She could hear the same lame speech from her husband for the hundredth time but sit within camera range and act attentive and interested and impressed. The Vice President tried to very hard to do that Thursday night. Joe wore a kind of perma-scowl with the edges of his lips curling downward in repose and he'd try to come alive when the President was supposedly making an important and valued point. But all he ever managed was relieved -- as if he was constipated throughout the evening.
Other than that we noted the ocular workout Barack was doing as he went from TelePrompter to TelePrompTer, looking as if he had a front row seat at Wimbledon. But, hey, that side to side rotation is supposed to be just the movement to relieve eye strain.
The eye strain of the one doing it. For those of us watching, we were just left to note how stiff and alien Barack came off.
And how incompetent Barack remains on the economy. Tax cuts for employers do not drive employment. Employers aren't hiring for a number of reasons and chief among them is a lack of trust in the economy and the administration. We spoke to four CEOs on Friday of Fortune 500 companies. Does the proposed tax cut mean they'll hire more employees? No. Their companies will gladly pocket the money but it's not going to mean hiring. Three of the four felt that small employers were the key to hiring and that the only thing that will help there is a focus on loans for small business.
We read US House Rep. Maxine Water's suggestion, floated ahead of the speech at POLITICO, "For example, if the President and Congress were to create an infrastructure bank, we could use small, women-owned, minority-owned and community banks, which disproportionately serve communities of color, to make loans for infrastructure projects with local hiring requirements, rather than the large financial institutions who are disconnected from communities and through the bailout, have shown an unwillingness to lend."
All three felt Waters was right on the money about what was needed. Even the fourth who did not feel small employers were the key to hiring said he thought Waters' suggestion would "significantly reduce unemployment."
All four found Barack's 'proposals' hysterical. 'Proposals'? He kept saying "pass this job's plan" but there was no bill written. There are no details given. With no details and just airy statements like "It will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers," the four pointed out that the best way to increase your tax breaks, as an employer, would be to lay off and fire your workers and then hire new ones. Did no one in the White House think of that or think of how stupid it sounded?
Economics professors we spoke with told us repeatedly that it was difficult to judge "goals" as opposed to an actual plan in writing but it seemed obvious that the employers' tax breaks was damaging. "It's as if," one told us, "Obama's trying to bankrupt Medicare and Social Security and then use that as an excuse to gut them."
The more we heard on that, the more our heads spun.
But members of the Cult of St. Barack were smiling and sitting pretty. Take The Progressive's Matthew Rothschild, whom Mike rightly awarded Idiot of the Week to for his 'analysis' of Barack's speech. "Inspiring and Annoying" gushed Matty Rothschild -- a title he might want to dust off should he ever write his life story.
Had George W. Bush proposed gutting Medicare and Medicaid, we're not seeing Matty rush forward to gush about Bush's word choices. But let Barack propose it and Matty's pining and mooning like Betsy Booth eyeing Andy Hardy.
After offering a small bit of criticism (from others), Matty wraps up like the court enuich he is insisting, "I came away from the speech wondering why Obama hasn't been making the affirmative case for government action all along. If he had been, he -- and the country -- would be a lot better off today."
Really? Because what we take away is that 1/5 of the elderly in this country depend upon Medicare to meet their medial needs, that six million elderly would not be able to meet their medical needs without the program, that cuts in Medicare will effect life expectancy and that women will be the hardest hit since they have a longer life expectancy. We took away that there was no concern or care about the over 40% of elderly Americans who currently who live well below the poverty line. We wondered what happens to those with chronic health problems? And the elderly are more likely to have chronic health problems than other age groups.
How interesting that Matthew Rothschild chose to view the speech in the abstract as opposed to his addressing the real world consequences. (No, Matthew, meekly citing others is not you taking on the speech.)
We also registered that a $447 billion 'jobs' plan didn't really offer much for jobs. In fact, less than a fourth of the $447 billion will go to works programs (the infrastructure projects and the teacher and first responder hiring).
But, hey, who can focus on the numbers when they want to groove on their dream lover. In terms of style, Danny Schechter insisted, "The Obama of 2008 was back." Maybe so. Of course, we never got taken in. We never sold our asses like two-dollar whores for Mr. Pretty Lies to begin with. Rather sad to see someone who supposedly woke up lapse back into a coma.
You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you
All those pretty lies, pretty lies
When you gonna realize they're only pretty lies
Only pretty lies
Just pretty lies
-- "The Last Time I Saw Richard," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her Blue
For us, the speech was typical Barack. Not only did his voice crack and he come off weak when he uttered the line "But we can help," but he failed to connect.
Our own Mr. Spock showed a little bit of anger during the speech and, to his boyfriends like Matty and Danny, that was something to cheer. Spock has emotions!
So busy were they dreaming of Barack getting angry on them, pinning them to the bed and having his way with them, that they missed how bad the speech was.
Who was the audience for that speech?
It was supposed to be Americans.
The speech isn't polling well with them.
Why is that?
Could it be because Barack forgot to speak to them until at the end when he gave them a list of chores? Things that his lazy ass needed to be doing.
Maybe Danny and Matty can take their hands out of their pants long enough to realize this is not how you communicate with voters:
But the millions of Americans who are watching right now: they don’t care about politics. They have real life concerns. Many have spent months looking for work. Others are doing their best just to scrape by – giving up nights out with the family to save on gas or make the mortgage; postponing retirement to send a kid to college. These men and women grew up with faith in an America where hard work and responsibility paid off. They believed in a country where everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair share – where if you stepped up, did your job, and were loyal to your company, that loyalty would be rewarded with a decent salary and good benefits; maybe a raise once in awhile. If you did the right thing, you could make it in America.
"They." They?
If you're speaking to us, we expect you to speak to us. "You," "I" and "we" would be terms to use. But for most of his statements it was "they." That's connecting with the people?
If you want to connect with people, you put them first. Instead, Barack put first the person he always puts first (himself), asking moments after beginning the speech, "What will this speech mean for the President?"
Barack gave another bad speech and his fan club tries to tell you it was amazing. It blew chunks in terms of the numbers, it sucked in terms of the style, the delivery was wooden even when Barack attempted to show passion.
Throughout it all, there was Joe Biden, stage right. Trying so hard to look interested but, again, just coming across constipated. One definition of constipation, the one revolving around bowel movements, includes "hard to pass." And we had to wonder if Joe was signaling to the viewers that in spite of Barack's shrill seizure of the plodding phrase "Pass this jobs bill," nothing was really going to happen?