Obama's speech: HOPE vs. NOPE

Just in case you didn't get a chance to view it the other night, here's President Obama's complete speech. I'll be back a bit later today with much more to say about it, but in short, below is the part of the speech that I found particularly poignant (and I'm echoing C&L from a few days ago, because I agree whole-heartedly):

President Obama: I've come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.

I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven't been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has – a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don't need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day.

It's the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It's the job you thought you'd retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that's now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.

But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this:

We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.

Yes! That's exactly the note of optimism that America needs right now. Of course, the Doubting Thomases (Read: Republicans) are taking aim at Obama's speech, saying it was "well short on specifics." In some ways, yes, but what was he supposed to do, talk for four hours? Then these people would have complained that his speech was too long. Obama needs to mostly ignore these critics bitter nitpickers, who are angry that McSame and Palin didn't win the election. No matter what Obama does, these people will have something to say. So be it - at least Obama is trying, which is much more that can be said for Bush during the last year of his presidency.

Put another way, just think for a second what kind of confidence McCain and PALIN would be instilling in the American people right now had they won; McCain would be babbling about a $300 million award for a car battery, and Palin would be responding to questions about the economy with a *Wink* and a "You betchya!" Puleeze.

Perhaps no one summarized Obama's speech better than CNN's David Gergen on Tuesday night, who had this to say:

...this was the most ambitious president we've ever heard in this chamber in decades. The first half of the speech was FDR, fighting for the New Deal. The second half was Lyndon Johnson, fighting for the Great Society, and we've never seen those two presence [sic] rolled together in quite this way.

That about nails it, and I rarely find myself agreeing with Gergen.

However, the night was only getting started. It really got entertaining when Gov. Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (R-LA) gave the Republican response to Obama's speech, which was beyond laughable. See for yourself:

I don't have enough time to offer thoughts on Jindal's "response," but I'll be back later today. It was pretty priceless.

I'll also have lots more today on Obama's $4 tn budget that he unveiled yesterday; it's not a perfect budget (no budget is), but there is a great deal to like.

What a day in history

April 12 is one of those days in history where when you look back through time, you simply say "wow."

Sixty-two years ago today, my favorite president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, passed away in Warm Springs, Georgia, exhausted from physical disability, leading the country out of the Great Depression and to victory in World War II. Victory in Europe was less than a month away, and mere four months in Japan. We owe so much as a country to FDR, one of our most influential presidents ever and our longest serving commander in chief in our nation's history. His record of serving 12 years will never be surpassed, unless Congress and the nation repeal the Twenty Second Amendment, which appears highly unlikely.

Above, FDR's funeral procession through Washington, D.C.

Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" enshrined at the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I take time today for a bit to reflect on FDR because he was one of our best (and I would argue our finest president), but also because I'm so disillusioned with our current leadership in Washington.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945.

Today is also the day, in 1961, that Yuri Gagarin became the first human to get launched into space, setting off the space race that eventually put Neil Armstrong on the moon, and hopefully, in my lifetime, men and women on Mars. Gagarin was killed in a flying accident in 1968.

Today also marks the day that the Space Shuttle Columbia launched John Young and Robert Crippen into orbit on STS-1, the first space shuttle mission. I remember exactly where I was - in front of my television, like millions of other young American children who wanted to be astronauts when we were young. Columbia broke up over the Southwest United States on February 3, 2003.

Quite a day indeed.

All photos from Wikipedia