Hello, all, I hope all of you were able to watch our President's town hall today in New Hampshire today, hopefully unadulterated. There's nothing more frustrating than having someone talking over what you're trying to listen to!
I was watching the broadcast live on CNN, and also following FleetAdmiralJ's liveblog, in addition to reading all 700+ (and counting!) comments, and I just wanted to spend some time sharing my reactions to both our President's speech, and addressing some disappointing things I read in the comments.
I apologize if this is a little stream of consciousness and disjointed. I just want to record my impressions, reactions, and feelings, and mention a few themes I've seen here that have been sticking in my craw.
First, the speech. Wonderful. It's been far too long since I've had an opportunity to listen to our President, and hearing him reminded me of all the reasons his was the first campaign I've ever volunteered for. I must admit I was a bit confused when he began by speaking on the Recovery Act, but I think we've all become too impatient. He again showed how he builds and builds his case, weaving a narrative, and while we're distracting ourselves with his right hand, he delivers with the left. He shut down so many people's criticism of him, from both sides. Death panels, debunked, and with a smile. Wanted to hear him support the public option? Check. He stated in no uncertain terms that he'll leave bipartisanship behind if it keeps him from passing reform. He countered the right wing "Big Spending Obama" meme, and with their own legislation, to boot. In short, exactly what both we, and those not completely lost to the wingers, needed to hear.
What I found disturbing was the negativity from some of the posters here. I just watched our President masterfully and clearly address many concerns of the public, and yet it wasn't enough. The man hadn't even finished his speech, and I heard comments in the vein of "If he doesn't support the public option I won't vote for him again." "This sounds like every other town hall. He needs to address HEALTH CARE REFORM!" Perhaps if you weren't so quick to be pounding out your anger less than five minutes into the man's speech you would realize that you were about to get exactly what you were looking for, and more. This is exactly the example of what bothered me so much, and what pushed me to write today. Well, that, and one other thing, but I'll get to that in a second. We're all too impatient around here. We start our critcism of what he hasn't said, before the man is even finished. Some are so quick to judge and bash, and too busy doing so, to hear and see him doing exactly what they asked for!
We judge his speeches before he's even completed them. We're judging his term before he's even finished his first year. We've made a laundry list around DKos of all he hasn't done, and his first term is far from a closed book. I've fallen prey to it too, been caught up in the negative vibes, the "I want to see it now" and just today, I've realized that it's stopped me from seeing what's really there. It's closed my mind to appreciating all that he's done, and to being open to see where he's going next. This doesn't mean we shouldn't be advocates for what we want. Far from it. We should be bending his ear! We should be bending our neighbor's ear, our elected representatives, anyone who will help us in our fight for "a more perfect union". I just think declaring his presidency a failure when we're miles from year 4 is unhelpful, premature, and disheartening.
This second point I wanted to make was concerning comments that he should speak in bullet points/talking points to both A) appeal to the wingers and B) seem less wonkish. Stuff like this I cannot believe. If I wanted bullet points and no thought process, I would have been pleased with Bush. We've had eight years of that, and I voted for an intelligent president, someone who would go into detail, who had an understanding of the issues and could communicate that clearly and eloquently. Also, why should we be tailoring a message to them? There's a saying "There are none so blind as those who will not see" and that applies triple here. I've had enough of the dumbing down of political discourse to the lowest common denominator, to people who won't be listening anyway. We've seen time and again that wingers will discard facts and logic if it doesn't fit their preconceived worldview, why in the world would a few bullet points delivered by Obama change that now?
The way I see it, we've got 3 years before I'm willing to say conclusively that he isn't going to do something. I think we should advocate, but this "Obama hasn't done it by month six so he'll never do it" nonsense has got to stop. I hate to borrow quotes from the Bush Administration, but "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" is ringing through my mind. I don't like that I've given up on him, only to be proven wrong because I got too impatient. Let's work, people. Let's push for the change we want. I think if we stopping declaring defeat and instead do what we must to make these things happen, we'll all look back years from now and wonder "What in the world was I so worried about?" If not, well, I'll write that diary then, but not now.