clean coal. He even wished them well by saying “Good luck with that”. Too bad the Republicans cannot be as thoughtful and considerate.
Rascal
February 25th, 2009
7:20 am
“Time will tell whether he — and we — can pull it off.” He and We could only be the socialists pulling off the biggest hoaxes in American history and doing it all at once right in plain view for us all to see.
Hoax 1 – Current economy is due to Wall St and too little regulation – Fact – Current problem is money that was too cheap for too long, going to people that cannot repay it all driven by government policy for the past 30 years. All begun when FDR stacked the court and shoved through the notion that the federal government could do anything iot wanted as long as it claimed it was for the general welfare of the country.
Hoax 2 – Cutting the current and inherited deficit in half is some magic trick – Fact – Current deficit was exploded by a failed policy int he last year by the lame duck GW. Somehow, I don’t think cutting a $1.4 trillion deficit in half in two years is any great accomplishment when the deficit should not and could go away completely with a little leadership, but that would get in the way of the goal of nationalizing every industry – sounds like a successful move to socialism to me
Hoax 3 – We still need to stop Global Warming – Now call Climate Change because they do not know if it actually cooling or warming – Fact – Most of the change in temperature and the disappearing of the polar bears and the rising tides and the lost ice caps etc are all or all have been proven to be the results of bad info, intentionally falsified or incompetently incorrect. Now Obama wants to rush through a carbon cap and trade system that will end American chances at ever leading the world in manufacturing again. All the while, ending our ability to produce any oil of natural gas from our own resources. $10 gallon gasoline, frozen poor people and more government on the way.
Hoax 4 – We have to move to Universal Health Care to save our economy and industries and there will not be rationing of health care – WOW, what a set of balls and a hell of a show of chutzpah – Does he really believe that the current cost of health care is not already in our system in the form of taxes, regulation, direct fees etc.? Does he not see the success of every area of health care that requires pay as you go, pay it yourself free market rules – Eye care, dental care, pet care, plastic surgery – all areas that are paid primarily by the recipient of the services out of their own pocket and all areas that have reduced costs, improved services and drastically improved technologies all with little government involvement – I wonder why? All this crap is a payback of campaign promises to save the unions. Take over the health care obligations of the automakers and other unionized groups so they can continue to receive excessive pay and benefits all funded by us the taxpaying, hardworking citizen of this country
Yes Jay – only time will tell if you guys can pull this hoax off on these stupid Americans – these stupid Americans that chose to vote for a socialist – aided and abetted by a failed free press that never asked him single question about his true beliefs.
TW
February 25th, 2009
7:28 am
The Republican party is to be applauded for having an Iranian give their response last night. Though Jindal still carries the shallow minded torch of late (accepting 98% of the bail-out is hardly rejecting it), it is comforting, nonetheless, to see the rightwing admit to the failure of it’s bigoted ways by thrusting into the future under the wings of a black man and an Iranian.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 25th, 2009
7:32 am
mornin’, all.
Catlady @ 6.39, forgive me for going all philosophical so early, but you have to forgive some otherwise decent-enough folks who continue to think of “government” as an alien life form. They’ve had it — hell, we’ve all had it drilled into us that government is not of / by / for the people, but something to be campaigned against at least every election cycle, and more often if possible.
I already discussed this with RW in the context of some polling he’d uncovered that showed a majority think too many are relying on “government.” To which I say: Old habits die hard.
By my reckoning we’ve had more or less continual “government is the problem” rhetoric delivered by Presidents from both parties since 1981, and little in the way of intelligent response to that from any kind of bully pulpit from progressives to counteract it. Cracks in the facade appeared when Dems took control of the House in 1.2007 (and grabbed the committee chairs in the Senate, although to say they really “controlled” it overstates things a bit) and we finally got some pushback on this meme.
Obviously if Obama is to succeed, he’s going to have to get Americans thinking that they do have a voice and that the government belongs to them. I don’t expect the righties posting here to come around any time soon, but perhaps we’ll get a little less of the unfounded “I don’t rely on government” braggadocio in the months ahead.
Mark Windsor
February 25th, 2009
7:35 am
I think BLOGs should have sense of conduct and people who write outright rude remarks should not be allowed to blog.That doesnt mean agree it means constructive..I just hate reading rude blogs God we get enough rude in everyday life..Just be constructive…
DB, Gwinnettian
February 25th, 2009
7:36 am
Oh, and just for the record–
as far as I care, if you insist on referring sarcastically to the President as “Messiah” in an effort to belittle the majority of Americans who support him, or to his policies as “socialist”, you’re essentially telling rational people here “I am not to be taken seriously; feel free to pee on me, rhetorically.”
And don’t be real surprised when people take you up on your offer.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 25th, 2009
7:38 am
“I think BLOGs should have sense of conduct and people who write outright rude remarks should not be allowed to blog”
Welcome, I guess.
The bloggy thing you’re posting to is Jay’s to moderate albeit, one presumes, with Cox’s company policies in mind. He tolerates some fairly rude behavior. He also accepts advice about what should be in and out of limits, and adjusts accordingly.