"Barack Will Never Allow You to Go Back to Your Lives as Usual." - February 20, 2008

National Review ^ | February 20, 2008 | Jim Geraghty

[greyfoxx39]

Obama Approves New Team to Question Terror Suspects (CIA cut out: WH to supervise)

"President Obama has approved the creation of an elite team of interrogators to question key terrorism suspects, part of a broader effort to revamp U.S. policy on detention and interrogation, senior administration officials said Sunday."

FR thread HERE

 

 

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

"Barack Will Never Allow You to Go Back to Your Lives as Usual."

Last night I appeared on Hugh's show, and his producer Duane mentioned a Michelle Obama speech at UCLA. Captain Ed talked about this a bit, but I hadn't seen anyone transcribe the part of the speech where it gets a little... unnerving. It starts at about 8:41 in the audio.

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

I'm sorry, nowhere in the Constitution does it authorize the President of the United States to demand anyone shed their cynicism. And I'm all for people pushing themselves to be better, but I don't think the President demanding it is the way to go about it.

And what if we kind of like our lives as usual? What about Americans' freedom to be uninvolved and uninformed?

Darleen at Protein Wisdom transcribed what follows:

"You have to stay at the seat at the table of democracy with a man like Barack Obama not just on Tuesday but in a year from now, in four years from now, in eights years from now, you will have to be engaged."

Ah. Apparently apathy will be criminalized, then?

Does anybody on the left side of the aisle find this rhetoric a little creepy? Isn't this describing an authoritarian presidency way beyond anything George W. Bush has done or proposed?

Do the powers of the presidency really encompass everything Michelle says Obama wants and plans to do? Based on this rhetoric, isn't he actually running for messiah?

UPDATE: A great line from reader Mike: "That tingle going up Chris Matthews' leg is a shiver going down my spine."

ANOTHER UPDATE: For a contrasting view, Dan Riehl thinks it's not creepy, just high-minded political rhetoric. "I don't think Lincoln was thinking term limits when he invoked the better angels of our nature."

I don't know. I know presidents don't like cynicism. I know they often urge us not to be cynical. But I don't know if I like talk of a president "demanding" citizens "shed their cynicism." Liberty isn't just about the good stuff; we ought to be free to be cynical. Our leaders demand enough as is in income taxes.

And while presidential candidates are always going on about building bridges to coming centuries and building a better tomorrow, etc., I think pledging to end "life as usual" ought to be sending up red flags. Barring us from going back to our "lives as usual" is not in the job description, and shouldn't be.

02/20 02:26 PMShare

[a fool in paradise]

He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism.

Layoffs will continue until moral improves.

[Just another Joe]

Thugs will surround polling places like bacterium

Then they better bring lunch, dinner, and the next days breakfast because they will be in for the fight of their lives.
I have knives, guns, clubs, and I know how to use them.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Thanks for that! Will read. ;-)

[a fool in paradise]

Tyrants who promise the world SHOULD be regarded with cynicism.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES has stated that he holds a “healthy cynicism of organized religion” which he says he got from his agnostic mother.

HE lies to the American public EVERY time he claims to be a Christian.

Why would he decry those who “cling” to (Christian) religion then?

He has done nothing to cite the violence in this world by those who cling to theocratic Islam. Nothing but bowing and praising and honoring of the accomplishments of muslims.

Not saying that he’s a muslim (althoug he WAS admittedly raised by muslim fathers and sent to koranic studies classes) but his claims of Christianity are empty. I regard them with heavy skepticism. 20 years membership in the church of God Damn AmeriKKKa does not a Christian make.

So call me a cynic. He’s a phony.

[Frank_2001]

Those words are sickening, coming from the lips of an American politician. He is a President who is NOT culturally “American”.

[MrB]

Why get so close?
Just scope out “high places” ahead of time,
and if the thugs are at the poll...

[greyfoxx39]

[Vendome]

Last year, when Barry O. was a candidate, Michelle something on the order “...accept it, Barrack will be President”.

I don’t remember the where or when of it but I do remember her saying that and I thought it was weird. Now I have deeper suspicions about it.

Does anyone know where I can find that quote? I looked for it over the weekend and could not find it.

Thanks

[Canedawg]

“engage. Barry will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”

*****

Judging by the number of people who attended tea parties and townhalls, who claimed they had previously been unengaged and uninterested in politcs, I’d say it’s working.

[April Lexington]

Wow! Good thing Dick Chaney never tried this! The media howls for Bush’s head would have been deafening. This is pure Gestapo...

[Gabrial]

“The president doesn't have that power.”

I agree the president does not have this power.

However, there are many on the government dole that do nothing but collect a check at taxpayer expense. I am open to some sort of program where to be eligible for welfare programs, you have to do some sort minimal amount of community service.

That said, because I work, pay taxes, volunteer to charities, etc., if anyone suggested to me (as MO does) that I was “uninformed and uninvolved” she and her jerk husband can go pound sand. I do a hell of lot more than turn over a shovel of dirt for the cameras.

[FReepaholic]

...The president doesn't have that power...

Neither does Congress have the power to force us to buy health insurance but they're still trying:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2009/08/argument-that-congress-doesnt-have.html

[Soothesayer]

Obama can go **** himself.

I would rather slowly starve in the Gulag than spend one second of my life serving this tinpot dictator.

[CitizenM]

He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism.

How do you dictate a person's feelings? Impossible.

...That you put down your divisions.

Is his pal, Rev. Wright, going to give us the example of how not to be divided?

That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones.

What exactly does that mean...are we to be "uncomfortable," and give up all we have become accustomed to?

That you push yourselves to be better.

Well, I hope Michelle is not the example, she dresses like a street urchin (or worse) and has an attitude that makes an alligator seem tame and loving. She and Obama are showing their supporters that arrogance and a cavalier "I am owed this" attitude are supported. That does not make one a better person. It would be good if they would tell their fellow African-Americans, to pull up their too-big baggy pants, shed the pocket chains and corn rows/braids, walk without the slow shuffle, stand tall, speak clearly, and then they might "be better."

And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

Barack...will never allow....allow? This vain woman and her narcissistic husband really think that they can control a whole country of people! And make them into what? Copies of them? As though they are so perfect? They are obviously full of hate and disdain...are those traits to be emulated? My G*d, these two are frightening and totally enamored with themselves.

[Rastus]

—
“You have to stay at the seat at the table of democracy with a man like Barack Obama not just on Tuesday but in a year from now, in four years from now, in eights years from now, you will have to be engaged.”

---

True. You have to fight him every step of the way. No letting up.

[PIF]

Pressing Questions:
Will it be downloadable for iPhones? What color will the printed version's cover be? Will there be Mac and Linux versions as well as for the PC - and will there be a simultaneous release?

Alternate title: “Quotations From the Teleprompter by Obama” or possibly “Teleprompter Quotes Actually Spoken by Obama”.

[RipSawyer]

I had managed to forget those idiots but no, you couldn’t leave well enough alone. YOU had to be picking at scabs, YOU had to kick a sleeping dog, YOU just couldn’t keep it to yourself, YOU are now on my bad list. Don’t ever do anything like that again, do you hear?

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

My deepest apologies! :-)

[the invisib1e hand]

michelle obama is a bronco buster, that’s all. and barack obama is no bronco.

[MrB]

“putting down your divisions”

means totally submitting to the leftist elitist authority.
And yes, that probably means that, if you’re white, you must submit to humiliating degradation at the hands of the state.