There is much more to the nuance of Obama’s speech but it basically was book-ended by two paragraphs, at the beginning and at the end.
“Meanwhile, around the world, America is leading. We’re leading the coalition to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL — a coalition that includes Arab partners. We’re leading the international community to check Russian aggression in Ukraine. We are leading the global fight to combat Ebola in West Africa, and we are preventing an outbreak from taking place here at home. We’re leading efforts to address climate change, including last month’s joint announcement with China that’s already jumpstarting new progress in other countries. We’re writing a new chapter in our leadership here in the Americas by turning a new page on our relationship with the Cuban people.“
America is leading? It would have to be in spite of Obama not because of him.
Remember that saying I used: “if it happens in politics, you can bet it was planned that way.” Notice a hint of this philosophy in Obama’s remarks:
“In terms of my own job, I’m energized, I’m excited about the prospects for the next couple of years, and I’m certainly not going to be stopping for a minute in the effort to make life better for ordinary Americans. Because, thanks to their efforts, we really do have a new foundation that’s been laid. We are better positioned than we have been in a very long time. A new future is ready to be written. We’ve set the stage for this American moment. And I’m going to spend every minute of my last two years making sure that we seize it.”
That saying is believed to be a maligned loose paraphrase of FDR. (Liberal academics say FDR never said those words.) I don’t really care, but here are some words from FDR’s speech in October 1935 (6 years after ’29):
“I am glad, in coming back here … to find a very definite evidence of what I found in my trip across the continent… there was general admission that this country was coming back. You could see it with your own eyes.
Yes, we are on our way back— not just by pure chance, my friends, not just by a turn of the wheel, of the cycle. We are coming back more soundly than ever before because we are planning it that way. Don’t let anybody tell you differently.”
I almost laugh at reading FDR’s words then Obama’s speech. So we see Obama trying to lay the foundation, not for America’s interests but for his own legacy.
There was another vain reference to his self-relevance in his prepared closing remarks.
“My presidency is entering the fourth quarter; interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. And I’m looking forward to it. But going into the fourth quarter, you usually get a timeout. I’m now looking forward to a quiet timeout — Christmas with my family. “
Depends what you mean by interesting. If you mean a flurry of executive orders because you cannot dictate to Congress, then “interesting” probably is not quite the word I was thinking of. “Interesting stuff”…or more planned catastrophe to come.
Had Bush said that, those words “interesting stuff” would be in headlines of every paper. America (and history) should be so lucky to get a time-out from Obama.
Reference popular saying:
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
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