Last night Obama gave his St. Crispin's Day Speech

[hedgehog]

I know how hard it is. It comes with little sleep, little pay, and a lot of sacrifice. There are days of disappointment, but sometimes, just sometimes, there are nights like this - a night-a night that, years from now, when we've made the changes we believe in; when more families can afford to see a doctor; when our children-when Malia and Sasha and your children-inherit a planet that's a little cleaner and safer; when the world sees America differently, and America sees itself as a nation less divided and more united; you'll be able to look back with pride and say that this was the moment when it all began.

This was the moment when the improbable beat what Washington always said was inevitable.

This was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long - when we rallied people of all parties and ages to a common cause; when we finally gave Americans who'd never participated in politics a reason to stand up and to do so.

This was the moment when we finally beat back the politics of fear, and doubt, and cynicism; the politics where we tear each other down instead of lifting this country up. This was the moment.

Years from now, you'll look back and you'll say that this was the moment - this was the place - where America remembered what it means to hope.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAvmLDkAgAM&feature=related

[autorank]

1. "Hope" - How about saving the species and stopping the killing.

Nobody is talking about 1.2 million dead Iraqi civilians and 5.0 million orphaned children due to this illegal war plus and the and that we're about to creat an irreversible ecological crisis that threatens billions of people. This is established by very broad scientific consensus.

I'll remember this as the campaign where people talked about "hope," "experience," and "apologies" while Iraq fell into social chaos as a result of an illegal invasion and the political leaders engaged in astounding bad judgment by not addressing the fundamental issue - surviving the huge changes we've brought upon ourselves.

"Hope" - nah, no hope because of total denial.

[Sparkly]

3. Autorank -- Isn't a Democratic president (and Congress with strong majorities) step 1? nt

[autorank]

8. It's necessary but not close to sufficient. So Yes, it is.

I'm not messing with you Sprakly;)

You're to young to remember the group "The Fugs," way way back, the had a song called "Nothing" -
that was the main lyric for five minutes.

That's what the primary season reminds me of. The things that happened in Iraq are too much to imagine.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0801/S00011.htm

The two years spent not pushing like crazy to stop the carnage and destruction incurs a measure of
responsibility for what's happened. Why?

It's not "us," (the American people), it's "them", the Republicans and those who enabled them.
Our team is playing "four corners."

Aside from the morality of allowing this craziness to go forward, it's ultra bad politics. Approval
ratings for Congress went from the high 60's to below those of Bush when John Q and the rest of us
figured it out.

All the chummy back slapping, Senatorial courtesies, plannedworld tours by the previous two presidents,
obscene national press dinners, prayer breakfasts go on while people are getting slaughtered over
there and we're unable to get health care and when we do, it's a struggle to get the job done.

So get us some real Democrats and yep, things change in a big way. But when the corporate virus
of campaign contributions (aka illegal bribes) infects the politics, it's all over. Not much hope.

So, vote for Democrats. I will, as I have always, but the only way things will get done is to build
a ground swell of outrage the minute they're in. Getting a bigger majority this time, which we will,
just reinforces the inaction from 2006 to 2008. I refuse to take the word of a single elected official, ever.

Why won't anybody talk about the dead and orphaned, the lost and injured for life soldiers and their
families? Well, the Republicans can't because their party and policies created the problem, despite
their affirmation of great religious standards.

But where is our team?

So it's up to us.

No more faith in any individual, charismatic and charming as he or she might be, at any level of the
political process.

(Sorry to go on so long).

[hedgehog]

11. Did you not read the part where he said tonight is the night the

American people take back their country?


On edit - that's not a direct quote but I think it catches the tenor of the speech.

[autorank]

13. He was referring to the Lakota Souix?

I've followed the issues in the primary with some degree of attention. It's a lot of positioning and who struck John.

Respectfully, let me say to you that this line could come from anyone. If you're gung ho Obama, go for it. I hope you're right but the evidence in his case and the accumulated evidence of the "promise breakers" is that they speak in vague tones in order to avoid fulfilling a commitment. The real dialog I want to hear is between Obama & Clinton and all those investment bankers giving them all that money. Those guys giving the money want to hold on to the country we want to take back.

[Me.]

15. I'd Love To Be Wildly Excited About Obama

But his statement regarding impeachment, that it should be saved for grave offenses, still has my head spinning. It may have been pure spin on his part and not wanting to answer the question, but who has committed graver offenses than those criminals in the WH? Lying us into war, torture, outing a NOC...? That takes the edge off all the excitement for Me.

[Me.]

16. YES

Sadly, you're dead on

[Benhurst]

4. Shh! Don't talk that way.

Reality is so depressing. Bringing it up is tantamount to being unAmerican.

[hedgehog]

6. Did you hear or read the speech?

"And I'll be a President who ends this war in Iraq and finally brings our troops home; who restores our moral standing; who understands that 9/11 is not a way to scare up votes, but a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the twenty-first century; common threats of terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease."

"Years from now, you'll look back and you'll say that this was the moment - this was the place - where America remembered what it means to hope.

For many months, we've been teased, even derided for talking about hope.

But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. "

[autorank]

9. "a planet that's a little cleaner and safer;"

If it's not a lot cleaner or safer real quick, if that effort is not begun in earnest, we're told by
2009 at the latest, we're all done for and billions of us will be dead. He does not get it; not even
close... "little cleaner."

Yep. No more promises on a cheerful night punctuated by the pablum of political lying to please donors.

The old politics isn't dead but it's about to kill us all.

[JDPriestly]

10. Sorry, but in my view, Obama is hopelessly vague.

There is a reason why Obama mostly appeals to the young. The rest of us have heard that kind of overly intellectual, vague, theoretical rhetoric before -- and always means we lose. He talks like Kerry and Dukakis and the rest of them. I liked it when I was young. Now I know that you have to tell people the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about who you are and what's in your soul, where you come from and what you will do. Obama talks like all the politicians he has heard. He has not found his voice yet.

The press's ignoring Edwards is a crime against America. And Chris Matthews practically admitted to the motive for their crime: They don't like trial lawyers. May they all find enjoy their Corvairs and Pintos.

[hedgehog]

12. It was a speech, not a white paper, There is a time for prose and

a time for poetry. Last night was for poetry. IMO, if either Kerry or Dukakis had had half as much poetry in their soul as Obama, they would have been elected in a land slide.Don't knock poetry; just think about some of Roosevelt and Churchill's speeches.

[JDPriestly]

14. I thought Obama was boring.

[sandnsea]

2. It's online now too

http://my.barackobama.com/page/m/f37ffede4b87dfa5/JLIbFh/

[hedgehog]

5. Here's how I know about this speech:

In his very first race for Congress in 1946, Kennedy would tell his boon companion Dave Powers: “Years from now you can say you were with me on Saint Crispin’s Day. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. ”

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1983/1/1983_1_50.shtml

Another Kennedy Reference:

Obama, last night:
"Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. "



On June 8th, 1968, the day of Bobby's funeral, another Kennedy brother, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, eulogized:

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

"Those of us, who loved him and who take him to his rest today pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world.

"As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'"

[Politicub]

7. It was an inspirational speech

I felt fortunate for viewing the live broadcast.