I think he is getting his mojo back!

[amerikat]

Good speech happening now. Hammering the repubs and looking forward.
Talking about bad tax policy that got us into this mess.
How investment in education pays off in the long run.
He has mentioned Boner about a dozen times( I'll call him Boehner when
he learns to say Democratic Party).

[JuniperLea]

1. The Orange Boner...

Is more accurate:)

I've been in meetings all morning... I can't wait to see the transcript! My email is overflowing with kudos to the Big O.

[NJmaverick]

2. K & R!

[HipChick]

3. K&R...but what's behind his left ear?

[mike_c]

4. I turned it off....

It seemed to be concerned mostly with partisan sniping and short on real economic proposals, especially genuine alternative visions of America's economic future. Maybe I lost interest too early? I don't know. It sounded more like a campaign speech to me, and less like something that's really going anywhere. I don't have much patience with campaign promises any longer. ESPECIALLY not in the middle of his term.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Thank you for your concern.

:eyes:

[MineralMan]

6. You may have forgotten that there's an election on Nov. 2

Campaign speeches are needed just now. The President is campaigning for all Democrats. Way to ignore an important thing...

[mike_c]

12. I do understand that....

My response was to the OP who seemed to be saying that the speech was a big deal. In my mind, a big deal means big ideas, new proposals, different visions. As I said, maybe I bailed before he got to that part?

At any rate, I had the C-SPAN window going in another browser tab and realized after ten minutes or so that I was utterly tuning it out, so I just turned it off. I'm REALLY tired of all the partisanship without substantive distinctions between what the parties are trying to achieve, or genuinely different visions about America's future direction. I'd stand up and cheer for a speech like that!

[amerikat]

14. I think he is getting to the point on how the dems policy

differs from the repubs in a way the average person can understand.
Watch the rerun and let me know what you think. Perhaps you did
tune out to soon.

[mike_c]

23. OK, I've read the transcript....

I don't get it. Maybe I've just moved too far left for this community, or maybe DU has tracked the democratic party to the right. In any event, I found little to be excited about in the full speech. Perhaps folks are responding more to Obama's personality than to his words? I just don't know.

The entire speech sounded petulant, like the real focus of American struggle is the opposed ideologies of the Democratic and Republican parties, but other than the pettiness of that struggle, there was virtually no talk about its substance. More to the point, there were not any new visions. It was all about what we need to do to get back on course, and nothing about changing course, or even about investigating possible changes. He outlined some of his administration's proposals, mostly in the context of discussing his struggle with republicans' entrenched opposition, but none of those proposals were markedly different from the economic rut the country has been floundering in for decades, IMO. My take: he wants to travel the ruts more smoothly.

I recognize that the republican party is obstructionist. That is ALL they have. No new ideas, no new directions. Hell, the republicans pretty much STAND for "no new anything." It's not a disappointment to hear their rhetoric-- it's expected.

The problem is that simply being opposed to republicans is not a vision for the future of the U.S. A laundry list of the ways in which republicans have obstructed the Obama administration is not at all useful, IMO. I want someone to acknowledge the failed ideas and crumbling institutions of the past and to propose bold, new visions. I didn't find anything new at all in this speech. It was not so much about maintaining the status quo as it was about returning to the status quo. Someone down-thread noted Obama's failure to sound like FDR. I want an FDR, I suppose-- someone who will chart a new course around the failed institutions of the past and take us somewhere completely different. I want to hear a democratic party presidnet articulate new directions, new visions. I didn't hear anything approaching that sort of vision, or courage, in this speech. It was mostly about partisanship. I'm sick of partisanship for its own sake. It isn't helping America.

Most of the things Obama described as things he wants would find little disagreement among most republicans, I think, other than the sheer political obstinacy that both parties bring to bear when they approach everything the other says or does. If a democratic party president says he wants to build and strengthen the middle class, the Party of No howls, but if a republican claims concern for the middle class, republicans applaud. The struggle isn't even ideological in most instances-- it's just petty politics.

I was disappointed by this speech. Where is the vision? Where are the alternative futures, and the proposals for getting there?

[democrat_patriot]

18. You should have kept watching. He listed the differences

in point by point comparison.

Read the transcript and report back.

[mike_c]

24. see #23....

[deutsey]

22. Yeah, it would be great to hear something like FDR excoriating "economic royalists"

while saying he's fighting for us, and then *knowing* his administration actually has some real-world programs that support his rhetoric.

[DFLforever]

10. Umm..There's an important election coming up,

That's why the president is out 'campaigning' today.:eyes:

Nothing he proposes will get anywhere if we lose in November. I would think that would be pretty obvious to everyone on DU by now.

[thereismore]

27. Hahaha, enjoy your stay! nt

[mike_c]

28. LOL...

...I've been enjoying it for nearly a decade. Seen lots of changes over the years!

[thereismore]

31. Yeah, I get it. I get too flippant sometimes.

Your initial post tripped some wires in my head. I'm a 6-year resident of DU and I am sorry I misjudged you. :hi:

[cilla4progress]

7. He's catching fire!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. I don't think he ever lost it.

:shrug:

[amerikat]

9. He's in attack mode.

I think he lost that mode when he tried to be bipartisan.
I thinks he's making a road map to show the dems how to campaign
and win in November.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. I think going into attack mode is exactly what one would expect two months before the election.

And I think starting it earlier would have just lost the public's attention.

I think this is all entirely predictable if you expect that Obama knows exactly what he's doing.

You can call that playing chess, I call it good politics.

[DrDan]

11. perhaps he prefers campaigning to leading . . . .

[MineralMan]

19. And maybe you prefer kvetching to helping Democrats get elected.

It's hard to tell, really. Part of every President's leadership has always been helping candidates of his party win elections. Have you forgotten the one that's coming up? Apparently President Obama hasn't. It's campaign season.

[DrDan]

20. I sure would like to see some of that spark in a speech to preserve Social Security

[MineralMan]

21. I imagine that you'd kvetch about that, too.

I doubt there's much of anything about Obama of which you approve.

[DrDan]

25. not true

I applaud his comments re tax cuts.

[mother earth]

15. Mojo is right. I hope he keeps kicking ass and keeps that fire

in the belly.

Hell, it was great to hear this speech, let's keep that fire lit.

[CC]

16. I find that if I get to listen

to him myself most of his speeches have that old mojo. Now once the media gets a hold of it, snips it into pieces and analyzes it to fit their story I don't recognize it as being the same speech. Hell it is already being called his rhetoric.

[mike_c]

26. do you get the same sense from the unedited transcripts...?

I described my disappointment with this speech above, but as I noted, I didn't listen to most of it-- I read it from the unedited transcripts. I'm wondering what role Obama's personality plays in all of this, whether the excitement many here seem to feel about this speech is for the words themselves, or the voice that spoke them.

[CC]

29. I think it helps to listen to

him because you can hear where he puts his emotion and emphasis. I have always preferred the hearing over the reading since when reading I tend to bring my own views in like most people. Fine with fiction not so good when listening to someone's *rhetoric. I suffered through dubya for the same reason.





* as Bob Barr called it.

[Oceansaway]

17. wooooohoooooo !!...nt

[jimlup]

30. How come he only gets his mojo back during election season??

Just sayin'

[NorthCarolina]

32. You have to don your Liberal coat for election season.

After the election is over though, he can toss that Liberal coat in the corner, hunker down and get back to hacking 'fixing' Social Security.

[bertman]

33. That's two Tarheels that feel the way you do, North Carolina.

Mike_c has spelled it out perfectly above.

That speech sounded great. So did the ones that he gave in '08. You can SAY anything you want on the campaign trail. It's the DOING part that has been lacking.

When that starts to change I'll pull my cheerleader uniform out of the closet and start wearing it again.