In a nutshell: Blame Bush. Blame the Republicans for blocking the Dems' efforts.
Hey! Obama! You hold ALL THE POWER! No one stands in your way!
And quit yelling. You have a microphone. No need to scream.
More later.
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It's later.
Some observations and random thoughts on the rally:
---I wonder why Feingold showed up. I don't think it was just about Feingold being finished with his work in Washington. I think it was a purely political calculation not a real scheduling thing. His remarks focused on the accusations that he was avoiding Obama. I don't think many of the kids there knew what he was talking about. The crowd didn't seem too impressed with Russ. He was an opening act they could do without.
---Tom Barrett introduced Obama. He had a deer in the headlights look. Mercifully, he only spoke a few minutes. Barrett was sent out to remind the crowd that Obama wasn't to blame for the economy. Remember Bush!
---When Obama took the stage, it was as if you could see his head swell. I don't know how it can contain the guy's ego. "You like me. You really like me!" "When I'm done here, I'll be walking on water."
---Obama was playing the cool guy. He talked of when he first lived in Chicago and had friends up in Madison. He said he would visit the campus.
"I had some fun times up here in Madison. I can't give you all the details. But I have good memories here."
Was Obama still dabbling in cocaine then?
---When Obama thanked Russ Feingold for being there he said that Feingold is "independent" and that he "doesn't always agree with me but always agrees with the people of his state."
That's a "Pants on Fire" lie. Feingold doesn't agree with us. We kept telling him that we didn't want ObamaCare but he didn't listen. He voted against his constituents.
Feingold is so independent that he doesn't give a crap about what the people he represents want.
---Obama gave a campaign-style speech, much of it the same lines he's been delivering at fundraisers, some lines from two years ago. We've heard it before. He even brought out the old "you can't elect a skinny guy with a funny name, Barack Hussein Obama." He got the crowd to respond "yes we can." Very 2008.
---Obama blamed Bush and the Republicans, "the opposition party," for his failure to accomplish more. His job: "clean up after their mess." According to Obama, the Republicans stood in his way. RIDICULOUS! The Democrats have ALL THE POWER. They can do whatever they want. No Republicans prevented Obama from doing anything. The crowd was too clueless to understand that. It's Madison.
---Obama insisted the economy is growing again. Really? Where? Not here. Tell it to my family members out of work, Obama.
---Obama trotted out his usual health care lies. He did make a point of telling the young crowd that they're covered by their parents' health insurance until they're 26 years old. Yeah, they'll need that because they won't be able to get jobs after they graduate.
---The clueless crowd cheered when Obama bragged about ending the combat mission in Iraq. Hey, buddy! Tens of thousands of our military men and women are still in Iraq, in harm's way, fighting and dying! But I'm sure they're glad that the combat mission is over.
---Obama yelled a lot. He did a lot of shouting, to the point that it was disturbing. Calm down and act like the leader of the Free World.
---Obama talked about slaves sitting around the fire, women marching for the right to vote, "workers organizing for the right to organize." I'm sure that went over well with the aging Leftist radicals in the crowd.
Video.
---"Progress is gonna come, but you gotta stick with me. You can't lose heart." "Change is gonna come for this generation if we work for it, if we fight for it." Promises, promises.
---Obama mentioned "A Pledge to America," mocking it. "You can't make this stuff up."
---Class warfare, class warfare, class warfare. On taxes, he again used his "giving $700 billion to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans." IT'S NOT OBAMA'S MONEY TO GIVE. Taxing is about taking what people have earned, not giving.
---This killed me: "I believe government should be lean and efficient." WHAT? Unbelievable.
---Even with all Obama's yelling, I lost interest. It was Obama's same shtick. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
---Obama once again was talking about the car in the ditch. He said that he and Feingold and Tammy Baldwin put their boots on, got in the dirt, and worked to push the car out of the ditch. The Republicans were standing on the side "sipping on a Slurpee." The Dems got the car out of the ditch and then the Republicans asked for the keys back.
Obama yelled, "You can't have the keys back. You don't know how to drive!"
He did that lame "D" is for forward and "R" is for going backwards.
"That's not a coincidence, people!"
That's right. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. He went in reverse. No coincidence. How stupid!
---Obama said the other side calls him a socialist. Gee, maybe that's because he makes comments that are socialist. It's not an unfair label.
---Obama said Americans are fired up to elect Republicans because they've "been fed a lot of information." I think he was talking about FOX News and talk radio. He was saying that those poor Americans have been "hoodwinked."
---Regarding broken promises, Obama reminded the crowd he said change wouldn't be easy. "I said we were gonna have to make some difficult choices."
Right, like creating a panel of experts to determine who gets a life-saving drug and whose life isn't worth saving.
---Finally, the teleprompter. Of course, the teleprompters were in place. Obama hasn't been able to get past his look left, look right, look left, look right, etc. Just once look straight ahead. Please. Obama can't do it.
---Just like on the campaign trail in 2008, "Only In America" by Brooks & Dunn played at the end of the rally as Obama pressed the flesh. He should have come up with a fresh soundtrack.
So that was Obama's attempt to address the enthusiasm gap.
I am so sick of hearing about the Dems' enthusiasm gap.
People aren't rejecting Obama and the Democrats because of a lack of enthusiasm.
It's the economy. It really sucks. People are hurting, terribly. No speech in liberal haven Madison, no matter how electrifying, alters what people are experiencing in trying to make ends meet.
Actually, I think the effort to recreate the Obama magic of 2008 only serves to highlight just how empty all the promises turned out to be.
The reason Obama didn't change Washington is because Obama is a typical Washington politician. He's no savior. The hope and change crap was nothing more than empty campaign rhetoric.
It sounds more hollow than ever.
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Finally, the White House has posted the transcript of Obama's speech in Madison.
Here's the "car in the ditch" portion of Obama's remarks.
OBAMA: So Madison, it comes down to this. And I’m not just talking to Madison, by the way, because there are 200 campuses across the country who are plugged in through web cams and house parties -- (laughter) -- so I’m speaking to everybody out there. (Applause.) Many of the folks in the other party who are running today are the exact same people who spent the last decade driving our economy into the ditch.
So me and Russ Feingold and Tammy Baldwin, we all went down into the ditch. And we put on our boots, and it was muddy down there and dirty and dusty and we were sweating and we’re pushing the car out of the ditch. And every so often, we’d look up and see the Republicans standing there. They’re just standing there sipping on a Slurpee -- (laughter) -- and waving at us. And we’d say, “Well, come on down and help.” They’d say, “No, no, no, but you should push harder. You’re not pushing the right way.”
But we understood we had to get the car out of the ditch so we’re pushing and we’re pushing. Finally -- finally -- we get it up on level ground. Finally we get it up on level ground. And look, let’s face it, it’s a little dented and a little busted and it needs a tune-up and the fenders all need to be hammered out a little bit, new paint job. But we’re finally on level ground, we’re moving. Suddenly we get a tap on the shoulder and we look behind us and who is it? It’s the Republicans. And they’re asking for the keys back.
And we’ve got to tell them, you can’t have the keys back. You don’t know how to drive. You don’t know how to drive. (Applause.) You don’t know how to drive. You can’t have them back.
I mean, I hope everybody has noticed when you want to go forward in your car, what do you do? You put it in “D.” When you want to go backwards, you put it in “R.” (Applause.) Don’t go back into the ditch. That’s not a coincidence. (Applause.) That’s not a coincidence, people.
So ultimately, whether they get the keys back is up to you. Look, there is no question the other side is excited. They have been pumped up to think that Obama is a socialist, and he’s this and he is that, and he’s for big government, and he’s responsible for all the -- look, they have been fed a lot of information.
Obama needs some new material. Enough with the car in the ditch.
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