Let's Discuss The Obama speech to Congress

Which word was missing from Obama’s speech last night?  "If Obama was serious about economic expansion, we’d have heard a serious approach to domestic energy production last night.  The fact that we didn’t demonstrates Obama’s lack of depth in economics, perhaps even more than his retread of Porkulus did."
Here is the Text of Obama's speech; look for any trace of an energy discussion.

Fact Sheet: The American Jobs Act   From The Council on Foreign Relations.

Hugh Hewitt: The Speech That Broke The Patience of the Country?   "If the president refuses to engage the country or his political opposition seriously, then the country should revoke the presumption that the president deserves a serious hearing.
"The speech was a joke, and the man who gave it is perilously close to becoming one as well."

 Michael Barone: The unhappy warrior  "When Barack Obama says, “This isn’t political grandstanding,” you have a pretty good clue that that is exactly what it is. Lest anyone doubt that, consider this from the third-to-last paragraph. “You should pass it. And I intend to take that message to every corner of the country.”" NBC First Read calls the speech "The Fiery Obama" and says it was the Obama his base wanted to see. Stephen Hayes and Charles Krauthammer referred to it as the first campaign speech ever given before Congress.

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Reaction Roundup: Heritage Responds to Obama’s Jobs Speech One contributor's thought: "The President tonight missed an opportunity to constructively address one of the major problems facing the economy: regulation.
"After acknowledging that “there are some rules and regulations that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, and claiming credit for the small steps taken so far toward reform, he then slipped into a rhetorical — and rather cartoonish — description of the issue.
" “What we can’t do,” he said, “is let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades. I reject the idea that we need to ask people to choose between their jobs and their safety.” " 
Another Heritage contributor also noted the absence of the word "energy".

Pajamas Media:  Obama Versus the Strawmen  "During his jobs speech, the president offered as the alternative to his approach a collection of absurd positions suggesting the Republicans want the end of government." ....
"This president can not make any speech on the economy without injecting a class warfare approach. He did it again tonight, calling for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, and offering another strawman test"...

One of the Marx brothers.

 Obama can not be taken seriously as anything other than the proverbial bull in a china shop: destructive in the extreme and anything he accomplishes that makes America stronger is caused by sheer dumb luck. TD

Heritage: More ‘Stimulus’ from President Obama  "...President Obama is insisting Congress immediately pass a bill that doesn’t exist. No legislative details have been offered; nothing has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office; there has been no debate or negotiation; and there is no accompanying plan on how to pay for it. "  (Emphasis added)

Lloyd Marcus: Obama's Despicable Jobs Speech  "Obama's jobs speech was reminiscent of a cliché scene in cowboy movies. A loud mouth guy stands on the steps of the jail-house and enrages the crowd to overrule the sheriff, drag out the prisoner and hang him without a trial."

Rick Moran:  The 'hidden meaning' found in Obama's words  "...people have lost confidence in Obama's ability to do anything positive for the economy. Once the feel good rhetoric fades away, the stark reality of a nation in crisis with a president who doesn't know what he's doing will return.
No need for "code words" to figure that one out.

Thomas Lifson:  Using a Joint Session of Congress as a Prop; "Make no mistake: the president cheapened and degraded the majesty of an address to both Houses of Congress. We have every reason to expect that with the precedent now set, Joint Sessions are fair game for appropriation by future presidents seeking a majestic backdrop for political posturing."

Boortz: So … what did we hear in Ruler Obama’s speech? "I worked to try to distil it into [six] basic points."  Also at this source: Class warfare,  This is not The American Dream

Dana Milbank: The irrelevancy of the Obama presidency  "Obama spoke quickly, urgently, even angrily. Rep. Jesse Jackson ... stared at the ceiling. Rep. Peter Welch ... scanned the gallery. Rep. Jim Moran ... was seen reading a newspaper. And Republicans, when they weren’t giggling, were mostly silent."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/garymccoy

Obama: Paul Ryan Is Right "“Millions of Americans rely on Medicare in their retirement….But with an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program. And if we don’t gradually reform the system while protecting current beneficiaries, it won’t be there when future retirees need it. We have to reform Medicare to strengthen it.”
"Isn’t that what Paul Ryan and the House Republicans have been saying for months, while Obama has been busy demagoguing their plan?"

Real Hope for a Change

The Patriot Post   "The solution isn't even a return to the status quo as it stood before the current administration began its war on American exceptionalism. We cannot return to a system that alternates between Republican and Democratic Progressives. We must make a break with the post-Reagan past. We must return to the fundamentals that made America the greatest nation the world has ever known: individual liberty and free enterprise safe guarded by a written constitution, and a federal representative republic operating on democratic principles.
"The solution is simple. How we get there is the subject of this article and hopefully a sign pointing in the direction of change."

This article then discusses what the author feels this nation must do:
"First we have to unleash the primary engine of our greatness, our people."....
"Next we have to unleash our corporations."....
"What about foreign Affairs?"....Given the present world situation, I do not see how this Ron Paulish policy can be implemented, as much as we might like to.
....
The article finishes with this: "Our current leaders work to manage the decline of America. However, those of us who refuse to accept the inevitability of this decline can turn it around. We can stand in the gap and bring forth the re-birth of America. So, if we have the will and the courage we can have some real hope for a change."
This is posted only for your consideration and the Tunnel Wall does not necessarily agree with all this author's points, such as his view of banks. I cannot say that I want a Pelosi-Reid-led congress to have that much control over our money.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com View the trailer for Dr. Owens' latest book @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ypkoS0gGn8 © 2010 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net

The Obama speech, illustrated

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/photos/barack-obama-cartoons/46

The Obama speech: Tony Branco nails it

comicallyincorrect.com/

The Five Biggest Reasons Republicans Keep Losing the Propaganda War

Pajamas Media  "Ask yourself: when was the last time you freely discussed any conservative view with friends at work, or on campus, or in public — without hedging your every word?"

 "Everywhere one goes, save conservative websites, Republicans are widely connoted with tinges of racism, hate, selfishness, greed, war-mongering, and conspiratorial theocratic designs against democracy. Fox News has some opinion shows that try to give an ounce of conservative balance to the airwaves and they’ve paid for it with an all out war declared against them by leftist activists."....
"Towards that goal, here is my top-5 list of why Republicans keep losing the propaganda war."

5. Modern media favors perception over reality, charisma over intelligence, and personality over character. Republicans remain the party dominated by reality, intelligent reason, and high character; they lose. "But liberal bias does stack the deck profoundly towards Democrats being able to field candidates with none of the essential reality, intelligence, and high character, as long as they possess the façade of charisma. Hence, we have President Barack Obama, in large part because his opponent possessed no media skills whatsoever.

4.  When openly mocked and ridiculed, Republicans are stymied  "Instead, McCain’s pitiful surrender to Goldberg’s propaganda ploy allowed the audience to conflate the original topic of Roe v. Wade (a Supreme Court decision) with a ratified amendment to the constitution. It was a moment that will live in American civics infamy.
"Until Republicans understand that that the Left lies with full intent to destroy America as we know it, the GOP will remain rhetorical road kill." 

3. Many Republicans don’t understand the Left’s value system and make the horrible mistake of projecting their own conservative values onto their opponents.  "In other words, for liberals the state is their church substitute. As they are inclined towards rejecting set guidelines of good and evil, they generally feel satisfied with themselves if they verbally and electorally support government “charity” as opposed to actually giving it themselves."

2. Republicans don’t know how to use their yang in the Democrats’ yin-dominated politics. When hit with a Democrat hissy-fit, Republicans cower like whipped dogs.  "Paul Ryan, the Republican, sees the coming debt train wreck and uses logic to draw up a real plan and publicly goes to bat for it. In response, the liberal group, Agenda Project, ran ads showing a Paul Ryan lookalike pushing granny over a cliff in a wheelchair."

1. Many Republicans have undiagnosed Stockholm Syndrome.  "When one side of a philosophical divide is willing to employ such bully tactics with ferocious tenacity, the other side understandably — quite humanly — begins to psychologically identify with their abusers, just as hostages come to identify with their kidnappers and abused spouses come to identify with their abuser. This phenomenon, called Stockholm Syndrome, now afflicts many Republicans and forces them into a defensive, fetal-like position more often than we would ever like to admit."

Emphases added. TD

Democrats, Jimmy Hoffa and civility

Media Overlook Violent Talk on the Left " While ABC, CBS, and NBC were compelled to notice, there was virtually no outrage. Indeed, The Washington Post and The New York Times skipped right over it."...."Normally, an expose of alleged conservative rhetorical excess is followed by the pressure to apologize. In Hoffa’s case, however, there’s been none. Not only that, but when asked, Democratic Party chairman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz flat-out rejected the notion. “I know you'd like to focus on language, that's not what the American people are focused on,” she told Fox News."

Civility for Thee, Not for Me   Of course President Obama will not criticize Jimmy Hoffa’s ugly rant.  "Unless the economy rebounds suddenly, President Obama will be left with only one option next year — winning ugly. He will have to make his opponent even more unacceptable than he is, and if the past is any guide, he’ll do it without scruple. All Obama’s promises about process are highly conditional. He jettisoned his support for the public funding of campaigns in 2008 as soon as it became clear he could raise $750 million. He sloughed off “post-partisanship” when he had the congressional majorities necessary to ram through major legislation on a partisan basis. And now he’s saying goodbye to civility, too.
"So be it. If civility is a good in its own right, the functioning of our big, unruly democracy has never depended on it. It will survive Hoffa’s ham-handed metaphors and Obama’s hypocrisy. But next time, Mr. President, please spare us the pose and the lectures."  Rich Lowry

http://www.comicallyincorrect.com/comicallyincorrect_002.htm

The Reagan Library/MSNBC/Politico debate

Michael Barone  "The biggest mystery about the Reagan Library/MSNBC debate last night is why the Reagan Library allowed MSNBC to be the co-sponsor. Brian Williams, whom I haven’t watched much in recent years, seems to have been drinking liberally of the MSNBC kool-aid; many of his questions were so steeped in liberal distaste for Republican positions that it was embarrassing."....

donkeyhotey

"Let me go over the candidates’ performances, in the order in which they appear in the most recent realclearpolitics.com average of recent polls."

Reagan debate leaves Perry, Romney in control "Gingrich went after the moderators again, which at least gives him some real value to the other Republicans on stage.  Don’t expect to see Perry or Romney asking to get Newt out of any debates in the future.  Cain is always engaging on stage and scored points on economics, but no more so than in any other debate.  Santorum was mainly a non-factor, while Ron Paul was … Ron Paul.  He jabbed Perry over HillaryCare, and Perry jabbed him right back over his 1987 letter to the RNC repudiating his party membership because of Ronald Reagan, which left Paul sputtering."

Scoring the Debate  "The big loser tonight is Barack Obama. By comparison to all but one of the candidates, the president comes off poorly. He delivers a speech before tomorrow night’s NFL kickoff that will not be as substantive or as interesting as this debate. Despite the atmosphere of a joint session of Congress he will seem small because his ideas are small and he is a proven failure in his office. I doubt that Americans will have any qualms replacing him next year with a solid, credible Republican, and there were many of those engaged in this debate tonight."

Wow MSNBC Is Dumb

Jonah Goldberg   "I don’t mean that as an ideological thing. They’re professionally dumb. MSNBC gets terrible ratings. Some of Fox’s repeats beat MSNBC’s prime-time fare. This debate offered the network a golden opportunity to reintroduce themselves to many viewers (including me) who’ve come to ignore them for all the obvious reasons. Instead of offering something like an interesting, balanced, panel. They went with Al Sharpton, Lawrence O’Donnell, Eugene Robinson, and Ed Schultz, moderated by Rachel Maddow — with extra commentary from a seemingly drooling Chris Matthews (I particularly liked Al Sharpton sharing his insights on what turns off moderates and independents). In other words they doubled down on their MSNBCness. ....Liberals might respond that Fox does the same thing, except it really doesn’t. They always have at least one Democrat or liberal, particularly for something like a Democratic debate.

The Peoples Cube  presents this paean to MSNBC:

Now look at them moonbats. That's the way they do it
Talking heads MSNBC
That ain't reportin'. That's the way they do it
Shultz, Chris Matthews and Maddow
That's just spinnin'. That's the way they do it
I can tell their viewers are dumb
Maybe got a listener in California
A few more with their minds all Numb
They report those Liberal opinions
No one watching anything
They got these loser viewer ratings
Now where's that Olbermann show? ....

Conservative opinion on President Obama's speech tonight

Is Obama Insane?  "A frank assessment of Obama's fiscal stewardship of our country would conclude the following: 1) He is committed to long discredited economic theories, in spite of their utter and repeated failures, and 2) he is unwilling -- or unable -- to consider any other course of action. Having tried the only thing he knows -- spend, spend, spend -- Obama is now at a complete loss. His flawed theory is now our failing economy.
"God help us."

Nobody messes with the Packers - not even Obama  "At least Packers fans have a reasonable perspective about what the president will say. They'd rather hear about how Aaron Rodgers will attack the Saints blitzing than listen to an increasingly irrelevant politician offer little in the way of hope on the jobs front."

Save Time and Don’t Miss Kickoff-Obama’s Big Jobs Speech, in 2 Minutes


"As a Packers’ fan and in the spirit of public service, I directed our staff to comb through the hundreds of speeches President Obama has already made to give you a concise two-minute preview of his latest ‘big speech.’"

These three from Nealz Nuze:
1. Remember this while listening to Dear Ruler  "It is the government that will decide where the new jobs will be (green jobs?) and it is the government that will decide which industries flourish and which will die."

2. He’s going to propose something called “The American Jobs Act.” "Pretty ballsy … asking for a joint session to deliver a campaign speech; and that’s what this is --- the ultimate use of the bully pulpit – calling a joint session for a campaign speech."

3. Down the competitive crapper we go  "Heading into Obama’s jobs speech tonight, what do we have to thank him for?  Well, let’s go through the list, again, shall we?"

It lives! Obama to unveil ‘Son of Stimulus’ Package tonight.   "“The president will unveil tonight The American Jobs Act, a plan of bipartisan ideas to create jobs right now and is fully paid for,” Communications director Dan Pfeiffer told ABC News."

Football tonight! Also, Obama.   "Some presidential addresses can overshadow sporting events. Richard Nixon’s resignation speech temporarily halted nine major-league baseball games, two pro tennis matches and a contest in the World Football League. It would take an oration of great moment to force the delay of the opening game of the NFL season between the past two Super Bowl champions. Barack’s paean to government spending isn’t it."

The Greek-columns kid, etc.  "From what I know about the speech President Obama will deliver on Thursday, he does not need the U.S. Congress as his venue — SEIU headquarters will do. But, of course, Obama is addicted to grandiosity. At the convention in Denver in 2008, he had his “Styrofoam Greek columns,” as Sarah Palin put it. 
"Here is a fearless prediction: The 45th president, whoever he (or she) is, will be less pompous than the 44th. You can’t run for president — or be president — without a healthy ego, maybe even a whopping ego. But, holy Moses, Obama takes the cake."

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Cartoonists on the speech tonight

Townhall has these:   This first one is about the speech because I say it is.

Under Investigation by DOJ for Using Banned Wood, Gibson Guitar CEO Will Attend Obama's Job Speech

Reason  "...One of the major twists in the story? Juskiewicz is on the record as saying the DOJ told him that if they outsourced labor, there wouldn't be any issue:"
Send your factory overseas and we won't bother you!

CHRIS DANIEL: Mr. Juszkiewicz, did an agent of the US government suggest to you that your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of American labor?
HENRY JUSZKIEWICZ: They actually wrote that in a pleading.
CHRIS DANIEL: Excuse me?
HENRY JUSKIEWICZ: They actually wrote that it a pleading.
CHRIS DANIEL: That your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of our labor?
HENRY JUSKIEWICZ: Yes

Gateway Pundit "Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz told reporters today that the federal raid on the popular American guitar maker will cost the company $10,000,000. Juszkiewicz also said that he will attend Obama’s big spending jobs speech tomorrow in Washington DC.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the raid on the Gibson was not political. Of course not."

Great idea: Fill the entire chamber with a vast cross-section of Obamanomics victims. "GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is taking Nashville-based Gibson Guitars CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, via the Memphis Daily News:"

"Rep. Blackburn’s idea is terrific, proactive, and powerful.

"Every Republican in attendance should have a guest entrepreneur or small businessman with them to provide powerful testimony about the Obama Jobs Death Toll and the stifling, selective enforcement of Obama land grabs, power grabs, and regulatory grabs."

Gibson donates to Republicans  ..."while one of his leading competitors “is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the DNC over the past couple of election cycles.” "  Hey, I'm just sayin'.

Newt Gingrich Goes After Debate Moderator John Harris for Biased Questioning

Newsbusters  "While NBC representative Brian Williams had more than his share of sneering biased questions, it was Williams's co-moderator, Politico editor John F. Harris who laid on the snark in his attempts to bait and attack the candidates.
"Such unbalanced questioning is par-for-the-course for Republicans competing at the national level. More often than not, they take it in stride. Tonight, though, Newt Gingrich was having none of it as he went full-on after Harris's attempts to insert Gingrich into a non-existent debate about an individual mandate to purchase insurance at the national level that Republicans simply are not having."