President Obama's Speech - what did it do for you?

stevoman

I watched President Obama's Inauguration speech yesterday evening live and i have to say i found it inspiring. From my opinions of being somewhon who lived in America for a couple of years and watched the Bush Administraion first hand I am delighted to see a change and to see the optimism in America spreading once again. I really think it hit an all point low about a year into Bush's second term and it is definitly time for America to lift herself up again. After watching President Obama's speech yesterday it gave me the feeling that we are going to be looking a new and better and fairer America in the future.

We all have our opinions about that nation, but im wondering what you people thought and your views on the speech and what his Presidency will be like?

The_Minister

The number of clankers in that speech was awful, he kept stopping for applause that never came.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Mark200

I preferred his speech on the night he won the election, but still this was amazing too.

sink

OT but i'm curious to know how stevoman called a poll in the politics forum? I thought you couldn't.

edit: Just figured it out, someone moved it from another forum!

oscarBravo

I'm curious about that myself. It doesn't seem to have been moved (until just now).

Pocono Joe

I couldn't vote... you forgot one option:

I thought the speech was good, but he will turn out to be Jimmy Carter incarnate.

Matt Holck

Isreal could certainly use a peace settlement

I was glad to see he sited alternative energy

The conclusion of the speach recalled a poem I had wrote

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have travelled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

cross the Delaware

Pocono Joe

Lets face facts people. Hyprocracy is rampant in American politics. I was disgusted with the poetic end to the benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery during President Barack Obama's inauguration. Then afterwards Obama gives Lowery a big hug. If GWBush would have had a white minister say something even remotely similar during his 2000 inauguration, he would have been impeached that very afternoon.

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen."

Ruskie4Rent

Pocono Joe wrote: »

Lets face facts people. Hyprocracy is rampant in American politics. I was disgusted with the poetic end to the benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery during President Barack Obama's inauguration. Then afterwards Obama gives Lowery a big hug. If GWBush would have had a white minister say something even remotely similar during his 2000 inauguration, he would have been impeached that very afternoon.

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen."

Disgusted? Were you actually disgusted or are you getting worked up over this just for the sake of being petty?

RoosterIllusion

It gave me a firm erection.

Black Swan

Pocono Joe wrote: »

I thought the speech was good, but he will turn out to be Jimmy Carter incarnate.

Oh, but there will be a difference! No peanuts!

Pocono Joe wrote: »

Lets face facts people. Hyprocracy is rampant in American politics.

Oh, I can find proof of that... Just read what is quoted at the base of the Statue of Liberty and compare that to the treatment of men, women, and children that entered illegally and are now held indefinitely in Texas private sector for-profit prisons (traded on the NY stock exchange), which the former VP Dick Cheney had an interest in.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

banquo

His iowa caucus speech was the best.

"They said this day would never come"

Matt Holck

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Oh, but there will be a difference! No peanuts!

what about beer?

the speech
more transparent sounds like a hedge trimming not open government

hedge cutting

Pocono Joe

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Oh, but there will be a difference! No peanuts!

You’re so right... no peanuts... just plane nuts.

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Ahhhh, that kooky zionist Emma Lazarus and her sonnet. Time to change the inscription... how about:
Give me your educated, your credentialed, your cubicle jockeys yearning to cash checks, the fluent doctors abandoning your teeming shores. Send these, the smart, the trained, to me: I lift my lamp beside the door of privilege.

Pocono Joe

Ruskie4Rent wrote: »

Disgusted? Were you actually disgusted or are you getting worked up over this just for the sake of being petty?

How can we ever transcend racism when we sanction and embrace (from anyone) things like that poem, or even this:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/01/19/feel/

oscarBravo

Pocono Joe wrote: »

How can we ever transcend racism when we sanction and embrace (from anyone) things like that poem...

What, specifically, disgusted you about it? Genuinely curious.

Manic Moran

Where's the "The speech was about what one would expect, and we'll wait to see before determining how good he is" option?

NTM

oscarBravo

Reason number 412 why we don't generally allow polls on Politics.

Pocono Joe

oscarBravo wrote: »

What, specifically, disgusted you about it? Genuinely curious.

This might come as a surprise from a "supposed neo-con," but I have always tried to preach against racism. I have always taught equality amongst races to my children, and argue against hate speech when I hear it – no matter it be white, black, red, yellow or green. As I stated, the entire poem I previously noted is disgusting to me. In the 60’s it was revenant, and maybe that is where this preacher is stuck. But when this kind of speech is sanction and embraced, it tells people that it is okay to think and communicate this way. And it isn't!

oscarBravo

Pocono Joe wrote: »

This might come as a surprise from a "supposed neo-con," but I have always tried to preach against racism. I have always taught equality amongst races to my children, and argue against hate speech when I hear it – no matter it be white, black, red, yellow or green.

I'm genuinely pleased to hear that.

As I stated, the entire poem I previously noted is disgusting to me.

I still don't get why. It's as if you're annoyed by the mere suggestion that the US isn't a colour-blind utopia, and the election of a black President is just a run-of-the-mill occurrence.

Have you asked your black, red, yellow and green friends if they feel the same way?

Pocono Joe

The green ones are still hunched over the toilet.

Okay maybe this will be more clear. Sure there are individuals who are racists. But to target an entire race in hate type talk is disgusting. It would be like me stating … When the Irish refrain from being dullards and drunkards…

(Side note: I am guilty of Irish Alzheimer’s… I forget everything but the grudges)

orourkeda

Racism will persist as long as people exist. Everyone has a chip on their shoulder, it's just that some are more prominent than others.

CtrlSource

Pocono Joe wrote: »

This might come as a surprise from a "supposed neo-con..."

Didn't the neocons go the same way as the dinosaurs? Cheney was looking fairly Paleocene on Tuesday..

Pocono Joe

Obama might be comming over to the Dark Side. I see he just attacked Pakistan.

silverharp

Jon Stuarts take on it , funny

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=216538&title=changefest-09-obamas-inaugural

The Raven.

Pocono Joe wrote: »

Okay maybe this will be more clear. Sure there are individuals who are racists. But to target an entire race in hate type talk is disgusting. It would be like me stating … When the Irish refrain from being dullards and drunkards…

… and when white will embrace what is right.

Relegated to the bottom of the colour pile, this statement implies that white people in general are not at present embracing what is right. In fact, it singles out white people only as wrongdoers. It is interesting to note that this kind of racist rant was suppressed during the election campaign. Is it safe now to come out and take a swipe at the ‘whities’? What kind of message does this inaugural irreverence from the Rev. Lowery send out to ‘fellow Americans’, including those who voted for Obama?

Matt Holck

rhyming white with right is problematic no matter how that last line was phrased

I tried "the white are all right" in a colloquial feel good sense
but that could be interpreted as white people know what's best.

perhaps
""the white won't have to live in fright"

The Raven.

To say ‘the white are all right’ could also suggest that all the white people are politically conservative. To say ‘the white won't have to live in fright’ could be construed as casting aspersions on other races.

The whole sentence points a finger at white people. In the interests of the ‘feel good sense’ he should have left it out altogether, as it is hideous rubbish anyway.

Overheal

I dont see anyone complaining about this:



“Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest,
and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for
that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown
can stick around. ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and
when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do
justice and love mercy, say amen. Say amen.”

-Rev. Joseph Lowery

best benediction evar

Running Bing

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

He's centrist in almost everything he does tbh.....it all adds to the feeling that Barack has had his eye on the prize for a very very long time and has done everything in his power to get there. Nothing wrong with that of course as long as he can deliver when the time comes.


As for the benediction.......the way I interpreted it, and feel free to point out if Im out of line on this, is he is saying we will work for the day, in the future, when Black people and Native Americans will no longer be discriminated against and when white people will embrace what is right. This suggests to me at the moment white people have not "embraced what is right".

I dont think that's a very appropriate thing to say tbh and I do find it slightly offensive. To suggest racism is dead or the US is a colour blind nation is pure folly of course and I am not condoning that view for a second. I just feel now its a case of everybody working against racism and for racial equality rather than the "white people need to wake up" view.

Racism is certainly not only confined to white people and I believe the majority of white people have embraced what is right and I think it is wrong to suggest otherwise.

Matt Holck

The Raven. wrote: »

To say ‘the white are all right’ could also suggest that all the white people are politically conservative. To say ‘the white won't have to live in fright’ could be construed as casting aspersions on other races.

The whole sentence points a finger at white people. In the interests of the ‘feel good sense’ he should have left it out altogether, as it is hideous rubbish anyway.

is was trying the follow a parallel of oppression due to racism

the original speech

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen."

some revisions



in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest,
and in the joy for new beginning that we will do our best
to bring the day
. when black will not be asked to get in back, (black oppressed)
. when brown can stick around (brown oppressed)
. when yellow will be mellow (???)
. when the red man can get ahead, man; (red oppressed)
. the white won't have to live in fright; (white oppressed )


yellow could use a rewrite
"where yellow isn't the other fellow"
*shrug*

The Raven.

So who is doing all this oppressing ??

Matt Holck

those practicing racism

The Raven.

Overheal wrote: »

I dont see anyone complaining about this:

Try googling. It has incited a lot of unnecessary anger, which is growing. It was a particularly foolish thing to do.

Armin_Tamzarian

I'll reserve judgement on Obama until some time has passed but my opinion of him is pretty positive so far.

However, I thought that the end of the benediction was totally inappropriate and somewhat offensive.

Apart from anything else I don't think that the inaugeration of a President is time for light humour.

It was Obama's hero, Martin Luther King who said
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin".

Well it sounds to me that the good Reverand was generalising certain ethnic groups with one negative sentence and he certainly seemed to be judging people by the colour of their skin.

"When yellow will be mellow" - are we to presume that this refers to Asians?
Any Asian people I've met couldn't have been more 'mellow'.

"Work for%

The Raven.

stevoman wrote: »

We all have our opinions about that nation, but im wondering what you people thought and your views on the speech and what his Presidency will be like?

In response to the OP's question, 'What did Obama’s speech do for you?':

It reminded me that it was written by Obama’s chief speechwriter, 27 year old John Favreau. Obama was the singer, not the songwriter !!



It is difficult to tell as yet what Obama's presidency will be like. He has a few interesting people to help him !!

banquo

The bastard. He's so young! I'd love that job/to be that good/to be at all good/to have a job.

mysterious

Guess NOT one person on this board, educated on politics or not.


Does NOT have a clue about how politic's are run in America. It's so shocking. That I'm not going to bother explain what Obama is, and what is actual position in his post for the next few years. I'll just give you all a hint. He's a puppet. This could well be a dead giveaway. Get with it. seriously.


The inauguration and speech was pre ordain, pre destined, pre organised, pre examined. etc etc. He learned his words, his stances, his key punch lines, his persona, his speeking style was all put into him over the last few (maybe even years) months trained as a CFR agent. He is not the leader of this world..............:rolleyes:

His speech is almost a replica to the bull**** of Bill Clinton said in his inaugeration(bill is another genuine man, like Obama)
Infact the patriotism, false hope, god bless America is bet into all of you every four years by each of the next American "leader". They all give you hope, to pretend another 4 maybe 8year fantasy. Give you wars, then start with "lets hope". then its you "must fear" terrorism. Get the terrorist. It's absaloute balls...........


Seriously none of you have a f***** clue, about this world:D I did my research, now you all do yourself a favour and study how the world is run and operated by. Who is actually running it, and look back at history and see which families, which leaders and of such powers of be are running the globe. Public figures such as Tony blair and George bush, don't make the case of actually ruling the world at all. They are just taking the orders.

None of these puppets are actually running the show. The manager in the head office lays down the rules". I.e man behind the scenes.

mysterious

stevoman wrote: »

I watched President Obama's Inauguration speech yesterday evening live and i have to say i found it inspiring. From my opinions of being somewhon who lived in America for a couple of years and watched the Bush Administraion first hand I am delighted to see a change and to see the optimism in America spreading once again. I really think it hit an all point low about a year into Bush's second term and it is definitly time for America to lift herself up again. After watching President Obama's speech yesterday it gave me the feeling that we are going to be looking a new and better and fairer America in the future.

We all have our opinions about that nation, but im wondering what you people thought and your views on the speech and what his Presidency will be like?

What was inspiring? please tell me.

Since you lived in America, do you know much about politics? how they control the masses, and no I didn't say T.V. go and ask me, bet you'll be surprised, to know how flawed your paragraph is.

Running Bing

mysterious wrote: »

The inauguration and speech was pre ordain, pre destined, pre organised, pre examined. etc etc. He learned his words, his stances, his key punch lines, his persona, his speeking style was all put into him over the last few (maybe even years) months

Bull, I dont believe a politician would ever do that.








Lol, troll.

Matt Holck

politics is not funny

_________________

When I'm five
I will jump in puddles, laugh in church and marry my mum
And I'll let my daddy do the washing-up

~bowie
NO WAR

Ludo

mysterious wrote: »

Guess NOT one person on this board, educated on politics or not.


Does NOT have a clue about how politic's are run in America. It's so shocking. That I'm not going to bother explain what Obama is, and what is actual position in his post for the next few years. I'll just give you all a hint. He's a puppet. This could well be a dead giveaway. Get with it. seriously.

...LARGE SNIP...

Dude...do us all a favour and take it to the conspiracy forum.

mysterious

Ludo wrote: »

Dude...do us all a favour and take it to the conspiracy forum.

Look kido. I'm discussing politics. I've done my research on American politics. I'm keen on this subject. i'm not stopping you or anybody else from giving their opinions. Unless you can prove my statements are conspiracy theory or even untrue, then fire ahead. If you don't like "reality talk" then ignore me.

If your right that it's conspiracy then everything about politics is conspiracy, at the rate you spew such ignorance to me, with no back up to your silly remark.


American politics = is about how much dollars you have, if it means wars, corruption, lies, drugs, selling arms, treachery you name if it makes profits, then your on your way to becoming big in politics in America. I've talked to many American's on this. It's the true nature of power in this country. Obama is not in any league of power. He was given the power. That is the fact. Now you can go into conspiracy theories from there if you like. But heck no need, you find out.
Obama is a puppet, most people with cop on would know that ffs.
A black man becoming a president out of the blue, with little political or money power background whatsoever, to becoming a celebrity the world overnight, and one of the youngest if not the youngest person in history of America to become president. Do you know much about US politics? I would like to know out of curosity??

Do your research then you come back and prove that it's conspiracy. Obama does not have the billions behind him in the beggining. He has very little power in reality. He's doing the job thats it. As I said "you don't know a slight inch about American politics" I could tell you, but I've been shot down by ignorance. So do yourself a favour and do some research

Ruskie4Rent

Do you actually believe that he was actually 'groomed' by some sinister higer ups?
I can see it now...
Rich Evil Dude: Hey black guy, look at all my money! You wanna be my puppet president, and start wars for me and sh*t?
Obama: Sure.

mysterious wrote: »

Look kido. I'm discussing politics. I've done my research on American politics.

Was any of this 'research' off youtube?

Obama is a puppet, most people with cop on would know that ffs.
A black man becoming a president out of the blue, with little political or money power background whatsoever, to becoming a celebrity the world overnight, and one of the youngest if not the youngest person in history of America to become president. Do you know much about US politics? I would like to know out of curosity??

Well if you know so much about US politics maybe you'd know if he's the youngest president or not.....



...he's not BTW.

mysterious

Ruskie4Rent wrote: »

Do you actually believe that he was actually 'groomed' by some sinister higer ups?
I can see it now...
Rich Evil Dude: Hey black guy, look at all my money! You wanna be my puppet president, and start wars for me and sh*t?
Obama: Sure.

Rofl.....

Was any of this 'research' off youtube?

Nope
I read,
I do briefly anaylse World new stations. Not the bull****. But the agenda of each media groupings.
I use the internet. To find more topics of this nature.
I ask people too. Actually this is one of the best ways, to learn how politics runs in other countries.
I research the dynamics of human behaviour in power and control. how?
I observe the world.
I look at history.
I look at present
I use my sense's.

Where is your research??
What's wrong with youtube?? may I ask.

Where do you get your research the T.V??? Do you ever wonder, question, discern how this world operates. It operates by money. Money is power. The most richest people in the world DECIDE who is in. get with the basic's. The highest and most powerful sit at home, and watch the world play. Obama and Mcain and George bush are all public figures for the money owners. They are doing they're just doing the job. They get paid a god damn lot of money to do so. They are protected and looked after for the rest of their lives. You need to wake up and smell the coffee....

Unless you can prove me wrong Tell me all the superficial nonsense you hear on T.V the, saviour oh Obama is voted in democratically.

Explain this one
Gore won the popular vote, and technically had more votes.
But bush still won. So you still believe that its all unplanned ROFL. sheep follow the sheep:rolleyes: keep dreaming man keep dreaming.................

Well if you know so much about US politics maybe you'd know if he's the youngest president or not.....



...he's not BTW.

I said he's one of the youngest, I did state that. Roosvelt was the youngest. Obama isn't far off the mark. Lay off the sarcasm. We are adults.

Nodin

mysterious wrote: »

Explain this one
Gore won the popular vote, and technically had more votes.
But bush still won.

Thats the way the US system works. Electoral colleges etc. I dun reesearched it on that thar intarweb.

oscarBravo

mysterious, this is your one and only warning: keep the conspiracy theories on the conspiracy theories forum.

You may ask: who says they're conspiracy theories? The answer is: I do, and on this forum I'm the NWO, and my word is final.

Don't mistake this for an invitation to discuss the subject.