I heard only snippets of the president’s speech last Thursday night. I had arrived in Williamstown, Massachusetts Thursday night for the opening reception of the fall meeting of the executive committee of the Williams College Society of Alumni on which I serve.
While I was “recepting” with colleagues on the committee, I did peek into a room where the telecast was being broadcast. In the portions I saw, the president looked more confident than he has in past such addresses.
Afterwards, a committee colleague who had seen the entire address referred to it as a “home-run” for the president. He leans left politically. Shortly thereafter, I caught a liberal friend’s Facebook post on the speech, “here’s the guy I voted for. I sure missed him, but I’m glad he’s back.”
Now, granted these are only two responses, but when I skimmed the speech and read converge of it, it did seem that he addressed concerns made by many on the left for a more aggressive government role in trying to fix the economy.
His speech, John Hinderaker wrote last week, “was a political act, and has generally been treated as such. Indeed, his political purpose was so transparent that he felt compelled to devote his opening paragraphs to denying it.” At the Washington Examiner, Philip Klein called it a campaign speech to liberals.
Seem that the political act of this speech was for the president to solidify his liberal base, many of whom had been losing their loving feeling for the president.
NB: Tweaked the title to reflect my point more accurately.
Obama basically said we should borrow and spend more. He offered some temporary (and therefore, largely useless) tax cuts, and he made noises about cutting some regulation (but not the Big One). And he demanded that Congress pass his bill (once it exists) quickly so then they can find out what is in it.
The key point, the key difference with Republicans, was Obama’s proposal that we should spend more *and not pay for it today*. (Paying for it only with unspecificied, theoretical future cuts; running the *current deficit up toward $2 trillion.)
In short, Obama posed as (or is!) an authoritarian who cares little for separation of powers and the democratic process, and who deficit-spends for the sheer joy of expanding government, and as his answer to everything.
Lefties like *that*? Lefties look at *that* and go “Oooh, that’s the candidate I loved”? Yikes! Are they nihilists? Do they want America to die?
BTW, if Obama did design his speech to pacify liberals, it might not work. The Hill reports (h/t Legal Insurrection):
Obama: Undercutting his own party’s longtime strategy on Social Security. Is there anything He can’t do?
Sorry, LI hat tip was to here: http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/09/liberals-wake-up-to-the-obama-threat-to-social-security-as-we-know-it/