I sat tonight with my next door neighbor waiting Washington’s version of the ball drop at Times Square.
Around 9 PM I told him that I did not believe a shutdown would occur as the public would blame democrats far more than than Republicans.
‘Americans of different beliefs came together’ for deal averting shutdown
Then Obama spoke for what seemed to be forever, largely taking credit for averting a government shutdown after promising to veto another continuing resolution.
I watched Sam Youngman of the TheHill.com make the ridiculous assertion that Obama was going to campaign from inside the White House as an outsider.
I was keenly aware of the hand thumping Steven Hayward wrote about not long ago.
So, in Obama’s speech tonight, I couldn’t get past his relentless hand gestures, and especially the fact that after just about every compound sentence that is typical of his rhetoric, he would flop his hands on the podium, which the microphone would pick up as an audible “thump.”
And son of a gun, he did exactly that tonight.
But the oddest thing this evening was Obama’s baloney speech. It was astonishingly long coming so quickly on the heels of the announcement of the budget agreement. You’d almost think it was written well before the agreement. >wink< Obama went on with some drivel about making the largest cuts in history and how this was for "our children" and how it was responsible, which grates on rational people since Obama never intended to cut a thing.
Obama did make Jim Geraghty look good once more. That veto promise didn’t survive 48 hours.
DrJohn,
I saw his speech and felt the same incredulity you experienced.
The real space/time dislocation came from surfing the cable news channels as the event progressed and the profound disconnect with the way the same event was being reported on all three. I am grateful for sites like this (and liberal blogs too) where I can get hundreds of opinions and links to decide what I want to believe and what to scorn. Despite the idealism of youth, I am a better person than I was as a young man. Been a great but tough trip.
Obama’s words and actions don’t align.
In a way, that’s a good thing.
Often Obama panders to the Left in his speech.
But when the chips hit the fan (lol) he does a 180′ and copies a Bush, a Reagan or a General.
To the extent that happens, I salute Obama’s flip flops.