Obama’s second inaugural (updated)
There were, I think, three main elements to President Obama’s second inaugural address (other than its brevity at just 19 minutes, which was the only truly surprising thing about the speech):
First, there was his identification of what — or who — is at the root of our problems:
- “The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few …”
- “For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.”
- “We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky or happiness for the few.”
In case you didn’t catch his drift, I’ve supplied some emphasis. There are just a “few” people who are keeping the rest of us from … what exactly? Does anyone actually believe only a “few” Americans (even granting the president poetic license to mean a “few” as a relative share of a nation of more than 315 million people) are happy? Or enjoy freedom? Or experience financial success?
To understand his exaggeration of the cause of our problems requires the second element of the speech, which is the gross mischaracterization of the positions of the president’s political opponents. Here are two examples:
- “No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores.”
- “… we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.”
Who, exactly, claims that a “single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need,” or that a “single person can … build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores”? Who has claimed that such a solitary trainer of teachers or builder of roads exists?
And who, exactly, believes our nation “must choose between” programs for retirees and, say, education? The GOP presidential nominee who wanted to restore the Medicare spending cut to fund (on paper) Obamacare? The Republican leaders whose proposals for Social Security involve slowing the growth of benefits?
Who are these unreasonable people who hold these radical beliefs?
Figments of Obama’s imagination — that’s who. This is the kind of willful misrepresentation of opposing viewpoints that is the stock-in-trade of Obama’s rhetoric.
Hand-in-hand with this misrepresentation is the projection onto others of the kind of behavior Obama himself regularly displays: “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle” — kind of like saying you won’t extend tax cuts for everyone else unless taxes go up on the “few” — “… or treat name-calling as reasoned debate” — kind of like calling the other side “hostage takers.”
Finally, there were the policy prescriptions to which Obama alluded. This was the element of the speech that made it sound akin to a State of the Union address. There were allusions to, though no detailed proposals for, reforming government, the tax code and schools; addressing climate change via sustainable energy sources; support for gay marriage; attempting comprehensive immigration reform; pursuing the kind of gun control measures he proposed just last week; and, most of the blue, shortening the time it takes to vote on Election Day.
Take these elements together, and it was a speech being received (with some degree of shock) by liberals as a thoroughly liberal speech. And (with far less shock) by conservatives as the same.
Why it took liberals aback, I don’t know. The notion of Obama the Centrist has appealed only to those who believe he really should govern as a socialist. But it does not portend any more of a spirit of cooperation during the next two years than we’ve seen during the past four.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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278 comments Add your comment
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 21st, 2013
1:56 pm
obozocare reduces health services and has driven untold number of businesses to close their doors, our embassy in Libya was burnt to the ground and al qaeda dragged the ambassador’s body through the streets, the Government Motors bailout cost the taxpayers 26 billion dollars or more and the libs parade this around as their successes?
Is it any wonder we still exist with “accomplishments” like these?
Becky
January 21st, 2013
1:58 pm
Kyle-I can’ t believe you consider yourself and your opinions worthy to post on our President’s speech. weren’t you the azzhat that voted for Newt??? The speech was very powerful and should be the first step for coming together for the republicans that just can’t get over losing and OMG there is a black man in office,
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 21st, 2013
1:59 pm
B, maybe he was just punking those here who have been permanently banned from his place like Aesop, tibs and Lil BB!
I thought personal attacks weren’t allowed?
Just Saying..
January 21st, 2013
1:59 pm
Gotta say, felt like I was missing all the fun when I was out of the country Nov 6.
But you cons are definitely making up for that today…
getalife
January 21st, 2013
2:00 pm
His speech was a call for unity to solve problems.
We, the people was the theme.
td
January 21st, 2013
2:01 pm
MarkV
January 21st, 2013
1:41 pm
td @ 1:30 pm
The Republicans already took their shot to restrict access to voting. It did not help them enough, and it will not help them in the future.
Voter id restricts access? I thought you were smarter then to make such a totally ridiculous statement.
md
January 21st, 2013
2:03 pm
” The President has absolutely no control over the price of oil.”
False.
A President has control over public land drilling/output. The market runs on supply and demand. To say that restricting supply does not have an effect is bogus………..
JF McNamara
January 21st, 2013
2:03 pm
This article was just dumb. It’s a speech not policy. He is clearly playing up the 1% mythology and the growing divide between the wealthy and the poor. To insinuate he is a some raging liberal after four years of actual governance because of a speech is dumb.
Mike
January 21st, 2013
2:03 pm
Get,
“Obamacare”…really? Wait two years and get back to us on this.
My health insurance rep has told all of us at my office that it will raise our premiums by 20% in 2014 and could be more in 2015. 20%? I thought President Obama said it was going to lower costs. It’s not. Everyone in the insurance field has said it will not. That is what I mean about him. He just makes stuff up and then hopes we forget about it later. ie gitmo etc….
I would have much rather seen a “single payer” system than what this monstrocity will become.
JamVet
January 21st, 2013
2:05 pm
The answer is there is too much power and too much wealth in too few hands and the few control our government and the few create the problems and the injustices for the many and have less and less interest in doing anything about it because they can get away with it. ~Ralph Nader 1996
Be sure to shoot the messenger and leave the message alone.
md
January 21st, 2013
2:05 pm
Not to mention the ability to release the Nations oil reserves, which also has an effect on supply.
getalife
January 21st, 2013
2:07 pm
” I thought President Obama said it was going to lower costs. It’s not.”
Just another con liar.
It is lowering costs .
Bruno
January 21st, 2013
2:08 pm
But it does not portend any more of a spirit of cooperation during the next two years than we’ve seen during the past four.
One of the main reasons I was hoping that Romney would win in November is due to his track record of reaching across the aisle to get things done. Apparently Obama was used to having his way coming out of Illinois.
weren’t you the azzhat that voted for Newt??? The speech was very powerful and should be the first step for coming together for the republicans that just can’t get over losing and OMG there is a black man in office,
Only someone of Becky’s stature could put “azzhat”, “can’t get over losing”, “OMG there is a black man in office” and “the first step for coming together”. I’d love to hear her opinion about Clarence Thomas or Herman Cain one of these days.
mbtc
January 21st, 2013
2:08 pm
Wonder what WE might have accomplished these past four years if the republicans hadn’t worked every minute of every day to obstruct and sabotage any potential success. Way to show your patriotism. Petulant, petty, gonna-take-my-ball-and-go-home republicans. SICK,
getalife
January 21st, 2013
2:09 pm
“I would have much rather seen a “single payer” system than what this monstrocity will become.”
If it fails to lower costs, that is the next step.
He got the industry to figure it out because public option ends their jobs.
td
January 21st, 2013
2:09 pm
“For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.”
Mr President, Can you please tell us who these “growing many” are? Can you tell us the choices they made for themselves that placed them into this situation? What types of education do they have? What skill sets do they posses that is marketable in our economy? Are they having children they can not afford? Are these “growing many” in single parent or two parents households? Do these “growing many” have drug problems?
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
January 21st, 2013
2:12 pm
By “the few” all you have to do is look at how bankers from HSBC were dealt with after they were caught financially aiding Mexican drug cartels, laundering terrorist money, etc. They were let off with a fine that would take them a few months to earn back.
If “the many” had done anything like that what would we be facing?
JamVet
January 21st, 2013
2:12 pm
The final straw (out of many straws) for Mitt was when he actually blamed the Americans overseas for sympathizing with their murderers.
Talk about opening wide and inserting both feet!
The man was wholly unfit to lead and thankfully he never got remotely close to having a chance…
MarkV
January 21st, 2013
2:12 pm
Kyle has replaced the original direct lie about Obama blaming the rich, with an indirect one. Nowhere in his speech is any accusation of anybody or anything being “the root of our problems.” That exists only in Kyle’s partisan imagination, and his distortions of Obama’s words are reprehensible.
Let’s take the first of his quotes: “The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few …”
See how Kyle cut off the last part of the quote: “The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob.”
This kind of twisting of the words is the essence of Kyle’s abominable article.
Mike
January 21st, 2013
2:13 pm
Get,
I am telling you what our rep from United Healthcare told us.
td
January 21st, 2013
2:13 pm
JamVet
January 21st, 2013
2:05 pm
The answer is there is too much power and too much wealth in too few hands and the few control our government and the few create the problems and the injustices for the many and have less and less interest in doing anything about it because they can get away with it. ~Ralph Nader 1996
Be sure to shoot the messenger and leave the message alone.
Thanks for reminding us how out of touch with reality you really are by voting for this idiot.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 21st, 2013
2:14 pm
” It’s a speech not policy.”
Really, JF?
So he’s just throwing out mindless words that will have no bearing on any proposal he makes in the next 4 years?
JamVet
January 21st, 2013
2:14 pm
Yeah for the sociopath td!
He did exactly what I told him to do!
Good boy…
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 21st, 2013
2:15 pm
Both the message AND the messenger are ridiculous, AmVet.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
January 21st, 2013
2:16 pm
By the time Obama is done, Obamacare will be the least of your worries Cons!
guns
immigration
tax reform??
etc
etc
mwuahahahahahaha
MarkV
January 21st, 2013
2:18 pm
td @ 2:01 pm
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai : “Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
getalife
January 21st, 2013
2:18 pm
“I am telling you what our rep from United Healthcare told us.”
I hope his name was not tulsa doom.
He is a con that is intellectually dishonest.
If it fails, you will get Canada’s health care.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 21st, 2013
2:19 pm
“See how Kyle cut off the last part of the quote: “The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob.”
This kind of twisting of the words is the essence of Kyle’s abominable article.”
Nice try, MarkV, but the quote stands on it’s own regardless of whether it is chopped off.
mbtc
January 21st, 2013
2:21 pm
Kyle:”Who are these unreasonable people who hold these radical beliefs?
Figments of Obama’s imagination — that’s who”
How did I miss the last, serendipitous, four years when the sheep lay down with the lambs and the republicans worked hand in hand with the president to promote the “general welfare”. Your hypocritical whining is hilarious.
Bruno
January 21st, 2013
2:21 pm
Kyle has replaced the original direct lie about Obama blaming the rich, with an indirect one. Nowhere in his speech is any accusation of anybody or anything being “the root of our problems.”
Mark–Any objective reading of Obama’s speech reveals the repeated contrast between “the few” and the rest of us, as Kyle has done a credible job in documenting above. In case you forgot, that has been the theme of his entire Presidency along with both campaigns. Which is why I, along with other conservatives, choke when Obama goes off on one of his “togetherness” rants. Claiming that Kyle deliberately truncated a single sentence for the purpose of distorting Obama’s core message only makes you look silly.
Del
January 21st, 2013
2:24 pm
Barack Obama is and always has been through his youth and into his middle age a radical disciple of the hard left. No one should be surprised that his ideology and narcissism, which causes him to fully believe that he’s worshiped by a great majority of this country will make him the most divisive and contentious president in this nations history.
getalife
January 21st, 2013
2:25 pm
If our President can get our congress to actually focus on all the American people instead of just the wealthy few donors, he has changed the game and leveled the playing field.
This gives your kids a better chance to make it and move out of your houses.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 21st, 2013
2:26 pm
Indigo: Considering the huge interest payments we’re making on George’s two credit card wars…
———–
And yet, Obozo is increasing the debt at TWICE the rate of Our President Bush.
Junior Samples
January 21st, 2013
2:26 pm
Hey Kyle,
While you’re over-analyzing the inaugural address, I hear if you play it backwards you can hear a voice saying “Paul is dead”
mbtc
January 21st, 2013
2:28 pm
@ Del @ 2:24: Whatever, DA.
JamVet
January 21st, 2013
2:29 pm
…radical disciple of the hard left.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
Bruno
January 21st, 2013
2:31 pm
So, I guess musicians making political statements is cool until they start criticizing Obama:
http://news.yahoo.com/fiasco-creates-pre-inaugural-uproar-145330260–abc-news-politics.html
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 21st, 2013
2:34 pm
We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.
It happens every time without fail, when some modern day Mayan human sacrificier brings up global warming, the Lord buries them in ice and snow -
In Minneapolis, Monday will likely be the first day with a subzero high temperature in just over four years; the last one was Jan. 15, 2009. The city, notorious for its frigid winters, has never recorded such a long spell without a subzero high in 141 years of record keeping.
Subzero cold is possible Tuesday morning in both Chicago and Milwaukee. Typically, this occurs with the assistance of snow cover, both reflecting the sun’s energy during the day, and refrigerating the air mass. Dating to 1871, only 2% of all days with subzero lows in Milwaukee occurred without snow on the ground. Tuesday morning may be one of those rare occurrences.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 21st, 2013
2:35 pm
I only wish he used the same energy to make the government he leads smaller as he did with his speech.
Of course, maybe he’s just getting as tired as we are of listening to him.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
January 21st, 2013
2:40 pm
cool:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/21/obamas-inaugural-address_n_2521277.html
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 21st, 2013
2:40 pm
If our President can get our congress to actually focus on all the American people instead of just the wealthy few donors, he has changed the game and leveled the playing field.
————
The US economy has been leveled, all right. Washington DC and its suburbs are doing just fine though, thanks to Obozo’s “wealthy few” government cronies feeding off the taxes paid by Real Americans.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 21st, 2013
2:43 pm
From what I’m hearing about obozo cutting the speech short was that his lovely wife, Idi Amin, was kicking him in the shin because she got a whiff of the lavish lunch menu -
The first course is lobster tails in a New England clam chowder sauce. The second course is bison with a red potato horseradish cake. The dessert is apple pie with sour cream ice cream.
Probably didn’t cost the “few” very much.
Bruno
January 21st, 2013
2:44 pm
I only wish he used the same energy to make the government he leads smaller as he did with his speech.
Right about now, I would have expected a President Romney to wrap up the parties and get working on his first day in office. I would have expected him to focus almost exclusively on the financial health of our country, realizing that almost everything else is secondary right now. Instead, after Obama finishes partying in a day or two, he’ll get back to work dreaming up new ways to spend money.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
January 21st, 2013
2:45 pm
I figured you Cons would have trouble with this part of the speech:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 21st, 2013
2:47 pm
“I figured you Cons would have trouble with this part of the speech:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”
Why?
We’re the ones who actually believe it.
Rush
January 21st, 2013
2:50 pm
Moochelle was ready to eat that 3000 calorie meal….little Johnny at the local public school gets a 600 calorie meal. Looks like the few “finally got a piece of the pie”.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 21st, 2013
2:50 pm
If all men are created equal, why do half contribute nothing to the financing of their government?
Rush
January 21st, 2013
2:52 pm
Finn back from studying for those exams? All men are created equal? You mean I get extra points on my law school admission if I come from a chosen racial group? What if I don’t fit in one of those racial groups? Would that be equal for me?
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 21st, 2013
2:52 pm
Are the food vendors at the inaugural accepting EBT cards?
Cliff
January 21st, 2013
2:53 pm
Obama accomplishments:
Ended the war in Iraq
Killed Osama bin Laden
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Ended the great recession
Created 3.766 million new jobs in four years (I’m dubious any president “creates” jobs, but that is how many were created during his term – Bush lost 1.8 million in 8 years and made a big hole for Obama to dig us out of)
No foreign terrorist attacks on US soil
Stimulus package
Largest tax cut in American history, passed with bipartisan support.
Permanently tied AMT to inflation