Obama's Speeches

Obama is going to be giving two major speeches in the next week or so: an address to schoolchildren on the 8th, and a major health care speech to congress on the 9th.

The speech to schoolchildren has become a big issue mostly due to partisan politics. Disclaimer: The opinions I am about to express are about a tiny fringe group of Republicans. What I say here should NOT be taken as a comment on the Republican Party as a whole. That said, any Republicans who supports these idiots should leave the country.

Now, what have the idiots been saying? They want to keep their children home from school on the 8th so that Obama does not indoctrinate their children with socialism. These people are idiots. Even if you have political disagreements, at least have respect for the office of the presidency and the fact that Obama was elected to that office. The fact that these people cannot do this is a sad testimony on the state of our society. Because while these people may be fringe idiots, there are a lot of them, they are noisy, and many elected officials agree with them. When fringe idiots start to become as powerful as these are becoming, bipartisanship becomes impossible.

"As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology" says Jim Greer, GOP Chairman of Florida."The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans ... is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power."

Of course, these same people didn't object when George H.W. Bush gave this same sort of speech, or when Ronald Reagan included much more politically charged ideas than Obama likely will. It's a case of willful blindness--the Republicans have disagreed with Obama and the Democrats at every turn, and have earned their title as the "Party of No". They just want to disagree with Obama and criticize everything he does for political reasons.

The second speech that Obama will be giving is going to be a major address to congress, on the floor of the Senate chamber, talking about Universal Health Care. Obama is expected to spell out what he wants the plan to be and finally make himself involved in the debate. Personally, I think this is a good move. Until now, Obama has let Congress try and figure out a health care plan without direction from him. He's likely trying to avoid repeating the mistakes that Clinton made during the last serious push for universal health care, during which Clinton was seen by many as attempting to dictate everything about the plan, effectively leaving Congress out of the debate. But Obama's attempt to keep a distance has not worked in political terms, as he is too connected with healthcare, regardless of the fact that he hasn't really done any negotiating about the terms. And by keeping a distance, he has ended up letting Congress draft bills that are not satisfactory to him or most Americans. The speech on the 9th can be used to finally help healthcare gain momentum and pass, while making sure that it is a good bill.