Jules Crittenden
This one may actually have been worse than that other wretched speech. Even local lefties who sang the big Wright-excuse speech's praises, calling it the second coming of MLK Jr., have been saying this one didn't go anywhere or deliver any punches. But it was worse than that. Some stock American History 101, some standard bootstraps and strong America rhetoric, and a string of other platitudes and sniping entirely unsupported by anything he has said or done or said he will do ... because once you get past the vague "hope" and change" promises, everything else has either been put on hold, sent back for reconsideration, or as is the Obamist wont, abandoned in favor of someone else's ideas. Then there was the fact that much of it was also entirely divorced from anything representing the realities of Washington and the world.
I'm not going to waste a lot of time on it. Another disappointment from a guy who is being hailed as the second coming of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Ambraham Lincoln, Truman and FDR. Still waiting to get a sense of what the guy actually believes in, and what, aside from his personage, the mystical change is about.
"We have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." I dunno, looks from here more like discordant Americans just took counsel of their fears, and put a "hope" blanket over their majority head.
An "end to petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics." Unless he just fired Congress and resigned, then petty grievances, false promises and worn-out dogmas remain the order of the day. Jury's still out on the recriminations.
This next part would have been pretty good if he wasn't talking about the twin scams of socialized medicine, global warming, as well as his watch-your-wallet New Deal threats:
"Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage." Actually, the most recent person to suggest our systm cannnot tolerate too many big plans was Obama himself. Talk about short memories. Bush not only had big ambitious plans, he brought them to fruition with the help of many free men and women whose imaginations were joined to common purpose. Including quite a few Democrats, though once they got cold feet they had to be dragged along kicking and screaming.
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply." Yes they do. He doesn't actually think his election has somehow allowed this nation to transcend politics, does he? Hang on, I get it. He means the Bush political arguments. Well, the Bush arguments Obama is adopting still apply. As well as the stale Clinton political arguments he's pikcing up and the stale political arguments of Congressional Democrats he'll soon find himself saddled with. That leaves the Republican half of a bunch of political arguments. I guess we are not one after all.
"... we are ready to lead once more." This is from a guy who just took over another guy's war policy wholesale, and plans to put a bow on it and call it his own. Kind of rude when the guy whose cabinet he just raided is sitting one row over. He may not have noticed, but while he was still an Illinois state senate hack, that guy formed and led several coalitions. To fight a war in Iraq. To fight a war in Afghanistan. To combat the financing of terrorism and coordinate anti-terrorism efforts globally. To try to make peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. To thwart Iranian plans to build nuclear weapons. Then, there was the much vaunted leadership the fight against rampant AIDS in Africa. That's a lot of global leadership.
Ha. Here's a lefty at Firedoglake calling it the "Worst. Inauguration. Ever." Coming on the heels of two Bush inaugs, that must be pretty bad. The lefty in question spent hours in the cold and could hear anything. Don't worry lefty, you didn't miss much. . . . 
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