Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama's Speech: Theatrics vs. Reality
Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | September 11, 2014 | Rush Limbaugh

Posted on 09/11/2014 11:14:14 AM PDT by Kaslin

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, I have a plethora of observations about last night's speech. Kathryn and I watched the speech together, and I took copious notes -- well, I left verbal audio notes to myself and was pausing the playback. We watched it live, but I would hit pause on my DVR and we'd look at each other and make comments. Let me tell you the first observation I had. It was borne out, I mean, within 30 seconds of the speech ending. I paused this, and I looked at Kathryn and I said, "There are a lot of people that are gonna think this was a great speech." And theatrically it was.

We have to be honest about something here, folks. Presentation, forget the content for a second, watch this as low-information people would. The low-information people are not gonna pick up on the nuance. They're not gonna pick up the contradiction 'til they're told about it.
I mean, the content of the speech was embarrassing, but forget that. The way it looked, Obama's countenance as he was giving it, for the first time, I'm just gonna tell you, for the first time he gave a speech and made me think he actually wants America to win something. For the first time he gave a speech that actually made me think that he holds this country out to be something special.

Now, if I picked up on that, and I'm just using my powers of observation, and I'm not listening to the content per se, I mean, I know the conflicts. But he also said enough things that sounded like any other president that we've always trusted in situations like this. It was a first. And you will hear in the audio sound bite roster today Sandy Berger said the same thing. Sandy Berger said it was the first time we've actually had a presidential speech out of this guy. I'm paraphrasing his words, but Sandy Berger had this observation.

I said, "Theoretically and performance-wise, this is so markedly different that you're gonna have a lot of people really think this is a great speech." And not 30 seconds after it ended I get a flash from somebody telling me that Newt Gingrich is on CNN just praising this speech to the hilt, the best thing he's ever heard, best speech Obama's ever given. And I knew it, folks, I knew that would be the reaction. Now, Newt saying so, obvious reasons why. It was not, however. When you get to the content, it was embarrassing.

It was incompetence on parade. It was dangerously unaware on parade. But theatrically, the way low-information people, if they were even bothering to watch, it's clear why he did this. The speech was purely political. Two weeks ago Obama didn't care about this. Two weeks ago he had no strategy. Two weeks ago it didn't matter. But there are polls out there left and right that are disastrous for Obama.

This whole thing last night was political. But to a casual observer, and more importantly to an American citizen who thinks that every president is out to defend and protect this country and is engaged in seeing to its that this country triumphs, that speech last night sounded Eisenhower, Reagan. Not content, now, folks. Snerdley is looking at me like he can't believe me. You didn't watch it. I'm telling you, don't doubt me.

Now, having said all this, I'm not by any stretch the only person who is ripping this speech to shreds content-wise. Most everybody is. I'm just talking about the theatrics. If you're a casual viewer to this thing, it was so markedly different.

He didn't even get close to making you think he was gonna apologize for America, for example. He didn't get close to making you think that he thinks we're responsible for this. He didn't get anywhere close to blaming America last night. But he got practically every important point dead wrong. For example, "ISIS is not Islamic. ISIS is not Muslim." Oh, really? He said there isn't a religion in the world that targets innocents for death. Oh, yes, there is. Dead wrong magnanimously, proudly, loudly wrong.

The strategy that he unveiled is a joke. Can I basically tell you what the strategy is? We're gonna fly some drones and some jets supporting the Iraqi army. That's it. We are going to train the Iraqi army. See, we're gonna train the Iraqi army. Now, two weeks ago the army didn't need to be trained. The point is, if we had not extricated ourselves from Iraq the way Obama did, he had perfectly good status-of-forces agreement. The main thing you want in a status-of-forces agreement when you're pulling out of a country like we were out of Iraq, you're gonna leave a residual force to protect what you have won. We've done it everywhere. Germany, Japan, you name it.

But we didn't in Iraq, and Obama says it's because he couldn't get a status-of-forces agreement. And what he claimed he couldn't get was immunity for US soldiers who would engage in postwar combat events. If you Iraqis are not gonna immunize American soldiers, we're not hanging around here. We're not gonna have our guys appearing before war crimes tribunals and stuff. But the point is, he did have a status-of-forces agreement. He did. He got out of because of his kook-fringe base. He got out of because of his campaign of 2000. He got out because that was what he built his campaign on.

The entire the Democrat Party of the left tried to say that Iraq was ill-timed, unjust, unnecessary, should never have been there. And I find it just ironic as it can be that here we are now about to start the final two years of this guy's presidency, and it rests on what he does in Iraq. I think this is some of the juiciest irony I could have come up with, that his presidency -- and by the way, this is not me. It's some harebrained leftist media analyst that I have here in the audio sound bite roster, saying that Obama's presidency is going to be judged entirely by what happens here in Iraq. Isn't that juicy?

The party, the Democrat Party -- this still ticks me off -- the Democrat Party which sought defeat the whole time we were in Iraq just so they could win an election, just so they could saddle the defeat on George W. Bush. They did everything they could to undermine the troops. They did everything they could do undermine the leadership. They did everything they could to undermine morale. They and their willing accomplices in the media, they did everything they could to secure defeat.

But they couldn't pull that off before Obama was elected, so Iraq was still going on after he wins. And what is his campaign and what's his whole identity as a Democrat Senator? Iraq stinks. We never should have gone. I'm gonna get us out. It was an absolute terrible mistake. Got nothing for it. And so he had to get everybody out, and leaving everybody out, Obama gave us ISIS. Obama gave us ISIL. Obama and the Democrat Party. And it's kind of sweet irony now that he's gotta go, as the reluctant warrior, that he has to go back in now and try to defeat an uprising Islamic jihadist ISIS or ISIL, same thing, just depends on what acronym you want to use. That he has to go in and wipe this all out.

Michael Moore has abandoned him. A bunch of far-left-wing previous Obama supporters are fit to be tied we're going back in there. Their hatred of the Iraqi war was irrational to begin with. Their devotion to our defeat in Iraq was irrational to begin with, but it was defining for them. And here is their guy, their savior, he's the one, the smartest, he was able to pull us out, like a Mafia guy tries to leave, "And they just keep sucking me back in. I try to get out. I try to leave, but they just keep grabbing me back." And that's Obama, the reluctant warrior.

The strategy does not look good. The plan does not look good because it depends way too much on people that probably are not good enough to accomplish this particular mission.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: One of the first observations that I had last night about the speech was that the president's announcing it detail by detail, strategy. Here's what we're gonna do. Here's who's gonna do it. This is where we're gonna do it, and this is hopefully how we're gonna do it. Why in the world would you announce your strategy? Why would you telegraph what you're gonna do? And then I reminded myself again the purpose of this speech.

The purpose of this speech was political. This was not a speech designed to explain the strategy of victory. It was it was for political consumption by voters in this country. It was a speech designed to counter what people obviously think and feel as represented in polling data.

FOXNews Poll: "10 Pieces of Bad News for the White House." This is why the speech was scheduled last night.

"American voters feel: Barack Obama is weak and indecisive. The US is less respected since Obama became president. The US should do more to stop the Islamic extremist group ISIS. Obama isn’t willing to do what it takes to defeat ISIS. ISIS will try to attack the US soon. Embarrassed about Obama not having a strategy for dealing with ISIS. Obama will try to 'manage' ISIS rather than 'defeat' it."

These are all results from polls all over the place.

"The poll also finds: For the first time, more voters than not feel the US is less safe today than before 9/11." Folks, it's a disaster. The polling data, not just from Fox News, the polling data all over the place about US national security, about Obama's role as commander in chief, about Obama's role in dealing with ISIS, is a disaster.

"For the first time, more voters than not feel the US is less safe today than before 9/11. Obama’s job approval is at record lows on Syria, Iraq and terrorism. (Obama’s overall job approval matches his all-time low.) Most would tell Obama to kill extremists beheading Americans now, rather than caution him against overreacting."

He's seen as indecisive. He's seen as weak. He's seen as not engaged. He's seen as not caring very much. That's why the speech happened last night, and that is why every detail of the strategy was revealed, so that voters could see this is a tough commander-in-chief, and this is a guy who understands the military. He knows how to deploy it and he's willing to do it.

END TRANSCRIPT


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: iraq; isis; obama; rush
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

1 posted on 09/11/2014 11:14:14 AM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Obama’s Fiction Writers worked overtime on this one


2 posted on 09/11/2014 11:16:54 AM PDT by molson209 (Blank)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

For one I can’t listen to any Obama speeches. They are violent assaults upon mu ears, not to mention my brains.


3 posted on 09/11/2014 11:20:08 AM PDT by Forty-Niner (The barely bare berry bear formerly known as Arctos Horribilis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

For one I can’t listen to any Obama speeches. They are violent assaults upon mu ears, not to mention my brains.


4 posted on 09/11/2014 11:20:10 AM PDT by Forty-Niner (The barely bare berry bear formerly known as Arctos Horribilis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The Kenyan lost me about 50 words into his speech when he pronounced ‘Pahkistan’.


5 posted on 09/11/2014 11:21:23 AM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Best description heard thus far:

Operation Polling Thunder.
6 posted on 09/11/2014 11:27:11 AM PDT by 98ZJ USMC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zuben Elgenubi

You are among the quickest studies around here!

You also nailed that AP writer as, “smug”, on that other thread.

Hat tip.


7 posted on 09/11/2014 11:28:32 AM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I didn’t think Obama did great or even good. Maybe fair.
He lacked passion. When Bush spoke I knoew he meant every word. Obama’s words fell short, sounded hollow, almost like he didn;t believe his own words.

As far as substance, we’re basically doing the same thing we have been, no real strategy there?

I’d say it was one of the worst wartime speeches in the history of our country. Oh, he never even used the word war, as in war on terror


8 posted on 09/11/2014 11:29:00 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Forty-Niner

Same here, every time he opens his trap I grab my remote control and hit the mute button


9 posted on 09/11/2014 11:29:55 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Zuben Elgenubi

I muted my TV as soon as Fox News Announced that they were waiting for that arrogant pos’ speech


10 posted on 09/11/2014 11:32:27 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Obama used his old brainwashing tactics to lull his people into thinking that he has got a handle on it all. Problem is he doesn't.

His plan is to say a lot of things that most people can agree with in order to get people's heads to nod in agreement.

Then he punctuates his speech with word-isms that you will hopefully take away and think that he is the smartest man who has ever lived. You can't remember exactly what he said but you will swear that he means whatever the hell he said is true and that he truly means what he said.

Well, that is if you are mind-numbed and happen to not know the truth.

If you do know the truth, you have a very hard time listening to him. His words do not make sense to you. That's because he is not talking to you.

Poor Barry. He is in a real fix. He's gotta maintain some sort of appearance of being the guy in charge, the one everyone expects him to be, while at the same time employ his utopian-socialist agenda.

He is having such a hard time with his stategery.

11 posted on 09/11/2014 11:33:43 AM PDT by Slyfox (Satan's goal is to rub out the image of God he sees in the face of every human.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 1Old Pro

The reason why he is lacking passion is because he doesn’t believe it. He is only repeating what he is being told what to say to save the Democrats in a couple of weeks.


12 posted on 09/11/2014 11:35:18 AM PDT by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Why Obama still uses ISIL instead of ISIS

 

I 'm S till I ntolerably L ame!!!!!!!!

13 posted on 09/11/2014 11:44:43 AM PDT by ThomasMore (Islam is the Whore of Babylon!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I grab my Nerf Gun.....it’s therapeutic.

Every time any democrat is on my screen, I have a near uncontrollable urge to Elvis my TV, then I remember how much it cost me.


14 posted on 09/11/2014 11:51:10 AM PDT by Gator113 ( Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and Mike Lee speak for me, most everyone else is just noise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: 1Old Pro
Obama’s words fell short, sounded hollow, almost like he didn;t believe his own words.

He only displays passion when talking about how much he hates longs for reform for America ..... and how much he wants to sweep the Tea Party off the earth.

His face said it all in the Ops Room during the Osama Bin Laden raid -- he hated that the Good Guys were going to take down the Number One Muzzie. Pout, grimace, sulk.

Let someone take down the D.C. Capitol Building, and watch his eyes light up then.

But of course I'm just imagining things, he's not the fist-bumper of magazine-cover lore.

15 posted on 09/11/2014 11:56:47 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus ("If America was a house, the Left would root for the termites." - Greg Gutfeld)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin



16 posted on 09/11/2014 12:01:17 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey (Please RESIGN Mr. President Its the RIGHT thing to do_RETIRE THE REGIME!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

OhVomit is what I call him and what I WILL call him even after he’s out of office. His first name sounds like something a frat guy does in the toilet after drinking too much. “BA-RAAAAACK!”


17 posted on 09/11/2014 12:10:30 PM PDT by NRA1995 (I'd rather be a living "gun culture" member than a dead anti-gun candy-ass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

18 posted on 09/11/2014 1:54:17 PM PDT by relictele (Principiis obsta & Finem respice - Resist The Beginnings & Consider The Ends)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

19 posted on 09/11/2014 7:26:04 PM PDT by 4Liberty (Prejudice and generalizations. That's how Collectivists roll......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Slyfox

Over the past few years I have had a client who is one of those classic uber-progressive liberals. Every time I need to stop in and she is home...I just dread it. She’ll go on for the entire hour thinking she is holding a conversation, talking over me and when I don’t agree...interrupting me and just getting LOUDER. Not yelling...just louder and not listening to another point of view(sigh...she has no idea how much I HATE when she is home).

Anyway, yesterday was one of those dreaded days. As I unlocked the door to the garage and saw her car I was mortified. I really did not want to deal with her uneducated political yammering. The fleeting thought was to just close the door and claim the ‘visit’ wasn’t on the schedule. Of course, I am too honest to do that...tempted though. As I walked in she launched nearly immediately into her politics...

But, it wasn’t the same old same old. The speech left her realizing we’re going to war, that 0bama really has no clue what he is doing, that we’re not safer, that there really are “barbarians” alive and well in the world. She even claimed to have never really liked him...”and it is not a black thing.” She even tore into Michele 0bama for not having the appropriate First Lady decorum for a country at war and in a great recession. Waxed on about all the ‘opulent’ vacations and parties...

0bama Derangement Syndrome is setting in. I kept my mouth shut and just listened, did my job, listened and suddenly out of her mouth came the most stunning of revelations...

“At least President Bush was a leader, I may not have agreed with him on a lot, but he knew how to lead,” she said. She finally recognized that 0bama’s leading from behind foreign policy created a dangerous power vacuum in the Middle East.

The 0bama loyalty is a very thin veneer.


20 posted on 09/12/2014 4:04:05 AM PDT by EBH (And the angel poured out his cup...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson