"Canberra News, Views and Opinion"
If you haven’t had a listen to Barack Obama’s second inaugural address it’s well worth a listen.
While meant for an American audience it struck me that he’s getting close to a viable political philosophy for the 21st century in stark contrast to the ever more tired nostrums of Australia’s political parties.
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most well spoken man i have ever heard
Fine words butter no parsnips.
Ben_Dover said :
No but he’s at least facing up to the self-serving billionaire funded libertarianism which is the real political battle of our time. (for all that almost no political pundits seem to realise it)
I did love the image of one of his daughters yawning though! Such a great voice; never grates on the ears. Some of the ideas weren’t bad either…
Hope they can cut back on a bit of military spending, here and there.
Not that I heard anything I disagree with, but it’s much easier to have principles and strong opinions and to stand up to powerful people you disagree with when you don’t have to worry about getting re-elected in four years time.
An argument for term limits here? two four year terms in the assembly and then out?
Whenever I hear Obama “orating” it reminds me of the trope that our analytical skills are over-ridden by beauty. Obama is HOT. And his oratory is actually NOT. He’s better than average but he is no MLK, no Churchill. His speechifying is pretty passionless.
johnboy said :
Then you’d have a procession of Lucy Horodnys …
It’s a double edged sword – great if you agree with the “brave” stuff that it permits, awful if it’s a political opponent with lots of power and nothing to lose.
I’m not sure, on balance, if it’s a good or bad thing, but it’s definitely a thing…
GOP response: “There was not, as I’ve seen in other inaugural speeches, ‘I want to work with my colleagues.’ ”
Funny claim, given Obama tried to accommodate their irrationality in the first 4 years. I guess now, 4 years one and looking about 20 years older, he can’t be bothered anymore. Wise move really.
I find Barry O’Bama to be very beige. There is conviction, but no passion. You listen to him and think he is a decent chap with a few good ideas, but not inspirational or charismatic. Just a solid, steady pair of hands. Not the type to inspire real and effective social change IMHO. Still, compared to Judas Gillard and Mr Rabbit, he is a shining light of erudition, decency and commonsense.
Johnboy said: “self-serving billionaire funded libertarianism which is the real political battle of our time”
Johnboy, can you please explain this in more detail?
It’s really beyond the scope of this article.
But as good a starting point as any is the nexus of journalism, academia, and money outlined by the Shame Project:
http://shameproject.com/
johnboy said :
Blaming everything (GFC, poverty, high unemployment, the federal deficit) on “millionaires and billionaires” who aren’t “paying their fair share” isn’t particularly brave or remarkable. It is just cheap demagoguery. Same goes for spending like a drunken sailor to curry favour with voters and labelling anyone who disagrees a libertarian.
The real issue for the US is its unsustainable federal government debt, which requires a combination of higher taxes and drastic spending cuts to address. The GOP won’t allow the former, the Dems will never allow the latter.
2604 said :
20 years of found guilty oil thieves (In fact that Bloomberg article is probably the best place for those who didn’t get what Obama was talking about to start) like the Koch brothers funnelling huge sums of hard money into promoting policies which further enrich them can’t have helped either.
Just because they’ve backed what you feel is your football team doesn’t make them a good side to wave the flag for.
Barack Obama talks about equality for women in his inauguration speech. And then we’re told in great detail what his wife and daughters were wearing. WTF?
Looooong bow: Bullet Train for Canberra have reposted this on Facebook, quite bizarrely. Um did Obama refer to high-speed rail in his inauguration speech? Someone who listened right through it do tell.
“Great post from The RiotACT on Barack Obama’s second inaugural address: ‘A speech the like of which we are unlikely to hear in ACT politics’
“Obama is one of the driving forces behind the push for High Speed Rail for California and the West Coast of the US.”
martin75 said :
I don’t think Bazza can be blamed for the superficiality of the Canberra Times.
Masquara said :
Tell me about it, no one can rap like Churchill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW6jW9y59JY
Obama is the man. End of story.
2604 said :
Oh look, another economically illiterate libertarian.
Yields on 30 year US government debt are at this moment 3.05%, 10 years 1.86%. Short term yields lower. In the long run US inflation is somewhere around 3%. Oh shock horror. The market that your worship seems to think US government debt is quiet sustainable.
More importantly though it’s literally impossible for the USA to involuntarily default since their liabilities are in their own currency. This isn’t Argentina borrowing US$ or Greece borrowing Euros.
To head it off – social security is perfectly solvent too as long as the US continues servicing it’s debt, and the only time that’s ever been in question was when Republicans played that insane game of brinkmanship over the debt limit.
That isn’t to deny that the US has actual problems – like the massive amount of PRIVATE sector debt built up since the 1980s that’s continuing to drag on the economy and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but for some reason the libertards like yourself are oblivious to that.
Worth saying that if Obama had the guts to stand behind immigration and same-sex marriage in his speech, despite all the context on American society, we should all be ashamed of Gillard today. A hypocritical, uninspired, disappointment of a leader. (Unfortunately given the alternative choice, still preferable though.)
I think he’s been eclipsed by Miss America’s astoundingly sensible remarks on gun control:
” In the question portion of Saturday’s competition, Hagen was asked, “In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, there has been a lot of talk about gun control. One solution being proposed is [to put] an armed guard in every school. Do you think that would make our schools safer?”
Hagan responded: “I don’t think the proper way to fight violence is with violence. I think the proper way is to educate people on guns and the ways we can use them properly. We can lock them up, we can have gun safety classes, we can have a longer waiting period.” “
I don’t know if she had the question in advance, or whether the answer was written by her mum or someone else, but I amost don’t care. This was a really sensible answer which could have backfired on her badly (she probably needs an armed guard now!). The American pro-gun nuts are claiming it doesn’t make sense, which tells you something about the level of their real intelligence.
Mallory Hagan for President in 2016!
IP
Good speech,
Too bad like so many before it, it will probably not result in anything actually being achieved. Words are easy.
Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :
Take a screen shot of that! It’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever written
I think I have a man crush on Obama… People bag him for the state of the US economy but I reckon without him they’d be in a much worse situation. And so would we.
martin75 said :
Not to mention that he hid his wife away for his entire initial campaign.
poetix said :
This can only be sarcasm, surely.
I’ve few problems with the content of his message (I think), but his delivery is so annoying I can barely listen to what he actually is saying.
In a one on one interview fine, no problems. The guy oozes charisma. How can you not like him.
But…
Stick him, or any US politician to be fair, in front of a crowd, especially one full of supporters, and he returns with a cacophony of noise at a volume that makes it virtually impossible to take in anything he says.
I can’t stand it!
Just calm down dude, they’re on your side mate, haha!
Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :
I’m less than impressed. A good, not great, orator, but otherwise a figurehead with no great ability to achieve change.
The US may be impressed with his impression of a great statesman, I’d prefer a less flowery well meaning, actorish, rather more capable, president who was an actual achiever.
Ben_Dover said :
Depends entirely on what they want to achieve. You have to remember that the US is a corporatocracy which greatly limits the scope of what is allowed. Look what happens if you have the temerity to suggest that everyone has the right to medical care, you get labelled a “socialist” or worse still a “progressive” or accused of trying to set up a “death panel” to kill off granny.
2604 said :
Anyone who thinks economic libertarianism serves the interests of anyone other than the super-wealthy who have rigged the game in their favour needs their head checked.
The economy is supposed to serve us, not the other way around.