Thursday, September 8, 2011

President Barack Swagbama

When President Barack Obama was first elected, there were comparisons with his charisma and intelligence to that of John F. Kennedy. There is no doubt he still has that ability of instilling hope when he speaks. The President spoke of "working side by side" with corporations. The President spoke of preserving the right to collective bargaining. The President spoke of regulating what needs to be regulated on Wall Street. Finally, the President spoke of " the three words Made in America."
If it is true that President Obama believe these statements he powerfully said in tonight's speech, I demand action from him. When President Obama was first being elected, he spoke of regulating corporations and distributing wealth, as he spoke of tonight. He faces only 14 more months until the next election. President Obama stated that 14 months was too long to change. I believe it has been to long already without the changes he has promised. If he planned on re-regulating the corporations, then why are economist like Ben Burnanke and Larry Summers still influencing the white house. President once again delivered a captivating speech, but how much of what he states can the public truly expect. Reverend Al Sharpton stated the "devil may be in the details,"and I believe he is correct. The devil may be in the lack of details. He wants to boost American manufacturing, but where will he get the funds to create factories? President Obama gave a very inspiring speech on making adjustments as a united country, but we need his help too. He told the public to do it's job and demand from the government, but the government needs to listen. President Obama needs more action and pull in congress, than he does need to give great sounding speeches.

6 comments:

Alyssa_Block said...

I agree. While Obama was dynamic and agressive in the way he delivered his speech, I have yet to be convinced that the solution is as easy as Obama makes it seem. A few minutes into the speech, Obama began introducing the "American Jobs Act," which in his mind is the solution to reduce unemployment. As I sat there listening to him detail his proposal, I wanted to believe every word he said, that this would truly create more jobs and offer incentives to those who hire, without increasing the deficit. But I kept asking myself, "how can the US afford this?" Obama offered some solutions, but I do not feel they will be enough. Time and time again, Obama has offered solutions that have been futile and have only led to more partisan animosity.

I truly hope that Obama can live up to his promises. He obviously needs the support of Congress, and members from both parties, and I hope he can get it. One thing that impressed me is that Obama attacked those who try to adhere to partisan ideals, reminding them that Americans do not want to see more of this "political circus." I hope that Congress can get the message and make Obama's promise a reality, so that his words are more than empty promises.

Scott Silton said...

Gosh I hope Obama didn't promise to get legislation passed. He doesn't have that power and the Republicans in Congress have been decidedly uncooperative for policy and/or political reasons. I'll have to take a closer look at the speech, but it struck me as trying to sell a plan to the American people in hopes that Congress will decide that it is too risky NOT to pass a jobs bill lest the American people blame them instead of the President.

Serena Tam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nicola said...

I'm curious as to what is classified as a small business in the American Jobs Act. I remember reading in UnSpun that some side business of Dick Cheney was counted as a small business when the Bush Administration was saying how it had helped small businesses prosper. If the bill passes, which at this stage I hope it will, I hope that it will actually help the small businesses that need help getting off the ground.

Lexi Cooperstein said...

After reading about the speech I thought that the idea behind this act was not to cut the deficit in the short run, but to send millions of unemployed people back to work. In the long run, this would jumpstart the economy and therefore hopefully minimize the deficit. These tax breaks that President Obama stated were to be strong incentives that would in fact bring a company out of these hard times. Whether or not congress, specifically the Republican party, will pass this act is the real question.

In President Obama's speech, his most used phrase was "Pass this bill". By emphasizing these three words he is tactically forcing the Republican party to make a move on whether or not to pass this bill. The President took Republican ideals and is utilizing them in the American Jobs Act because he knows that it is the only way to get his ideas into action in order to stimulate the economy. What I am looking forward to seeing is whether or not the Republican party will follow through with his actions or not.

PatrickG said...

While I am a supporter of Obama, I have to agree with this post. Though he has had a fabulous foreign policy record, he doesn't seem to be able to make many improvements here for the economy. I'm not overlooking that he has managed to get some jobs back into the economy, but overall, he has compromised way too much. Instead of trying to get the republicans to support him, he should stick to his own side and rally as much support there because like the oath to never raise taxes, the republicans also took an oath to never support Obama. He is a democratic president with different ideas then them so the probability of them actually supporting him is very small.
Looking at his speech, I do have some hope that he will be able to get things moving again. For my part, I have never seen him so angry and I have never seen him call out the republicans in so many ways. Like other comments have mentioned, his repeated "you should pass this bill" and "this is something that both republicans and democrats have supported," really drove the message home. It doesn't look good to say no to something that you have already supported in the past. Now, all we have to hope for is that he really won't compromise anymore because this post is right, 14 months isn't a very long time when taken in the perspective of a total of four years.