The media has been giving this speech a free ride, crying out that it is on the level of Kennedy and MLK and something to be adored and loved. I, obviously, disagree. Here’s why.
To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Any man who thinks he is qualified to be president after a few years in the state senate and a couple in the the U.S. Senate cannot use the word “humility” in a sentence unless he’s saying, “Humility is a trait I see no use for.”
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest - a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours — Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
Biden really is the classic politician. Taxpayer-funded train home? He needs to become his own man and stop giving his money to Ted Kennedy every time the old drunk asks for more Scotch.
To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia - I love you so much, and I’m so proud of all of you.
Good thing you are proud of them, cause you guys need more pride going around between you. Your wife certainly isn’t proud of much.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
Translation: You can’t diss me or you are dissing my parent’s dream and being un-American.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
Translation: If you attack me, you are attacking your children. Plus, if I don’t get to be President, your kids will never get to achieve their dreams.
That’s why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors — found the courage to keep it alive.
So…let me get this straight: you are here pretending you are qualified to be president because a janitor worked some extra hours some night? Fair enough.
We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
The GDP grew 3% last quarter. If that’s “turmoil,” I’ll take turmoil any day. The only thing threatening the American promise is socialism, which, conveniently, The Obamessiah is advocating.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.
Unemployment (currently at 5.7%), which is lower than the average for each of the last three decades (Bureau of Labor Statistics). “More Americans are out of work” compared to what, Obama? Exactly.
These challenges are not all of government’s making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W Bush.
When in doubt, attack GWB. Always a winner at the DNC. So, just a question, if politics are broken in Washington, why pick a politician who has been there for 30 years as your running mate?
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
You’re right. We’ve been too liberal; plus, we haven’t declared enough wars, lowered enough taxes, built walls or annexed Canada.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he’s worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Ahh there it is…the random unnamed stories of unnamed people who conveniently have the perfect life stories to fit into The Gospel According to Barry. What a fortunate coincidence for him.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: “Eight is enough.”
Gee, I didn’t know GWB was running again. I wish he was though, because I’d vote for him quicker than McCain.
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we’ll also hear about those occasions when he’s broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
Good call to pander to his military record, but the sneer when you said it says it all.
Change Counter: 1
But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time.
And it’s that 10% that he didn’t that scares me, not the 90.
Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
He HAS been right more than 90% of the time.
Change Counter: 2
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives - on health care and education and the economy - Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made “great progress” under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a “mental recession,” and that we’ve become, and I quote, “a nation of whiners.”
We are not technically in a recession until we have two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Since we didn’t have that, it was a “mental recession,” caused by alarmists like YOU and the media.
If you want to talk about a nation of whiners, talk to your wife.
It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.
No, you don’t get it, GET IT!??! (Celebrity Jeopardy…oh SNL)
For over two decades, he’s subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don’t have boots. You’re on your own.
That’s called ‘capitalism,’ idiot. If the government is stepping in to help people who suck to achieve what they don’t deserve, that’s called ’socialism.’ Perhaps this will be helpful to you:
Well it’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America.
I think what most people have been missing with Obama’s change rhetoric is that not all change is good. Socialism and communism do not equal prosperity. Just ask the U.S.S.R.
Oh wait, they are gone (Thanks Ron). Does that tell you something?
Change Counter: 3
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
Higher taxes, dead babies, rampant terrorism, hobbling regulations on businesses, dependence on foreign oil, government-run healthcare (at the cost of billions), failing schools due to Federal involvement, millions of illegal immigrants, unsecured borders, “social entrepreneurship” (i.e. as much government involvement in our daily lives as is physically possible, and then some), a pure welfare state, socialist economic policies, appeasement of rogue and terror supporting nations and a massive, overarching and centralized Federal government that will regulate everything from the color of shirt you wear to the type of car you can drive.
Have I got it all, Obama? Is that the “progress” you see?
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.
Measure your “dignity of work” all you like, but without those Fortune 500 companies, we would be Uganda, just with cooler mountains.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work.
The government…should not be “ensuring opportunity” for ANYONE. THAT IS SOCIALISM! This country was founded on conservative, small-government capitalistic principles, and by God that is where we are going to stay! I don’t want or need the government to “ensure” anything for me! Stay out of my life; protect the border, kill the terrorists, build some roads and print money. Other than that, leave me alone!
That’s the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.
So you are saying that I am responsible for homeless people? And that somehow they have contributed to MY success? My eye.
That’s the promise we need to keep. That’s the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
Change counter: 5
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Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
How about a Fair Tax, oh Obamessiah? No? Why not?
Change counter: 6
I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95 per cent of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
Except for the fact that many of those people don’t even pay income taxes.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
How, exactly, do you intend to GET to that 10 year mark without drilling for oil on our own land?
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
So instead of at least getting a stop-gap measure up to pull us through, you’d rather just sit back and whine about it and do nothing? Maybe that’s how community organizers do it, and maybe voting “present” gets you through the Illinois Senate…but as the chief executive in the country, I think you have to make some decisions, buddy.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I’ve laid out how I’ll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don’t help America grow.
Translation: We’re going to tax the living crap out of everyone.
