Tonight, I watched President Barack Obama blow the roof off of some poor building in Pittsburgh like he was a pissed off hurricane. I was hoping to come here and share my joy with whomever had prepared a story on the subject, but, alas, no such story can be found.
That’s a shame.
This was, at least in my opinion, his best speech ever. He delved deeply into character. He talked about responsibility. He gave a rousing speech for Vice President Kamala Harris.
You can watch it below.
www.youtube.com/…
“Real strength is about working hard and carrying a heavy load without complaining. Real strength is about taking responsibility for your actions and telling the truth even when it is inconvenient. Real strength is about helping people who need it and standing up for those who can’t always stand up for themselves.”
The media coverage of the speech is just arriving. First we have CNN with a pretty great (and accurate) headline that reads: “An emotional Obama makes his harshest case yet against Trump at Pittsburgh rally.” The first couple of paragraphs:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania CNN —
Former President Barack Obama on Thursday delivered his most personal, furious indictment yet of Donald Trump and a Republican Party he said was in thrall to a man who he believes had, over the last week, violated the trust of Americans devastated by a pair of catastrophic hurricanes.
“The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments – my question is, when did that become OK?” Obama said, pointing to Trump’s lies about the federal government withholding assistance to hard-hit “Republican areas” or “siphoning off aid to give to undocumented immigrants.”
In his speech, President Obama would then put that question directly to Republicans. “When did that become okay?” I thought that that was very good. There must be some Republicans out there who aren’t MAGA, and who have at least the concept of a conscience left.
I’m not keen on NPR’s coverage of the speech, as it honed in on just one subject—only a tiny part of the entire speech—to the detriment of the greater message. Their headline speaks of that one note coverage: “Obama, in blunt terms, tells Black men to get over their reluctance to support Harris.”
Here are a few paragraphs from their short report:
“And you are thinking about sitting out?” he said. “Part of it makes me think — and I'm speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
Obama said, “women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time."
“When we get in trouble and the system isn’t working for us, they’re the ones out there marching and protesting,” he said.
President Obama was probably given this strategery by the Harris/Walz campaign. However, like I said, it was a portion of a much broader, more sweeping message that not only indicted the orange traitor fuckpudding, and indicted those who have permitted him, but also went from the granular (how to vote) to the more equivocal (why we should vote).
His speech challenged all of us.