Chris Matthews: "It was a Jack Kennedy speech"

[impik]

Here's the tingle in the leg again...

[burrowowl]

1. No it wasn't!

[ginnyinWI]

2. that's what occured to me, too.

Not a laundry list of accomplishments, but a vision for the future.

[C_U_L8R]

3. It was a Barack Obama speech

and thank goodness for that

[peopleb4money]

4. It was inoccuous. There was no real substance to the speech.

What I hated was when he said that he doesn't know how were gonna get out of the economic crisis but that he knows we will somehow. The sweet talk wasn't very reassuring. It was just a waste of time. I think were fucked and that this is the end, because nobody can think outside of the "free enterprise" box (keeping a high defense budget, cutting public services, health care, medicaid, and social security). Were too self assured about our role and importance in the world. After watching that speech, I feel its the end. I wasn't comforted at all. When they roll out the patriotic rhetoric and have no real solutions, it means the economic situation isn't gonna change any time soon. That was Herbert Hoovers solution for when the market collapsed, deregulation and trying to stoke public morale, and look at where that took us. The only thing is there's no real difference between the two parties anymore. One wants it their way and only their way, and the other's just stepping in line. The country's going down the drain, and a lot of the blame rests on our default and rigid behavior.

[LibDemAlways]

6. I agree. My dad used to tell the story of

his parish priest during World War II giving a boring sermon that wasn't going anywhere. Sensing that he was losing his audience, he'd switch gears and start in on how their sons were in harm's way saving the world from evil. That always got the tears flowing and the wallets open at collection time.

That was the feeling I got when Obama mentioned that no one in the room would want to live anywhere else but the good old USA, and they all got up and cheered. Of course they love America. They're all a bunch of millionaires getting richer by the day. Why would they want to go anywhere else? It was phony "patriotism" at its most nauseating.

[Honeycombe8]

10. I'm not a millionaire, and I love living in the USA. I think most Americans do.

But even if they didn't, that doesn't change my opinion. It IS true that people the world over risk their lives to get to America. There's a reason for that. It has serious problems. But as a single woman, there aren't many countries where I could've provided for myself as I have here.

Great Britain, Sweden, and a lot of other countries take half of your pay for taxes. I know they get healthcare for that, and they have an earlier retirement age. But with half an income, and their real estate is super expensive, I never would've been able to afford a decent house and car and lifestyle. And there's more space here. And a better economy overall, I believe (any Brits out there who can compare the two economies?). More choices for education, where to live and work, how to run your life, etc. America isn't the ONLY great place to live. But it's been good to me.

[LibDemAlways]

11. You are fortunate. There are many for whom the American

dream has become a nightmare. The government is increasingly of, by, and for the rich and the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. Continued high unemployment. Outsourcing of jobs. Foreclosures. Escalating prices. Bailouts for wall street. Many millions still without access to health care. Rampant homelessness on the streets of our cities. Billions being wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan to feed the military-industrial monster. High taxes that seem to buy us nothing. Unaffordable colleges. A K-12 "education" system focused on producing standardized test takers and increasingly being influenced by corporate dollars. A crumbling infrastructure. Antiquated public transportation where it exists at all. Government spying on citizens and treating everyone like criminals at the airport, where the 4th amendment right against unreasonable searches doesn't apply as they herd us into potentially cancer-causing scanners, installed to enrich the bank accounts of corrupt toadies. Gun violence that continues unabated. The rightwing takeover of the media that insures that only one point of view predominates. I could go on and on, but I have to get ready to go to my part-time, no benefits job.

I'm genuinely glad you've done all right here. Those "serious problems" you admit to, however, are very real and getting worse. If I had the opportunity to move to a civilized country, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

[quakerboy]

12. Thats in large part because we have no experience to compare to

I compare the story of my single mom aunt to that of my wife's friend, a single mom in Canada.

Its hardly a comparison. One has lived paycheck to paycheck for 23 years now, since she fled her abusive drug using husband, and currently is without phone, as she cant afford the rent now that her son moved out. The other lives in Canada, and had a tough couple months while she recalibrated her money after she kicked out her abusive drug using husband, but is now doing pretty well and still has the opportunity to become a longshoreman, making more than I do as a college graduate with a pretty decent job in the US. Plus benefits. plus living in canada and the social service benefits inherent to that.


As to the UK... its not 50% until you make over 150k pounds a year. Equal to approximately $238,000. Assuming you werent making that, you would have paid considerably less in taxes.

I think you find, with research, that most countries actually provide a better chance to provide for yourself than you have here. But I will leave further research to the whims of your curiosity.

[ProudDad]

5. Kool

Now he's going back to the White House to schtup Marilyn Monroe?

[Art_from_Ark]

7. What's that famous Lloyd Bentsen quote?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator,_you're_no_Jack_Kennedy

[Beacool]

8. Proving once again that Matthews is a sycophantic idiot.

His leg must be tingling again.

:eyes:

[Lugnut]

9. I heard Jack Kennedy speak.

Tweety is full of baloney.

[robcon]

13. It was not stirring in an emotional sense - only in a logical/factual sense.

n/t

[Phx_Dem]

14. I thought it was a great, visionary speech. Nothing about it I didn't like.