We were determined to view Barack's Big Speech last night and take notes on it while viewing it. Please note: this is simply our take on the Speech itself, and not "The Plan". We actually thought the speech was "soft" on plan and had expected more. Mr. Obama took a decidedly humanistic approach combined with a soft business executive style approach. We thought it was vastly superior to some of the "off-the-cuff" offerings by the other party (McPalin). Being a humanistic approach, we found a few words lacking. "Faith" was mentioned once (at the beginning), but in a non-spiritual way. "God" was mentioned twice in the rousing close of the speech. Some other "non-scalable" words appeared to be missing from the speech, but we can't deduct points for that.
We'll attempt to quote the speech as much as possible, but it won't be verbatim. Even though Obama's style is determined and paced, it is still too fast for us to capture every word without recording it on tape, Tivo, and so on.
The Speech opened with somewhat somber theme music and views of a wheat field. This wheat field scene-cum-somber music reminded us of the opening of the film "Gladiator" and the view of the afterlife in the Elysium Fields. Which, from our perspective, we found a little confusing.
Then he talked about the current economic crisis, and the need to restore economic health to the middle class. That we must have faith and the resolve to change. A lady by the name of Rebecca Johnston (we believe) was interviewed/featured first and describe as an amazing mom and that her children were "putty" - to be molded the right way. The emphasis being on doing the right thing everyday. The Johnston's were described as choosing to live in a "house outside the city". The husband (Brian) was working at a local retread plant with a torn ACL and put off an operation because of their financial situation. They have a select place at home for a limited number of snacks which the children must use wisely over the time allowed. Then she spoke about "the worry and chaos" about how to use their money, to pay which bill when? and so forth. (Was there a veiled hint at rationing?)
At which point Barack spoke of how the strength of our country should be in an economy that honors the dignity of our workers. He went on about the foreclosures, the debt and the 8 years of failed policies - this time now is worse than the Great Depression. (?) He spoke of two plans: (a) cut taxes to every family under $ 100K/Y and other tax breaks and 90 day foreclosure amnesty with (b) fulfilling our commitment to restore the economy.
Next came a retiree who had worked to build a retirement payoff of $ 1500/month. But he claimed that he was actually only earning $ 379/month due to cutbacks and similar circumstances at his employer. Barack spoke of using "the force of law" at this point on such job promises and helping Americans get living-wage jobs. Cutting taxes for struggling families and holding companies accountable for the same.
Next came the Stewarts who described Barack as a person with "Kansas City Roots". (?) They said he is a problem-solver who thinks big. Mr. Stewart apparently worked 30 years for the B&O Railroad. Their mostly DIY house was paid for, but Mrs. Stewart's medical bills forced Mr. Stewart to work another 5 years. They also took a home loan - causing loss of their equity. The 72 year old asked "Where am I going from here?" (The irony of a transportation employee asking that question struck us later). But, we thought a connection was made with everybody on that single point.
Barack's response? Taking immediate actions and taking a longer view. Energy efficiency and investing $ 50Bn and creating 5 million new jobs. Tap US natural gas reserves. Everybody join in conservation (rationing, again)? Spending cuts in a line-by-line review. Big change in Iraq policy. Bringing the war to a close would result in a $ 70Bn surplus. (?) And more on the same line. Big companies will do just fine. Worry about the "small" Americans. We thought Mr. Obama was a little to roundabout in his response to these poor folks. Or rather, too off the mark.
Then came the widow Juliana Sanchez with 2 kids and a mortgage who gets up before dawn and teaches at school. Having finished teaching her day is only half-done as she goes to take care of special-needs patients at her health care company. Takes training classes for the same. Her worries are like ours: how much to afford for health care, food, utilities, fuel and so on.
This directed Mr. Obama to the education response. That all want good education for children (sorry, we did not know that!). He only met his father once and his hard-working mother passed from life "quickly" and got him up routinely at 4:30 AM because he "was an American and understands". It was "no picnic" (neither was it for us, growing up in Detroit). Then he announced we have "no time for small plans" and have an obligation to teach children. We need more new teachers with affordable college and so on. To reduce health care costs we need "improve health care information recovery." Which sounded a little like the Ministry of Information Retrieval from the kakatopian film "Brazil". (We know most people describe Brazil as dystopian, but we're getting off track...). Back to his mother, who never saw her grandchildren, spent her last days reading insurance forms because of our broken healthcare system. Michelle Obama then spoke up about his strong relationships with his daughters - and they are the only ones "who break him up".
Then he came up with a very biblical phrase "I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper." The appeal of which we thought was predictable. Senator Dick Durbin said that Obama impacted things upon arrival (in the Senate, or before?) and reached across party lines. Senator Biden said he reached out to Dick Lugar on loose nukes. When questioning the Secretary of State Biden said he answered "He's good." Barack, Biden and his hometown of Scranton share Barack's core values and where the country needs to go. (Anybody here from Scranton?)
A couple by the names of Mark and Melinda Dowd were next featured. Mr. Dowd is a 3rd generation Ford employee at the Kentucky truck plant. Cited as an example of a working class family and that way of life and buying a home. Mr. Dowd was downgraded to working every other week and struggling to "keep going". He was laid off in July 2008 (a third generation employee?). Mr. Dowd did make the pithy observation that "shutting down the plant would be devastating" to the area. Mr. Dowd also came up with the rather striking imagery of that having the cause and effect of "Los(ing) the America as we once knew it." Which we thought was the most profound statement to come out of this entire essay.
Barack's response is to "Lift us up out of this Great Depression" (again! - not that we disagree with the analogy - our senior editor is starving as we write this). "This is our moment." (A platitude). "It is vital to protect our country (yes...)...to curb Russian aggression (against who? us?...)...curb nuclear Iran (how?...)...and curb Taleban and Al-Qaeda aggression (again, how?...)". He has a "close friend's son shipping to Iran" (...he sounds like a ...like a...package?...no, we know he's not...).
And..."A great President understands." He mentioned the USA's great stories of opportunity and family immigrants - grandparents - and their story of (finding a) home in America." Bill Richardson came on to describe Barack as a "Good, decent man...who showed very unusual signs that we need this man at this time in history." But he wasn't given a chance to say why...
Barack gave us (his audience) the answer..."I will always be honest...always listen...I ask you to be involved in democracy. In 6 days we create an economy that creates...jobs for the middle-class, education, health care, unity, power of changing the status quo. (And here came what we call his John Lennon moment...sorry, we forget why...). Men and women can achieve their American dream. Knock on doors for me, call for me and stand beside me and together we will change this country and the world. God bless us and God bless this country." To a rousing ovation.
And now our "Scorecard" on which graded the Speech on its "scalable values" in terms of attribute data. We realize some of our data is subjective, you are free to use your own scorecard, of course. Yes we know its primitive, but it helped us calculate a relative score.
Name/Category Obama Value McPalin Value
1) Imagery + 1 0
2) Housing Crisis + 2 0
3) Conservation - 1 + 1
4) Great Depression - 1 + 1
5) Retirement $ + 1 - 1
6) Problem Solving + 1 - 1
7) Connects + 1 - 1
8) Facts/Rebuilding + 2 - 1
9) Iraq Policy + 1 - 1
10) Big Business + 1 - 1
11) Education + 1 0
12) Youth + 2 + 1
13) Healthcare + 2 0
14) Appeal + 1 0
15) Home/Core Values + 1 0
16) "Old America" + 2 0
17) Greatness 0 0
18) Open-Door + 1 0
19) Rapid Change + 1 0
20) Summary + 1 - 1
"Total Rating" + 20 - 4
We felt, based on the merits of the Speech alone, that Mr. Obama has outdone his competition by at least 25 to 1. Even though others have warned us of the shortfalls of his Plan. (See: Obama's prime-time ad skips over budget realities). Even after considering the criticisms inherent, we still felt it was a good essay. Perhaps even "good propaganda" (the propaganda descriptor applied last night by Richard Wolfe on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann). Our senior editor sat back and took as thorough and as complete notes and decided that what was said matters most. Visual symbolism is good and important, but in the end, what is spoken and factual is what matters. Ineffable qualities like friendliness and comfort and faith are important, but thinks they are non-scalar.
But, the Speech intrigued our senior editor even further. (Perhaps, too far, we thought.) He came up with what he calls his (sigh...) "The Handbook Manifesto". "Entitlement creep" was allowed to spread throughout the economy and nation based on the failure(s) of entitlements, policies, and the like to provide the poor, the impoverished. The very same view and application is used on the working class and the working poor and is allowed to spread throughout society. It has become a policy of willful neglect favoring the powerful, cost-cutting, tax-break-seeking coporations versus the almost-now-disenfranchised impoverished masses. It has become the unwritten doctrine and/or manifesto of american politics via bureaucratic domain and eventual neglect of the needs of the people. The Constitution and other articles were never designed with the foresight and planning to provide for nor against these more-modern developments. None of these articles nor the law nor its embodiment neither considers nor opposes these developments to provide the american people with a more equitable position in this or the future economy. The "Speech" addressed these needs now, but did not have the time (or the funds?) to explore alternatives and solutions to these issues and problems. The people need more not less, as is being provided by the American and Global economies. Corporations seem to be more politically favored in any economic climate, e.g. witness the historic $ 700Bn Bailout. How is this legal, let alone legitimate under these conditions? Or, that is: do we now face a constitutional crisis in our country?
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