Okay, I was wrong, and I’m glad to say it. From the schedule and the initial advance work, I expected this memorial to be an atrocity.
I think I had every reason to. A snappy title, a campaign-like logo in Obama’s campaign colors, campaign-like teeshirts distributed on every seat. And I could wish that someone had said “Please stop the cheering. Have some respect.”
But somehow, I don’t know if they had to go to a temp agency or what, the Obama people found a grownup to write the speech, This one time, Obama managed to sound like he thought he was President, not of his constituency, but of everyone.
If they listened to his words, and they are capable of shame, the people who wrote hateful things about Palin having blood on her hands will be ashamed. If they are capable of hearing Obama’s words, the people whose first thought was “what can I do to exploit this for my side”, will sleep a little badly tonight.
couldnt hear it over all the cheering and applause.
I agree. But he want on too long and I don’t think memorial services generally have applause.
As I was just saying to Bryan, maybe it’s just my expectations were so low, or maybe I’m in a good mood. On the other hand, there was at least one time I thought applause, and even cheers, were appropriate — when Obama called out the the intern who ran toward the sound of the guns.
His party and the media were so over the top and so
political in the aftermath of the shootings that I think they
really damaged themselves. Obama had to disassociate himself. If I
had to summarize my impression of his speech, I would say
triangulation. The speech was pretty well done. And yes, I would
love to know who wrote the speech.
I didnt hear it but I read it, Charlie. My take was that
it was much too long and too preachy. It seemed more like a
campaign speech. Your mileage may vary.
I thought it was a very strange event from the Yaqui
Medicine Man blessing to Obama rolling back and forth over the same
subject matter and milking it for more applause from the stadium
cheap seats. Holder and Napalitano read their Bible passages like
Sunday School students trying to get to the balcony. University
Prez as MC didnt do himself any favors. Really lame last poem.
What an odd event.
obviously, palin doesn’t have blood on her hands. but that misses the larger point obama was trying to make that perhaps calling your political opponents facist, socialist, marxist, anti-colonialist kenyans, who want to split the fabric of the republic is not such a great idea and may lead to bad outcomes.
Sigh. Sadly, as I said, the real issue is if people are capable of hearing Obama’s words.
What was it someone said earlier? “Democrats are like vampires. When they look into a mirror they can’t see anything.”
This event degenerate into a political pep rally farce. Who gives a Standing O and cheers the funeral eulogist?
Idiots?
It wasn’t Pericles’ Funeral Oration: “The Spring has been taken out of the year…”
@Josh, help me out here. Everything about Obama, including
all his comments in unguarded moments reeks of Socialism. Quibble
all you want, but calling someone an anti-colonialist Kenyan hardly
rises to the level of calling someone an inciter for
murder.
sorry. Let me add “idiots” to my list.
You talk about being capable of hearing Oabam’s words and being able to sleep. I gotta imagine you have difficulty sleeping with so much animus and hatred for your political opponents.
I’m not sure you heard Obama’s words, either.
Matthew 7:3, Luke 6:41.
Sorry, josh, but I don’t listen to lectures from hypocrtical morons like you.
Does it strike you as at all odd that you’re bashing me after I just spoke with approval of Obama’s speech?
Paul You hear what you want to hear. Obama is a center-left
liberal, governing as he said he would during the campaign.
Proposing moving a tax rate up 4 percentage points is not
socialism. Passing a health care bill that mirrors Mitt Romneys
and Bob Doles (and other Republicans responding to Hillarycare) is
not socialism. Perhaps calling someone an anti-colonialst Kenyan is
not equal to calling someone an inciter for murder if it were a
one-off. But its not. It goes along with comparisons to Hitler and
Stalin, palin around with terrorists, birtherism — a whole
cornucopia of hatred just becomes someones governance philosophy
differs from yours. I can name tens of liberal bloggers who have
been defending Palin this week. I cant name more than 5
conservative bloggers who push back on the nonsense hatred for
Obama.
Wow – while I was postig my previous comment, you were providing more evidence of your bad faith. Well done, old man!
Josh, you might really want to look up some of those big words.
Can you name 5 conservative bloggers total?
“This one time, Obama managed to sound like he thought he was President, not of his constituency, but of everyone.
If they listened to his words, and they are capable of shame, the people who wrote hateful things about Palin having blood on her hands will be ashamed. If they are capable of hearing Obama’s words, the people whose first thought was “what can I do to exploit this for my side”, will sleep a little badly tonight.”
Glad you noticed.
What plank in my own eye? I can link you to my facebook page where I defended Palin against attacks of responsibility. Liberal bloggers such as Chait, Klein, Drum, etc. have done so as well.
Here, in light of reasonable comments from a reasonable man to tone the rhetoric down, your response is to call your opponents “idiots”.
I appreciate the scripture. I just wish you could take some of the other lessons from it and let go of all the hatred for people who simply disagree with you politically.
Josh,
The people he was calling idiots are the ones who cheered at a “memorial service.”
Read for content
Charlie: “Josh, you might really want to look up some of those big words.”
Thanks for proving my point.
I hope you are able someday to unload all that anger (nonviolently, of course). I wish you well.
I was serious, Josh. Some of them don’t mean what you think they mean. “Socialist” for example is not necessarily a pejorative; on the other hand, someone who takes over banks and major industries for the government is not unreasonably described as socialist.
Nice editing of the comments, charlie
Charlie
Nice editing of the comments.
Strange, there seems to be an echo in here.
Im watching the replay. President Obama looks weird his
head is strangely shaking like an elderly person with onset
parkinsons. The cheering is bizarre. You dont cheer at a memorial
service but the President is pausing for the applause. I have to
admit I do not like him at all and Ive never thought of him as
much of a speaker. I still do not think much of him or his speaking
abilities. You really need to just listen to his words and not
watch him. IMO Hes just a bad actor. Jeez…. stop the applause it
is inappropriate and stop the jokes.
fairly certain this wont make it through your edits, but
Glenn Reynolds (yes, hes conservative), John Hinderaker, Paul
Mirengoff, Scott Johnson, Jonah Goldberg, Michelle Malkin, Hugh
Hewitt, Tigerhawk, Ace of Spades, Dan Riehl, etc. Of those, I ready
Powerline Instapundit, and NRO daily. Now that youve had your
personal attack, rather than addressing merit of your opponents
argument, do you feel better? Also, can you name the 5 liberal
bloggers you read on a daily basis, or would this be another
instance of epistemic closure?
Congratulations.
Now, since you clearly are too het up to have figured it out, when you post a note, when it says “You’re comment is awaiting moderation”? That means, well, that your comment is awaiting moderation. That means it won’t appear until a moderator approves it. This happens to everyone’s comments — even mine.
Generally, the number of times someone posts a comment without noticing that is a good indicator of their blood pressure. You might want to check yours.
I’ve also noticed that when someone has beclowned themselves by posting three or more complaints that they’re getting moderated and then their impatients and lack of reading comprehension is revealed by the comments then appearing, they almost never apologize.
I couldn’t mention five I read religiously on a daily basis, but I can name a fair lot more than five I read, and I generally read more than five of the set per day. HuffPo, Scientific American, Bad Astronomy, Pharyngula, pretty commonly. Lots of liberal media — bunch of blogs on the NYT, several folks at Atlantic — Fallows, for example — CJR. And I read widely in the lagacy media itself, WaPo, NY Times, LA Times, Denver Post.
I can name tens of liberal bloggers who have
been defending Palin this week.
I’d like to thank them for their efforts. Could you name them, please?
governing as he said he would during the campaign
Here are a couple dozen ways that’s not true.
Kevin Drum (http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/01/whos-afraid-glenn-beck),
Ezra Klein (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/01/some_thoughts_on_the_shooting.html),
Jonathan Chait (http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/81336/lord-help-me-im-defending-palin)
Brendan Nyhan (http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2011/01/slippery-insinuations-about-climate-of-hate.html)
Jack Shafer (http://www.slate.com/id/2280616/)
Howard Kurtz (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-08/gabrielle-giffords-shooting-dont-blame-sarah-palin/)
alright. not 10. you got me.
not enough time or space to demonstrate why Geraghty’s list is ridiculously misleading. Obama promises no tax raises for people under $250K and he cites raising tobacco taxes? Are you kidding?
Charlie
I did not see my comments under the heading “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” Rather, they did not appear at all on the site for some time. For not realizing this, and for impugning your integrity, I am truly and deeply sorry. That was entirely inappropriate of me and unfair to you and this site. I’m not sure why some of my newly posted comments appear under “your comment is awaiting moderation,” and some do not appear at all after posting, but now they are here. Obviously, I was wrong in implying anything.
Guess I’ve beclowned myself for the day. But, I’m happy to say I go to bed not angry with my political opponents. I rest easy knowing that only a small minority are consumed with animus toward me and other liberals simply because we have a different view of how the country should be governed. Only a small few think raising the personal income tax rate by four percent is tyranny worthy of armed insurrection, that their president is a fifth column, or that we have blood on our hands for thinking such rhetoric — while not directly responsible for recent violence — is unquestionably irresponsible.
Only a small minority think that a stadium of college students cheering about a gunned-down congresswoman opening her eyes for the first time are “idiots.” Fortunately, that hatred and animus is in the minority on this day of remembrance.
Well, Josh, maybe you don’t thinkpeople cheering at a memorial are idiots. That’s fine. And I suppose it’s possible that the commenting system acts differently for you than everyone else.
The only speech Obama should have made needed to be made on Saturday.
He did not speak when speaking could have stopped the political crime committed by the Left after the shootings.
He spoke yesterday to take advantage of the past few days, to make himself look like a healer.
If you give him or this speech any credit you have fallen for his con.
In search of blogs without vitriol or cynicism. Thanks for the audition.
Hey, hang around. Sometimes I get downright bitchy.
I agree. The cheering was a bit wierd, and his speech was a little bit long, but in general he did well. He wisely repudiated the Palin Did It crowd, and also wisely did not call for new restrictions on guns or speech. For once I thought he was speaking for the whole country as head of state, and not just for his supporters on the left.
Its a bit interesting that his speech got more compliments on Fox than it did on MSNBC. So much for the left claiming that Fox is nothing but constant Obama haters.
You guys are such haters. Why so much hate? Your
president–whether you voted for him of not–delivered a eulogy to
the country, mourning the death of your fellow citizens, and all
you do is complaining.