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State of the Union: Barack Obama sells optimism to nervous nation

Re: SOTU: Opinions?

MrT said:
I also want to mention and give him credit for calling for a new "moon shot" by putting his VP in charge of making the United States the country that finally cures cancer.
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Good thing because no one has been on that cancer thing until now. Nixon launched a "war on cancer" over 4 decades ago. Not to mention cancer cant really be cured as all cancers are different each will probably need a different type of cure assuming it can be cured at all. If you were impressed by Obama saying this then you would be impressed with Obama calling for the sun to rise the next day.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

Crovax said:
Good thing because no one has been on that cancer thing until now. Nixon launched a "war on cancer" over 4 decades ago. Not to mention cancer cant really be cured as all cancers are different each will probably need a different type of cure assuming it can be cured at all. If you were impressed by Obama saying this then you would be impressed with Obama calling for the sun to rise the next day.
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That was right out of a SNL skit. Ripped off from West Wing. It is hard to pick the worst part of the speech but this might be it, this was a " just how dumb are we supposed to be" moment.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

That’s why we need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith. His Holiness, Pope Francis, told this body from the very spot I stand tonight that “to imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place.” When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.
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https://medium.com/@WhiteHouse/pres...-of-the-union-address-7c06300f9726#.1za7jefuo

This is my nomination for the worst paragraph. it is almost gibberish. Translation:"Diversity makes us strong but all you idiots out there who are concerned about muslims shut up because giving your opinion is wrong (I did not mean THAT kind of diversity!), and we cant have the rest of the world see that cause then they will think less of us and then we will be weak. Oh, and if muslims feel insulted by us that is on par with murder (maybe we should not tell charlie Hebdo this MKay?..Hawkeye) , and dont bully kids (which has nothing to do with anything here but this lefty D crowd likes to sprinkle visions of child victims around like pixie dust, twice the potency of adult victims dont ya know)"

EDIT: and the "that is why" at the start is a completely BS transition.

Is there a shortage of speech writers around the White House?
 
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Re: SOTU: Opinions?

Fiddytree said:
This was the address he should have given in 2014.

Given that he accepted that nothing will get done, this was, by far, his strongest speech in years.

Even though he shirked responsibility for the increased division in the country, he correctly placed the blame on the entirety of the country, including the public itself. Yet he still included a large portion of optimism that the division could one day be overcome.

Obama's administration played a significant part in the political atmosphere we live in, but tonight he at least kicked it in a direction it should have gone long ago.
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For Obama and people like him, division will end when those that disagree with them are no longer able or around to counter their desires and actions.
 
Barack Obama sells optimism to nervous nation

Washington (CNN)Putting aside a sudden crisis with Iran, President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Americans in his final State of the Union address to reject the politics of tribalism and fear that have rocked the campaign to find his successor and to build a "clear-eyed, big-hearted" and "optimistic" nation.

Delivering his annual report to the nation, Obama did not name Republican 2016 candidates. But he took clear, implied shots at them nevertheless, particularly front-runner Donald Trump, as well as Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. America's destiny, the President said, was imperiled by a political system festering in malice, gridlock and in the grip of the rich and the powerful.

'
 
Re: Barack Obama sells optimism to nervous nation

This is the most solid part I think

It will only happen if we fix our politics.
A better politics doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything. This is a big country, with different regions and attitudes and interests. That’s one of our strengths, too. Our Founders distributed power between states and branches of government, and expected us to argue, just as they did, over the size and shape of government, over commerce and foreign relations, over the meaning of liberty and the imperatives of security.
But democracy does require basic bonds of trust between its citizens. It doesn’t work if we think the people who disagree with us are all motivated by malice, or that our political opponents are unpatriotic. Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise; or when even basic facts are contested, and we listen only to those who agree with us. Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.
Too many Americans feel that way right now.
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https://medium.com/@WhiteHouse/pres...-of-the-union-address-7c06300f9726#.rgj8mn3a2

Obama is not capable of practicing what he preaches here, like at all, but finally here at the end of the speech we see him up to his usual standards of being able to say the right words.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

Fiddytree said:
This was the address he should have given in 2014.

Given that he accepted that nothing will get done, this was, by far, his strongest speech in years.

Even though he shirked responsibility for the increased division in the country, he correctly placed the blame on the entirety of the country, including the public itself. Yet he still included a large portion of optimism that the division could one day be overcome.

Obama's administration played a significant part in the political atmosphere we live in, but tonight he at least kicked it in a direction it should have gone long ago.
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This guy never takes responsibility for anything. It is always someone else's fault.
that is not how leaders are supposed to act.

leaders get things done no matter want.

Reagan did it with tip O'Neal
Clinton did it with newt
Bush did it with Pelosi even though she didn't like it.

the fact is real leaders find a way to get it done.
Obama stamps his feet and says I can't get my way it's not fair.

half the stuff he has done during his presidency can be undone.
 
Re: Barack Obama sells optimism to nervous nation

nanuan said:
Washington (CNN)Putting aside a sudden crisis with Iran, President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Americans in his final State of the Union address to reject the politics of tribalism and fear that have rocked the campaign to find his successor and to build a "clear-eyed, big-hearted" and "optimistic" nation.

Delivering his annual report to the nation, Obama did not name Republican 2016 candidates. But he took clear, implied shots at them nevertheless, particularly front-runner Donald Trump, as well as Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. America's destiny, the President said, was imperiled by a political system festering in malice, gridlock and in the grip of the rich and the powerful.

'
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which coming from him is hypocrisy at it's finest. yet he doesn't even know how dumb it sounds.
 
Re: Barack Obama sells optimism to nervous nation

Obama could actually cure cancer all by himself, but the hate filled cons would still criticize him because it would make Oncologists find another field of work.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

Renae said:
For Obama and people like him, division will end when those that disagree with them are no longer able or around to counter their desires and actions.
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Damn close, For Obama and his supporters division will end when the voice of their opposition is silenced and moved into second class citizen status. Our problem is because of our division oriented politics these days, that is a two way street where Republicans want the exact same power.

And people wonder why an increasing number of people seek independence from these political establishments...
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

TheDemSocialist said:
Conservatives will hate it
Liberals will love it
Moderates will say "meh"
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Hate? Love? Meh?
No, it was a sad performance by one who loves to bask in his own glory. I didn't hate. I just felt sorry for him, for us. All the hopes we had.
We are more divided, less prosperous, less safe than we ever were. But according to POTUS, is is everyone/thing else' fault but his. Yes, if was almost painful to watch.
Of course I am no political analyst. May those who wish to carry his torch carry on.
I just feel sorry for him, for us, esp for the ones who expected more.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

Obama is criticized daily by the Republicans in Congress, and even though he's not running in 2016 by the Republicans running for president. On the talk show circuit the hate directed towards him daily is off the charts. A couple of months ago 1 of the most hate filled loons on the radio.Mark Levin, said that when Obama travels to NYC alone it's because he's cheating on his wife. He had no evidence, but there was NO outrage from the GOP about what he said, he wasn't suspended, as far as I know he wasn't even reprimanded. He faced no consequences for his unfounded accusation at all.

There's been 7 years of this kind of lies and hate. And then some blame Obama for the political division we have in this country? They blame him when he fights back and points out the unfair criticism of him that the GOP throws out there daily?

Cons need to look in the mirror if they want to see who's the blame for the division and political gridlock.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

Hawkeye10 said:
I was expecting a lot more for this guy who is so proud that he talks pretty good. I thought that is was very weak. It made me think how much more I would rather be listening to Trump.
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Youre hilarious.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

MrT said:
Dude, he called for a Mars Shot just last year. You want him to one up that call?
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Who ended the space program?
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

TheDemSocialist said:
Conservatives will hate it
Liberals will love it
Moderates will say "meh"
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I say, "meh."

Of course, I say, "Meh" after every one of these State of the Union speeches.

I wish they would go back to the old format with the president submitting his State of the Union message to congress in written form. One can read the thing in 5 minutes rather than wasting over an hour hearing someone drone on.
 
randel said:
awesome speech by President Obama, from start to finish.
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And we are going to cure cancer!

What a load of horse****.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

Andalublue said:
No, you weren't. You were willing him to fail. Nothing in your posting history would suggest you were expecting anything good out of the SOTU.
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I agree. The Hawk has never seemed as though he was expecting anything good to come out of Barack Obama.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

It was meh. Same old same old from Obama. Nothing offensive, nothing inspiring.

According to the Fact Checkers, he took some liberties with the truth.

FactChecking the State of the Union

Summary

President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address came up short of the facts on several topics:
He embellished his record on jobs, citing “more than 14 million new jobs,” without mentioning that’s only private sector jobs and only since the job losses hit bottom in February 2010.

Obama similarly omitted part of his presidency in boasting of nearly 900,000 manufacturing jobs “in the past six years.” Over his entire time in office, manufacturing jobs have gone down by 230,000.

And he said he had cut the country’s deficits by “almost three-quarters.” But that’s measured from fiscal 2009, which included some increased spending by Obama.

He repeated his now years-long claim of crediting the Affordable Care Act for a slowdown in health care spending, which economists have linked mainly to the economy. In fact, the growth rate jumped in 2014, when the law’s coverage provisions were implemented.

Obama claimed, like he did in 2014, that the U.S. has “cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth.” That’s true in terms of total tonnage but not in terms of percentage reductions.
He said that the U.S. spends “more on our military than the next eight nations combined.” That’s close enough in terms of dollars, but as a share of the nation’s economy, the U.S. is only the fourth highest of the top 15 countries.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

One of his best SOU speeches ... sure wish this was the Obama of several missing years.
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

OrphanSlug said:
Damn close, For Obama and his supporters division will end when the voice of their opposition is silenced and moved into second class citizen status. Our problem is because of our division oriented politics these days, that is a two way street where Republicans want the exact same power.

And people wonder why an increasing number of people seek independence from these political establishments...
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Greetings, OrphanSlug. :2wave:

:agree: I still haven't figured out what my reaction to the speech was. If it had been made a few years ago, it would have been uplifting, but it rings a little hollow today in retrospect. His use of the word "tribal" in describing America was confusing, since America has been anything but tribal when you consider all the different peoples that entered legally through Ellis Island in the early part of the 20th Century, and they all managed to get along with each other, and as a nation we are all better for it. They didn't expect handouts, but they learned English, became citizens, obeyed the laws of this country, and went to work to make a better life than the ones they left. I am one of the descendants of those people, and I'm proud of what they accomplished because it wasn't easy.

The divisiveness we see today has been deliberately manufactured and encouraged, and that's not in anyone's best interest, IMO, so it will be interesting to see what this last year of his term brings!
 
katzgar said:
are you always so down on america? pity.
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Down on morons and bull**** statements.

It involves common sense and a distaste for Kool-Aid.

koolaid.jpg
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

ttwtt78640 said:
If one believes that Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan are success stories it was great.

If one believes that killing UBL back then made AQ and ISIL weaker today it was great.

If one believes that taking jabs at the GOP presidential candidates promotes unity it was great.
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Firstly, I want to say that it's deeply unfortunate that we have divided as a nation, and lack common conversation. We need to take steps to fix this. Secondly, how about those Republicans, eh? Whatta buncha idiots, amIright?
 
Re: SOTU: Opinions?

cpwill said:
Firstly, I want to say that it's deeply unfortunate that we have divided as a nation, and lack common conversation. We need to take steps to fix this. Secondly, how about those Republicans, eh? Whatta buncha idiots, amIright?
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I mean, the GOP has been hijacked by social conservative idiots and Trump is leading.. :2wave:
 
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