I was generally pleased with the speech. It was damn good.

[TheWraith]

The repetition of the "Pass this right away" phrase and a couple other such phrases were rather grating and out of his style, but I understand why he was doing it. It's so that when news shows pull out a short clip, the "punch phrase" is still likely to be there, which is less likely if you only use it once. It comes off awkwardly when viewed live, but it's very effective for maximizing the replay value.

All in all, the proposals sound good: direct help for the unemployed by extending benefits. Make it profitable for companies to hire with tax credits. Make it UNprofitable for them to hoard cash with loophole reform. And stimulate demand via infrastructure projects.

Also good for me, since I would qualify for that extra $4,000 tax credit for the lucky company that hires me, having been out of work for more than six months.

[Le Taz Hot]

1. Color me surprised.

:eyes:

[TheWraith]

2. And equally unsurprised that you're demeaning people's opinions as invalid. nt

[glinda]

3. My super conservative brainwashed Repub mother liked it a lot.

[Recursion]

4. The kind of voter we need to reach? Good

I'm glad to hear that.

[glinda]

5. And she is racist also. I know. I was surprised.

[Booster]

6. Made me laugh.

[rury]

7. It was superb and I disagree on the perception of the catchphrase

"The repetition of the "Pass this right away" phrase and a couple other such phrases were rather grating and out of his style, but I understand why he was doing it. It's so that when news shows pull out a short clip, the "punch phrase" is still likely to be there, which is less likely if you only use it once. It comes off awkwardly when viewed live, but it's very effective for maximizing the replay value."

Grating, really...?
I guess it's in the eye of the beholder because I thought "pass this now" and "pass this right away" seemed to flow easily and naturally from him.
And it was emotional, potent, masterful and conveyed a sense of urgency, or "the fierce urgency of now!"

[TheWraith]

8. Maybe it's just a pet peeve for me, but the repetition annoyed me.

It might be a writer thing; normally I love the style of Obama's speeches, because he's got a great way of building them organically and creating a very smooth, very natural progression of ideas. This particular phrase seemed to me to be jarring because it didn't really progress, he kept going backwards to it, almost like the way he's used "touchstone" phrases like "Yes, we can" in previous speeches. But in those cases it would always integrate better with the rest of the speech, and be a less pedestrian phrase to boot. The line about Congress passing it was almost like using "none of the above" in a speech, a non-melodious phrase you'd expect more in common conversation than public oratory.

But then as I said, I'm a writer, so rather a bit obsessed by this sort of thing.

[joshcryer]

9. The key with that phrase is that if (when) they stall on passing it...

...the campaign rhetoric will be very severe.

"The President asked for this bill to be passed but the Republicans waffled for X weeks over taxing the wealthiest people, which polls show Americans support resoundingly."

[TwilightGardener]

10. Obama's boiling things down into catchphrases. That's a good idea--Republicans

are MASTERS of the catchphrase, of repetition. We need more of that on our side, not less.

[Scurrilous]

11. K & R

:thumbsup:

[LadyInAZ]

12. His speech was great...

I hope they do something quickly... 14 months until next election will be to late... americans have suffered long enough...