Obama/Jindal Speeches

[shoe1985]

Instead of having two threads on these speeches, I figured they go against each other, so, why not one thread?

I thought Obama had a great speech. He really got the emotions through. He has set the standards high.

As for Jindal, he was rushing through it. He lacked the emotion. He seemed to say, "Republicans are the only ones that know how to do anything." I don't agree with his policies, and I hope the Republicans have someone better suited for President than this guy. He is better than Palin it seems though.

Opinions?

[Homyrrh]

Instead of having two threads on these speeches, I figured they go against each other, so, why not one thread?

I thought Obama had a great speech. He really got the emotions through. He has set the standards high.

As for Jindal, he was rushing through it. He lacked the emotion. He seemed to say, "Republicans are the only ones that know how to do anything." I don't agree with his policies, and I hope the Republicans have someone better suited for President than this guy. He is better than Palin it seems though.

Opinions?
Obama gave us an example of peerless oratory, something the political arena has not seen in a good number of years. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone can deny how "halftime-speech-ish" it sounded, though it seemed the most appropriate.

Jindal, however, despite my affinity for him previously, made his time shine into some PBS-Louisiana afternoon special.

[Badbird]

Jindal is a retarded crybaby. I feel more stupid for having seen him speak about anything.

[Homyrrh]

Jindal is a retarded crybaby. I feel more stupid for having seen him speak about anything.
A "retarded crybaby"? Yeah, I'd definitely say his speech was inferior, but I guess I'm not able to express that as eloquently. He was responsible for issuing the Republican response to the speech, so that's what he did. I'm sure we would've gotten the same content from any other of a number of Republican governors or senators, but the GOP elected to use him. Did he do well? Eh, not really, but he just expressed a generic Republican sentiment at this point...no/less government regulation,power in the people, we don't trust the Democrats, etc.

[Homyrrh]

By the way, the Times did something pretty cool (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/25/us/politics/20090225-OBAMA-CONGRESS.html?hp#)with the speech.

[Jon Lyrik]

Typical bullshit.

I love how these assholes want to reduce disaster funding. A politician...in Louisiana...reducing...oh, fuck it.

[shoe1985]

A "retarded crybaby"? Yeah, I'd definitely say his speech was inferior, but I guess I'm not able to express that as eloquently. He was responsible for issuing the Republican response to the speech, so that's what he did. I'm sure we would've gotten the same content from any other of a number of Republican governors or senators, but the GOP elected to use him. Did he do well? Eh, not really, but he just expressed a generic Republican sentiment at this point...no/less government regulation,power in the people, we don't trust the Democrats, etc.

I think you summed it up pretty well. I was expecting more from him because of the hype Republicans were putting in him. Like you mentioned how he more or less said we don't trust the Democrats, there is the problem, the American people stopped trusting the Repubs because of where they led the country. This is why they gave Dems the opportunity to fix the country. He didn't say anything that really gave him a name.

[someguy]

Jindal was the Republicans' new hyped up candidate and he fell flat on his face last night. It was obvious that things weren't going to go well when he walked out with that creepy grin. It's near impossible for him to not bring up Katrina but he should have kept that to a minimum since it was really the beginning of the Republicans fall from popularity with the public. There's also the insanity of him bringing up Katrina and then shortly mentioning after that funding to observe volcanos is a waste. It's definitely tough to try and follow Obama's speech but Jindal was just bad and it looks like a lot of other people think so too. With this and his dumb showboating over rejecting the stimulus money for his state (read: only rejecting 100 or so million from the 3.8 billion dollars being given that would help unemployed people) he's gonna have to work real hard if he still wants a chance to be the top candidate in 2012.

[Badbird]

Jindal talked about rescuing people on boats after Katrina when he wasn't even there; he was in Baton Rouge at the time.

He talked about the Stim having plans for a "magnetic levitation" train from LA to Las Vegas (there is no such thing in the stim, it was just a rumor at one point, and not really a bad idea either).

It's called Mag-Lev technology and it's pretty cutting edge, but if you want to talk about it like it's some magic do-hickey operated by wizards then you're the one who is out of touch.

He made fun of "Volcano monitoring technology" as if an erupting volcano couldn't hurt or kill anything. As if he's not familiar with natural disasters.

He complains about the failures of the Bush government as examples of government getting it wrong, and seems to think the Obama government will do the exact same thing.

This guy is a special breed of moron.

[gayzilla]

It's funny and sad that the only person to come to his defense is Rush Limbaugh and he even seemed to have a hard time doing it. It's like the republican party are desparately trying to close ranks and limit their members instead of growing it's base.

[Potter82]

I heard today that even Fox News was ripping into Jindal, which is just shocking. I have even heard quite a few people say that his speech may have actually doomed his nomination chances for 2012. That may seem a bit premature but I think first impressions matter a lot in politics and for the vast majority of people, that was their first impression of the guy. Case in point, the first impression many had of Obama was the speech he gave during the 2004 DNC, widely considered one of his best and something which laid the foundation for his 2008 run.

In terms of the substance of Jindal's speech, one thing is for sure, he didn't distinguish himself as being anything more than a typical Republican; same talking points, same criticisms, same solutions. That and I really do think that his pledge to reject some stimulus money is not going over well at all among most people, it just seems callous and obviously ambition driven.

In regard to his remark about the wasteful spending involved in monitoring volcanoes;

"Does the governor have a volcano in his backyard?" Royce Pollard, the mayor of Vancouver, Washington, said on Wednesday. "We have one that's very active, and it still rumbles and spits and coughs very frequently." Facepalm

Is the current GOP apart of some elaborate mockumentary that we aren't privy to? sort of like a Joacquin Phoenix act on a grand scale? Seriously what else do you call it when Arnold freaking Schwartzenegger seems like the most sensible major Republican politican out there?

As for Obama, that he is a great orator is nothing new. However I was really impressed with the sheer ambition and scope of his plans. I for one believe bold action is necessary in regard to the global financial crisis and I really do believe that the whole conservative mantra that government is the problem and the private sector is the solution has been throughly discredited by recent events, which is why I'm in favour of acts involving a greater role for the government and why I'm glad that Obama isn't shying away from this shift.

[The Postmaster General]

It's blowing me away how much criticism Obama is getting. Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I remember Bush's first months being pretty laid back on the attack front. He had a fair share of criticism, of course, but seriously, I feel like every day I'm hearing some shit about Obama being the death of America. Maybe it's that I'm hanging with different crowds lately, but does anyone here no what I'm on about? I swear it seemed like it took Bush a couple good years before the Left was totally hellbent on defaming him - I remember one group of friends hating on him a little bit, but it wasn't until he started invading countries that it stepped up, and still not anywhere near the incitements my other group of friends has made against Obama since day one. Is this maybe just the fact that Obama is actually working, and has more activity up for potential ridicule, or is that the right is so much more militant - I'm just mainly wondering if I'm the only one who's noticing this?

[gayzilla]

The country Bush took over from Clinton was in far better shape than the country Obama is getting from Bush. Also, I hate to say it but I think many people are far more prejudiced than we may have imagined/hoped. Many things I hear people say cause me to do a double-take.

Those who say things like "he'll be the death of America" also feel emboldened and empowered by the sinking DOW

But the criticism against Bush in the beginning wasn't about what he'd do to the country, it was how He, and the Supreme court stold the presidency away from Al Gore, who had more votes. Then 9/11 happened and the whole game was changed.

[AceD]

It's blowing me away how much criticism Obama is getting. Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I remember Bush's first months being pretty laid back on the attack front. He had a fair share of criticism, of course, but seriously, I feel like every day I'm hearing some shit about Obama being the death of America. Maybe it's that I'm hanging with different crowds lately, but does anyone here no what I'm on about? I swear it seemed like it took Bush a couple good years before the Left was totally hellbent on defaming him - I remember one group of friends hating on him a little bit, but it wasn't until he started invading countries that it stepped up, and still not anywhere near the incitements my other group of friends has made against Obama since day one. Is this maybe just the fact that Obama is actually working, and has more activity up for potential ridicule, or is that the right is so much more militant - I'm just mainly wondering if I'm the only one who's noticing this?

It's a bit true, but most of it is coming from the vocal Righties and Fox News. Joke sources like MSNBC and Rolling Stone still can't say a bad word about Obama. I think part of it is that, sadly, a lot of the young people and uninformed voters who were all about Obama think that Election Day is when they get to stop paying attention.

Also, things like Obama being all about "no earmarks" and this package being full of earmarks riles some people.

Regardless, I do think that yes, he's getting a level of flack that surpasses what Bush had at this point. I want him to be held to the high standard he set for himself -- such as saying if he didn't give us national healthcare and troops out of Iraq by the end of his first term he'd consider the term a failure -- but there's no need for some of the stupid gripes people have.

That said, with networks like MSNBC and Fox News, what can we expect?
"But the criticism against Bush in the beginning wasn't about what he'd do to the country, it was how He, and the Supreme court stold the presidency away from Al Gore, who had more votes."

You do realize he's not the first president elected who lost the popular vote, right?

[Homyrrh]

Hmmm...Obama wore pretty much the same tie at the 2008 DNC speech. And Jindal wore inverse tie colors. ;)

[shoe1985]

People love to complain about earmarks, unless they are benefitting them. I really enjoy this subject because it is really funny. I come from a state where we don't have to worry about volcanoes. Yes, it sounds funny hearing about funding for them. But, there are things in this bill for my state that another state would consider earmarks, but we wouldn't. Funny how that works. What is one person's gold, is another's junk.

It is price gouging. What is price gouging? If people are willing to buy a product at a higher price, let them. It is showing that there is a demand for it.

Anyone watch this Glen Beck guy on Fox News? He is a fun one to watch. He is so paranoid over what Obama is doing, and running the deficit up, but where was he when the previous administration was in charge? This bill will benefit Americans, which some people don't understand.

Could the bill have been smaller? Of course, but there are reports from both parties that the bill could have been much bigger. I wonder why Jindal didn't say that in his speech? Which is really getting hit hard.

Obama is taking on a lot very early on. He is putting his whole reputation on these bills to work. We have to face it, America is not in good shape at all. Our infrastructure is falling apart. Our schools are not providing an education that will allow our children to compete. OPEC has been cutting oil production trying to get the price of oil back up. We have to make changes now because we cannot afford to wait any longer. We can give tax cuts over and over again, but it isn't solving the much more crucial problems we are facing.

[Potter82]

It's blowing me away how much criticism Obama is getting. Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I remember Bush's first months being pretty laid back on the attack front. He had a fair share of criticism, of course, but seriously, I feel like every day I'm hearing some shit about Obama being the death of America. Maybe it's that I'm hanging with different crowds lately, but does anyone here no what I'm on about? I swear it seemed like it took Bush a couple good years before the Left was totally hellbent on defaming him - I remember one group of friends hating on him a little bit, but it wasn't until he started invading countries that it stepped up, and still not anywhere near the incitements my other group of friends has made against Obama since day one. Is this maybe just the fact that Obama is actually working, and has more activity up for potential ridicule, or is that the right is so much more militant - I'm just mainly wondering if I'm the only one who's noticing this?

The right is far, far more militant than the left in the US. Remember how they went after Clinton from day one? At the moment, they have nothing in the way of solutions or actual ideas that go beyond tax cuts and so all they have to fall back on is criticism.

That and I honestly think that many of these people aren't outraged by what Obama is doing per se, they are just grasping on to absolutely anything they can in order to justify their loathing of the man. Case in point, defecits. The national debt doubled under Bush so where was all the right wing outrage over that from the party of so called fiscal restraint? What, it was okay when the money was being spent in Iraq as opposed to in the US? or is spending only wrong when democrats do it?

The thing about the right in the US is that they are very, very loud and very vocal. They speak from the gut and not from the head, which often makes their statements quite sensational and thus newsworthy, which in turn contributes to a distorted perspective. I mean if you were to watch cable news or what not, you would assume that everyone was against the stimulus bill or housing plan when in fact, over 60% of people support both endeavours according to recent polls.

I also think a lot of the criticism is due to the frustration and panic on the right due to the fact that they are more or less impotent on the national stage and are without a clear vision, direction, or leader.

[Brando @$$ Fat]

Jindal sounded too much like a Sunday School teacher.

He is better than Palin it seems though.

The only difference between him and Palin is his tone, which is a lot less bitter and demagogic but way too goofy and friendly to be taken seriously. The Republicans are just going to have to come out and admit that the only reason he's popular is because he's not old or white.