In the speech, he once again reaffirmed his commitment to investing in research, education, infrastructure, and clean energy. He even highlighted how Cree received a tax credit to help them invent clean energy products, as well as getting a grant from the Department of Energy. And he mentioned the Better Buildings Initiative, giving $40 billion to help upgrade existing buildings to make them more energy efficient; which has the added benefit of putting more people to work.
In other words, Obama gave yet another liberal speech that didn't exist to his critics on the left, because they "know" he doesn't give liberal speeches. Or at least it was so for all the commenters criticizing him without having read what they were criticizing him for.
Hearing the Obama in Their Head
Now mind you, this was on a post titled Obama Stresses ‘Need to Accelerate the Recovery’ which mentioned his Jobs Council in the first paragraph. It also mentioned that Obama was looking into extending the 2% payroll tax cut he got for workers last December as part of the deficit ceiling negotiations. And nothing in this suggested he was talking about spending cuts, as he was quoted in the post saying that "day-to-day spending" wasn't the problem.
But because they saw the words "tax cuts" and "deficit" and Benen didn't quote Obama saying the word "jobs," his liberal critics pounced; so certain he had given a conservative speech about deficit reduction that they didn't bother reading the thing.
And sure, talk is cheap and maybe Obama's trying to trick us liberals by hyping liberalism in every speech he gives, but...you can't say he doesn't talk like a liberal. As they say, you can disagree about opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts.
Can't Hear Jobs for the Jobs
Here's the worst of the comments, though there are several along these lines (emphasis added):
It doesn't really require much processing power to realize Obama's rhetoric hasn't changed one iota. He actually thinks the way to a better economy is by strangling it first with deficit reduction. Not one word about jobs, since he believes "the gumint don't produce no jobs." Of course, job creation is the only real way out of the deficit in the first place.Naturally, before someone would claim that Obama didn't say one word about jobs, they should have, ya know, read the speech and checked to see if Obama said anything about jobs. And if he had, he would have seen that Obama repeated the word thirty-three times. And in the short speech he gave to his Jobs Committee that same day, he said the word fifteen times. But, besides the forty-eight times he said "job" in speeches that day, he didn't say it once!
And you know what Obama didn't say? He didn't say that the government doesn't produce jobs or that we need to improve the economy by reducing the deficit. In fact, he said the opposite. Just as he continues to say in every damn speech he gives. And of course, Obama said the exact stuff this guy said about needing jobs to boost the economy, but much much better.
So...which Obama are they listening to, and is there any way we can get them to listen to the real one?
Obama Highlights
At this point in the post, I gave highlights of the best parts of Obama's speech. But I found myself quoting so much that I decided it wasn't worth it and you can read the damn thing yourself. And if you go through his collection of speeches, you'll find this wasn't the outlier. Obama talks like a liberal all the time and this is just one of his everyday speeches.
And hell, I'll just close with his ending:
So I am optimistic about our future. We can’t be complacent. We shouldn’t pretend that a lot of folks out there are not still struggling. But I am absolutely optimistic that we’ve got everything it takes for us to succeed in the 21st century. Americans do not respond to trials by lowering our sights, or downscaling our dreams, or settling for something less. We are a people who dream big, even when times are tough -- especially when times are tough. We’re a people who reach forward, who look out to the horizon and remember that, together, there’s nothing we can’t do.
And as long as I have the privilege of being your President, I’m going to be right there with you, every step of the way, fighting for a brighter future in this community, in North Carolina, and across the United States of America.
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2 comments:
But how do we get ordinary people, busy with their lives to hear this talk---any good ideas?
People too busy to pay attention aren't really much of a concern. If they vote, they'll eventually start paying attention next year, and will make up their minds a few weeks before the election, like they always do.
It's not like they can do much more than vote, as Republicans can't listen to them anyway. Republicans who betray the Tea Party don't have to fear a general election, as they'll never make it passed the primary. Yet as we saw in the Special Election in New York, once they pay attention, even Republican districts vote for the Democrat.
The people we need to convince are the liberals who keep attacking Obama when they REALLY need to be attacking Republicans; like they did in the Bush days. If they can understand that Obama is doing what they want him to do, they can start working with us instead of against us. But as long as they imagine Obama is on the wrong side, they'll hate him more than they hate Republicans and try to drag as many liberals to their side as they can.
That's the irony in that many of these people are angry because they want to do to the Democratic Party what the Tea Party did to Republicans. As if that was some great solution to be emulated, instead of a big trap that set them on the road to irrelevance.
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