State of the Union: “Woe to the People Whose Leader Has No Teacher”
Historically, State of the Union speeches leave no trace. Their impact on presidential approval ratings is nil. Their utility, therefore, is in what they reflect about the presidential character and the presidential course. Last night President Obama gave a speech that was at times quite eloquent, and on occasion rhetorically empty. But at all times it was the speech of a man who is deeply partisan and dangerously arrogant and is determined to stay a course which has already damaged his party, weakened his country at home and exposed it to attack from abroad.
Over and over again the President demonstrated a troubling disconnect from reality, striking in the leader of a political democracy, and indicative of a narcissism that appears to be greater than President Clinton’s. “I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight,” he said at the outset of his speech. This in a country with 17 million unemployed, a political majority that is unable to govern, and a national security apparatus that couldn’t identify a terrorist whose own father had turned him in.
In the course of his speech, as Charles Krauthammer observed, the President attacked “Washington” seven times in the name of the people, as though he and his party were not Washington, as though the course he had set for his party and his country was not the source of the people’s rage. Taken as a whole it was an hour-long campaign speech, in which he broke precedent to attack not only the previous Republican Administration and all the Republicans in the chamber but even the Supreme Court justices present as well. And then – as though he had not done that – he scolded the entire assemblage for being politicians instead of non-partisan statesmen, and for running “permanent campaigns.”
But the most disturbing passage of his speech was also the most eloquent, the peroration at the end. In this flourish as throughout his speech there was the world and then there was Obama. In the world “Each time a CEO rewards himself for failure … people’s doubts grow.” But in the mind of Obama, no failure is his. If voters have rejected his plans for the future that is their deficiency not his. “I campaigned on the promise of change … But remember this … I never suggested that change would be easy.” The cowardice and weakness of his own party and the voters who have deserted him are to blame. And they have betrayed not only him but through him the Republic itself. “If people had made that decision 50 years ago, or 100 years ago or 200 years ago we wouldn’t be here tonight. The only reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain.” L’etat c’est moi.
The philosopher Martin Buber once wrote: “Woe to the people whose leader has no teacher.” In a democracy, the people must function as their leader’s teacher. But Obama has no faith in the American people, and in particular the people who supported him. And therefore there will be no correction of the destructive – and self-destructive — course he has undertaken.
I agree – except for the part about eloquence. There was no eloquence.
If someone wants to lecture me, they better be in a position to have earned the authority to do so and my respect of them in order to submit to such a lecture.
Obama has not earned this , at all. All of his lecturing is hollow to me… Who the hell is he to lecture anyone about anything? What has he accomplished in life that he is anyone's better? He's accomplished nothing.. He's earned nothing.
I think this is a major component in why people are just turned off whenever the jerk speaks.
Vince;
I agree 100%, but we shouldn't underestimate him or the depths of evil that he will stoop to in order to reach his goal. If he was the only progressive "intellectual elite" in the government, he'd have been impeached already, but he's not, and he's got a powerful army of supporters both in government, major financial supporters and the media. We must maintain a full court press on him if we're to have a chance to defeat him in 2012.
The thing is, he’s got teachers. They are named Wright, Alinsky, Ayers, and Davis. Also, it’s not merely narcissism you’re seeing. It’s a devotion to the ideologies he was taught by these teachers which makes him so stubborn. Nothing else matters but the long-followed plans of his mentors. Especially now, so close to their fulfillment.
““I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight,” he said at the outset of his speech.
David, you answered your conundrum in the next sentence.
You said: “This in a country with 17 million unemployed, a political majority that is unable to govern, and a national security apparatus that couldn’t identify a terrorist whose own father had turned him in.”
Of course he is hopeful. Things are going pretty much according to plan – the destruction of America continues apace. If people would read the writings of Obama’s teachers that I mentioned, this wouldn’t be a necessary explanation.
We have never before had a president who is desirous of America’s destruction and whose goals are one and the same with those of the former Soviet Union. Look for an American Thinker article from a couple of weeks ago entitled “Did the Soviet Union Fake it’s own Death in 1991?”, by Jason McNew.
Nah, don’t look for it, here: http://tinyurl.com/y9pdef9
Obama was being told in his early grammar school years that he was going to be president. I’ll bet that he was being told this while still in the womb.
I think the biggest lie conservatives in America ever told ourselves was that we “beat Communism”, even as they continued to take us, institution by institution, from within. Soviets were known for long planning, and we were known for “Short Attention Span Theater”.
You cannot have a short attention span in this day, if you wish to understand why things are the way they are.
For 70 minutes, he gave me the impression of a petulant child who was not given his way. The only consistency in his speech was his anger. A year ago, when he gave his first speech to Congress, the American people rated the speech as 68% favorable. Last night, it dropped to 48%. The people ARE listening …
Oh and you know what is a great page to find all your pr 10 oh reffic stuff? David's sister site:
frontpagemag.com
VIew the climb here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&...
I keep hearing talk of this man's eloquence, but President Obama does not seem to be better or worse than most politicians in that department. Also, If his teleprompter is taken away, whatever articulation he formerly possessed vanishes. As for content, he could have given about 75% or more of the speech a year ago without anyone noticing. The only thing really different from last year was a tinge of fanaticism covering up an increased desperation.
""The cowardice and weakness of his own party and the voters who have deserted him are to blame. And they have betrayed not only him but through him the Republic itself. “If people had made that decision 50 years ago, or 100 years ago or 200 years ago we wouldn’t be here tonight. The only reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain.” L’etat c’est moi.
Why does this mindset seem more appropriate to a Fuhrer Bunker than a Republic?
The lack of credibility stems from one thing: unlike Bush, Obama doesn't say what he means or mean what he says. He talks of the need for fiscal responsibility at the very moment he proposes massive new spending. You can fool MOST of the people SOME of the time, but not for long.
An utterly irrelevant man, political system, and government. Left or Right, they're all panicked rats shovelling trinkets into their pockets as the ship of state sinks. The next war will be between the haves and have nots and frankly, can't come soon enough.
I am embarassed this man is the President of the United States. More and more he reminds me of the goofy, irreverent, loud mouth relative who shows up at the annual family picnic to everyone’s chagrin. Those who elected him need to own up to their misdeed and apologize to the rest of us. As a nation we can survive until 2012, we have endured bad times before; and then we can close this chapter of American history and store it away in that large, undisclosed warehouse in Washington D. C. we learned existed in Raider’s of the Lost Ark; hopfully to become only a footnote in our history.