Excellent speech. Problem: We have a 21st century man in the Presidency trying to bring a group of corrupt, selfish 19th century politicians into our modern world. My fear is that this mess is ungovernable.
Hmmm … Is “ungovernable” going to be this year’s Official Obama Excuse word, like “distraction” was last year?
No, no…I think, vet, you’ve got it exactly backwards, vet.
To each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities. It’s the obligation of the just state to provide for the welfare of its dependents citizens. Revolutionary truth is more true than mere bourgeous truth. Some are more equal than others.
These are all 19th century ideas, conclusively proved dangerously stupid and misguided for anyone alive and aware in the 1970s through 1990s.
What we actually have here is a 19th century President trying to drag an incredulous 21st century nation back to the heyday of William Jennings Bryan and the Third International. That fool Obama might as well wear a frock coat and tall hat.
And, yes, it is ungovernable. Free man are not “governed” in the sense you and your Victorian Era predecessors meant, fitted like a cog into a vast social machine for Doing Good. They will tear off the collar and reject the master, whether he wields a whip and a snarl or a computer printout and a “concerned” kindly smile.
So here’s an idea: resign yourself to our cross-grained “ungovernablity” and go to hell. We never asked for your “governance,” we don’t want it, and we will exterminate you if there’s no easier way to prevent your trying out all your no doubt well-meaning but profoundly stupid and destructive ideas for our “improvement.”
Obama was pushing for a chu-chu train in Florida, while not said in the speech he’s stopping US manned spacelift to LEO for several years; and you are calling him 21st Century?
No, no…I think, vet, you’ve got it exactly backwards, vet.
I think he’s a spambot. (C.f. the R4 spams in “Remembering Asimov” and “The Evolution Of Good And Evil” (June 26, 2009).)
Probably so Lurker. Particularly since he’s never posted hear before, and the comment is pathetic.
Spambot or no, CP, the Great One, still knocks it out of the park on his assessment of BO — the guy is old school with big spending and big government and big money-pits like light rail. Government needs to move into the 21st century. It needs to be smaller, cheaper, more focused and less intrusive. More like an iPhone, less like an Amtrak. It needs to return to only doing for the people what they cannot do for themselves, which is a smaller set of tasks than it was 100 years ago.
I thought the speech was phenomenal, and I hope the people in Congress were paying attention. That, last night, was the President I voted for.
I thought the speech was phenomenal
Yes, you would.
I would and I did, yes.
As did I. Because as you know, I “would” as well.
I thought it was a great speech because of how it exposed B.O. for what he is… the ideal empty suit. Spouting goals we can all agree with is just puffed air (not that all his goals are laudable.) The problem is not the goals so much as the method. He also confirmed that this is not 1994 and he’s not Clinton… making it much easier to deal with him in the future by simply rejecting him completely. We will suffer him and his cohort for the next three years and then he will be the example to replace Carter for this new generation of voters that have no sense of history.
He put me at ease for the first time in his presidency… we will survive him.
I can’t believe anyone’s opinion of a president is in the least affected–one way or the other–by what he says in the SoTU. But especially with this president, who has kept virtually none of his campaign promises, one would think that great skepticism would be the appropriate reaction. Even a leftist should have that reaction.
That, last night, was the President I voted for.
You voted for a man who, as the world’s most powerful elected official, would spend 70 minutes whining about how nothing is his fault?
Good to know.
That, last night, was the President I voted for.
We know. He’s great, huh? A real inspiration. Hopefully an animatronic version of him will be preserved for the centuries at Disney’s Hall of Presidents, to inspire future generations with his soaring rhetoric. The same way the Space Shuttle will be preserved at the Smithsonian as an inspirational monument, a job that better suits it than its present job.
The problem, however, is that the American President, alas, unlike the Queen of England, needs to do a lot of very practical leadership things, too. He can’t just give marvelous speeches. He’s got to negotiate with Congress, both within his own party and across the aisle, and he’s got to understand the people he leads — not fantasize about remaking them into some other kind of Pandora college sophomore fantasy world creature — and he’s got to come up with and implement practical, real-world solutions to the actual problems people have.
Unfortunately, at all of those tasks, this President is a flat disaster, a clown with a funny red nose.
I said last November it’s a shame we can’t elect Obama to be our head of state, and give noble speeches all over the globe, and elect someone else to do the actual governing. How true that has turned out to be.
Excellent speech. Problem: We have a 21st century man in the Presidency trying to bring a group of corrupt, selfish 19th century politicians into our modern world. My fear is that this mess is ungovernable.
Hmmm … Is “ungovernable” going to be this year’s Official Obama Excuse word, like “distraction” was last year?
No, no…I think, vet, you’ve got it exactly backwards, vet.
To each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities. It’s the obligation of the just state to provide for the welfare of its
dependentscitizens. Revolutionary truth is more true than mere bourgeous truth. Some are more equal than others.These are all 19th century ideas, conclusively proved dangerously stupid and misguided for anyone alive and aware in the 1970s through 1990s.
What we actually have here is a 19th century President trying to drag an incredulous 21st century nation back to the heyday of William Jennings Bryan and the Third International. That fool Obama might as well wear a frock coat and tall hat.
And, yes, it is ungovernable. Free man are not “governed” in the sense you and your Victorian Era predecessors meant, fitted like a cog into a vast social machine for Doing Good. They will tear off the collar and reject the master, whether he wields a whip and a snarl or a computer printout and a “concerned” kindly smile.
So here’s an idea: resign yourself to our cross-grained “ungovernablity” and go to hell. We never asked for your “governance,” we don’t want it, and we will exterminate you if there’s no easier way to prevent your trying out all your no doubt well-meaning but profoundly stupid and destructive ideas for our “improvement.”
Obama was pushing for a chu-chu train in Florida, while not said in the speech he’s stopping US manned spacelift to LEO for several years; and you are calling him 21st Century?
I think he’s a spambot. (C.f. the R4 spams in “Remembering Asimov” and “The Evolution Of Good And Evil” (June 26, 2009).)
Probably so Lurker. Particularly since he’s never posted hear before, and the comment is pathetic.
It looks like a spambot to me. The post is a cut and paste of this.
Spambot or no, CP, the Great One, still knocks it out of the park on his assessment of BO — the guy is old school with big spending and big government and big money-pits like light rail. Government needs to move into the 21st century. It needs to be smaller, cheaper, more focused and less intrusive. More like an iPhone, less like an Amtrak. It needs to return to only doing for the people what they cannot do for themselves, which is a smaller set of tasks than it was 100 years ago.
I thought the speech was phenomenal, and I hope the people in Congress were paying attention. That, last night, was the President I voted for.
I thought the speech was phenomenal
Yes, you would.
I would and I did, yes.
As did I. Because as you know, I “would” as well.
I thought it was a great speech because of how it exposed B.O. for what he is… the ideal empty suit. Spouting goals we can all agree with is just puffed air (not that all his goals are laudable.) The problem is not the goals so much as the method. He also confirmed that this is not 1994 and he’s not Clinton… making it much easier to deal with him in the future by simply rejecting him completely. We will suffer him and his cohort for the next three years and then he will be the example to replace Carter for this new generation of voters that have no sense of history.
He put me at ease for the first time in his presidency… we will survive him.
I can’t believe anyone’s opinion of a president is in the least affected–one way or the other–by what he says in the SoTU. But especially with this president, who has kept virtually none of his campaign promises, one would think that great skepticism would be the appropriate reaction. Even a leftist should have that reaction.
You voted for a man who, as the world’s most powerful elected official, would spend 70 minutes whining about how nothing is his fault?
Good to know.
That, last night, was the President I voted for.
We know. He’s great, huh? A real inspiration. Hopefully an animatronic version of him will be preserved for the centuries at Disney’s Hall of Presidents, to inspire future generations with his soaring rhetoric. The same way the Space Shuttle will be preserved at the Smithsonian as an inspirational monument, a job that better suits it than its present job.
The problem, however, is that the American President, alas, unlike the Queen of England, needs to do a lot of very practical leadership things, too. He can’t just give marvelous speeches. He’s got to negotiate with Congress, both within his own party and across the aisle, and he’s got to understand the people he leads — not fantasize about remaking them into some other kind of Pandora college sophomore fantasy world creature — and he’s got to come up with and implement practical, real-world solutions to the actual problems people have.
Unfortunately, at all of those tasks, this President is a flat disaster, a clown with a funny red nose.
I said last November it’s a shame we can’t elect Obama to be our head of state, and give noble speeches all over the globe, and elect someone else to do the actual governing. How true that has turned out to be.