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The big flop! ‘Banal...dull...flat...warmed-over rehash’: Critics savage Obama’s speech as new poll shows NO convention bounce

"Pedestrian" was the description of one talking head this morning.

Now, that's an interesting word, considering all the Biden worship and adulation of his saving the automobile industry!

I think Barry learned from his convention that the freeloaders will sing his praises and bow to him when they want a handout but they will get on their knees to worship Slick Willie. Slick is their man, not Barry.

[Obama] gave the fourth best speech of the Democratic convention, and the three better ones—Bill Clinton’s, Michelle Obama’s, and (rather surprisingly, at least for me) Joe Biden’s

Clinton's advice to Obama: "Better put some ice on that."

"For Obama, the term seemed to be useful as a way of identifying our commonality with our membership in a political community defined by its government. It is, again, a fascinating instinct, conveying at once both the best and the worst of the old progressive outlook but (it seems) without much reflection on its serious limitations. There is rich potential in the notion of citizenship, but only if it is seen as denoting membership in a society that consists of more than a government. Obama gave no real indication that the word has this meaning for him."

"There is rich potential in the notion of citizenship, but only if it is seen as denoting membership in a society that consists of more than a government." The writer, here, implies the Founders' meaning of citizenship, as in, "We, the People," who, according to Justice Story are the "only KEEPERS of the Constitution" which structures, limits, and places checks and balances on the exercise of any powers delegated by "the People" to their representatives in government.

In that sense, "citizenship" implies the duty of citizens to exercise their rightful role as "keepers" to hold elected officials to their "sacred Oaths" of office under that Constitution.

Eastwood got at it last week. The President, like all elected representatives is just an "employee" of "the People," and all are bound under a Constitution of laws, not of men/women. No amount of pretending otherwise changes that.

Perhaps John Quincy Adams put it best when, in 1839, he was invited by the New York Historical Society to deliver the "Jubilee" Address honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Inauguration of George Washington. He delivered that lengthy discourse which should be read by all who love liberty, for it traced the history of the development of the ideas underlying and the actions leading to the establishment of the Constitution which structured the United States government. His 50th-year summation seems to be a better source for understanding the kind of government the Founders formed than those of recent historians and politicians. He addresses the ideas of "democracy" and "republic" throughout, but here are some of his concluding remarks:

"Every change of a President of the United States, has exhibited some variety of policy from that of his predecessor. In more than one case, the change has extended to political and even to moral principle; but the policy of the country has been fashioned far more by the influences of public opinion, and the prevailing humors in the two Houses of Congress, than by the judgment, the will, or the principles of the President of the United States. The President himself is no more than a representative of public opinion at the time of his election; and as public opinion is subject to great and frequent fluctuations, he must accommodate his policy to them; or the people will speedily give him a successor; or either House of Congress will effectually control his power. It is thus, and in no other sense that the Constitution of the United States is democratic - for the government of our country, instead of a Democracy the most simple, is the most complicated government on the face of the globe."