Obama gave a good speech tonight at the memorial service in Newtown, CT. It was the type of appropriate speech we expect from any president in time of national tragedy.
But, as usual, some people need to make every Obama speech historic, in this case likening it to the Gettysburg Address given by Lincoln on the dedication of the cemetary for the tens of thousands who died or were wounded in that battle:
People will long remember what Barack Obama said in Newtown…his Gettysburg address…
— david maraniss (@davidmaraniss) December 17, 2012
History. RT @davidmaraniss: People will long remember what Barack Obama said in Newtown…his Gettysburg address…
— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) December 17, 2012
Some people in my feed complaining that Obama didn’t use the word “guns.” Lincoln never used the word “slavery” in the Gettysburg Address.
— Brian Fung (@b_fung) December 17, 2012
I just re-read the Gettysburg Address. And I felt a lot if that tonight from BO. Memorial, healing, anger, a call to action.
— Matt Wurst(@mwurst) December 17, 2012
There has been pushback on this, but the best response was as follows:
Sorry, this Gettysburg Address nonsense is annoying. Must every moment in our history be compared to some other moment in our history?
— Justin Charity (@BrotherNumpsa) December 17, 2012
Here’s a link to the Gettysburg Address, which I’m getting the impression that no one’s ever actually read: d.umn.edu/~rmaclin/getty…
— Justin Charity (@BrotherNumpsa) December 17, 2012
Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
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Comments
“Never let a crisis go to waste”
Professor – thank you. I find it unlikely that any future schoolchildren are going to be memorizing this speech years from now. Like most politicians today, he thinks we all want to hear his voice.
Obamamania: California middle-school history teacher tells his class that the American people won’t let Obama go and are sure to arrange for him to have additional terms.
SCARY. And another good reason not to call for a Constitutional Convention.
Hundreds of other little children around the United States also died this week from illness, injury, accident and murder — and I’m pretty sure that their families also are upset and grieving and equally deserving of prayer and sympathy.
“It takes a village” and must do “X”, for the children!
I thought it was a carefully massaged political speech from the typical progressive viewpoint that parents just aren’t capable of raising children without help from the government.
Oh … what the heck. If you can’t beat ’em …
People will long remember what Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg … his Newtown, CT memorial service address …
I didn’t listen to Obama. I did see a lot of the lead-in to his speech, and I found the tone of the media in approaching it to be very disturbing. It reminded me of the Bill Clinton years, when he would hit the press room at the drop of a hat. He was so over exposed in his Presidency – it suggested to me that he felt he could emulate FDR in presenting himself as a “father figure” or an interpreter for the country. So many times he addressed the public as if we were some shivering, frightened mass of imbeciles who couldn’t arrive at a conclusion about an event or an issue until the “father figure” pronounced it thus.
I see that in Obama. Without having heard his remarks I just know he is shading it right to get some gun control legislation out of this. The question that should be asked is what elements of mental health care did he design into his Obamacare plan that would help this kind of situation. I’m sure the answer is “…”, but I’d like to hear that from Jay Carney, please.
Obama’s speech wouldn’t sound like the Gettysburg address if he read it from his teleprompter.
This is a prelim to a full-bore assault on the 2nd Amendment. Believe it, it’s coming.
Maraniss has confirmed – again – that he can’t be taken seriously.
I am surprised you thought the speech was good. In all honesty, I thought it was weak where it should have been strong and politicized when it need not have been. When I think of a moving speech I think, ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’
Reagan’s Challenger speech moved me but I am not sure I would put it on a par with the Gettysburg Address. Devastating as the Challenger explosion was, it was not comparable to a nation devastated by civil war as it struggled to purge the sin of slavery. Note too, at no point does Lincoln come across as scolding.
Ever the Scolder-in-Chief, Obama just can’t help himself:
I am sorry but telling a grieving nation “we’re failing these kids,” misses the mark.
I could go on, believe me, he really frosts my cookies. Obama’s major asset is his ability to deliver a speech and I can’t remember a single line from any he has given when our country needed to be comforted, united and uplifted. Scolding we get nearly every day, why should we expect any different when 18 children and 8 adults have their lives taken in a moment of senseless rage?
Just saw Drudge’s headline, “”Its time for love”, I’m guessing its from the Messiah’s speech
so says the community agitator in chief. pitting one set of people against another.
He and his minions will use this again to pit one set of people against another, its all on how to use any event, however tragic to their advantage.
“Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know they are loved and teaching them to love in return?”
_________________________
Pretty ironic, coming from a politician who voted repeatedly in Illinois to allow babies born alive after botched abortions to be denied medical care.
This is also the man who said he didn’t want his daughters to be “punished” with a baby if the daughters had unprotected sex.
Is that the kind of “love” we should be teaching our children, Barry?
I thought the most interesting thing about the speech was just how unremarkable a speech can cause the networks to break in on their regular programming.
Honestly, this speech could have waited for the 11 0’clock news .. or better yet, the morning shows.
Obama started out fairly well, but about half way through, started to string together (as my old Century Collegiate Handbook would describe) “deadwood”.
Then apparently, when the speech was completed, went the wrong way to leave.
I didn’t listen to the speech, as I can’t stand to listen to his speech patterns. However, last night I was thinking that this morning I would re-listen to Reagan’s Challenger speech. I was in 2nd grade when Challenger happened, I remember watching it happen live along with the rest of America’s children, I also remember very clearly (possibly even more clearly than the incident itself, as it lasted longer?)watching and listening to Reagan. Will today’s children remember this speech the same way? I doubt it very much.
My thoughts and prayers are with the innocents who were so tragically lost.
They sure as hell aren’t with some egomaniac in the WH and his drone cult-like lemmings who worship him. Maybe they should sell tshirts with his picture for this speech. I’m sure Stephanie Cutter and Ploofman and Axelrod will be more than happy to promote their Messiah.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-16/guest-post-how-spot-hypocrite-gun-debate-and-other-reflections-newtown
Pretty good post from ZeroHedge.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=214943
and another post on this, pretty good post.
Yeah it’s called short and sweet, to the point and pithy, terse yet succinct.
None of which Obama’s writers are capable of because HE’S not capable of stepping outside himself.
Obama running his mouth with yet another speech?
Yawn.
No speech by a president was necessary in this instance. He was just there for the PR and photos. It was all about HIM. Gag me with spoon. He has failed to protect this same generation — he is leading the world towards endless war and conflict, terrorism on our own soil, enslavement of Americans , and celebration of abortion.
When I hear his voice or see his face, I change the channel. I ran out of bullshit protection spray 4 years ago.
Obamamania: the sap falls close to the tree.
Rather than compare Obama to a Speilberg Lincoln I think Obama should be compared to another titled character – The Dictator:
http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/movieDetails/504242
It’s a shame no teacher or other staff member was allowed to carry a gun or store one in their desk or locker. The Oregan mall shooting on Dec. 11 was ended when a man with concealed carry permit let his presence be known to the shooter who then shot himself. The mere presence of an armed defender made all the difference, he never fired his weapon. Further limitations on gun ownership is the wrong path, but the nannies will try their best to use this terrible slaughter for political gain.
Benghazi et al. also were “senseless murders” and “we” didn’t do enough to stop them. Or worse. This military parent wants the President to address what he is supposed to be addressing.
I have a thought or two about the Lincoln comparison.
ck. my blog for reaction
http://edwardcropper.blogspot.com/
Just what has changed since my 1960’s grade school days? I walked to school after my Mom went to work … there was no fear of guns, no lock down plans.
Obama is the child of radical sixties dogma. His mentors are radical communists (Davis and Wright). He is essentially the president for the unions first, supporting their violence, if only by silence. He tells his people to “get in their faces”, and praises OWS despite their violence. Culture changed, not gun ownership, and the left should answer for their role.
Feinstein is using this LOCAL tragedy to introduce a bill to eliminate “assault rifles”. She’ll be praised for her bravery, in politicizing these emotional deaths. We should instead arm and train those in charge of children, to handle a weapon to protect their charges from crazies like this. The school did most things right, except have weapons. The teachers seemed brave enough, but had no stopping power except their bodies.
With the level of problems this kid had, it sure seems some child support services should have been on the scene, and at least been able to ask about weapons in the house. Can we look at our government bureaucracy, to see how badly they screwed up here? If there were barriers to their intervention, what causes those barriers?
I won’t remember what Obama said about Newtown because I did not listen to his speech; I have never listened to any Obama speeches.
Next thing you know, Barack Obama freed the slaves!
Especially for a biographer, Maraniss has a weak grasp of history. It took 13 years for the Gettysburg Address to get much notice, and to start to become what it stands for today. Does he really think ANYONE will even have the haziest recollection of Obama’s speech in 2025? (Besides Obama, of course; he’ll probably feature it in his fourth or fifth autiobiography).
I just sent a tweet to Maraniss about this: https://twitter.com/thebadger14/status/280741297218797568.
Comparing Obama to Lincoln is the crass business of making Obama “historic” or “iconic.” He must be, where’s the clip, there must got to be a clip of Obama proclaiming his historic status, because he said so.
Just remember that the Media is tightly controlled by the WhiteHouse Office Of Information through its intimate connections with the mediamatters website which disseminates the WhiteHouse’s talking points and marching orders out to the rest of the media. This horrific act was a cause for grief, but Barack Obama has little real regard for the people of mostly white, affluent, highly educated Newtown Connecticut and their sorrow, for they were the ones Mr Obama railed against for much of his campaign and only by raping their take home checks and decimating their bank accounts can he continue to play Santa Claus to his real constituency, the pimps, porostitutes, and perverts of the inner city.
Mr Obama operates by one rule, Rahm Emmanuel’s rule “Never let a legitimate crisis go to waste!”
Only by the presence of the Second Amendment has the United States been governed by other men through and with the consent of the governed. Governments without a Second Amendment and who are not governed by men through and with the consent of the governed are legion, Communist China, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran…..
Mr Obama intends to take every inch the Newtown crisis will allow him to remove every Americans’s Second Amendment and constitutional right to be governed only by the consent of the governed. This will allow him to unleash the forces of agencies like his EPA unchecked, which operates under the modus operandi inadvertantly revealed recently by officer Al Armendariz mistakenly in a situation where his words echoing Administrator Lisa Jackson’s operating policy could be recorded and replayed ad nauseum, ad infintum by the opposition “You go into a new area (regarding enforcement) in much the same manner as the Roman Army did by grabbing the first five males they came upon and crucifying them. Everybody else goes along after that” The EPA today is currently suing the State Of Virginia for the right to seize Virginia homeowners homes, bulldoze them to the ground, and plant grass on their former sites instead to ease the pollution caused by falling rain. What, oh what did Mother Earth do for the first 4.5 billion years without Barack Obama’s and Lisa Jackson’s EPA. Without the Second Amendment to hold them in abeyance and maintaining respect for the laws of the land, they will reign supreme, bulldozing all that stand in their way, effortlessly and repeatedly.
Did Jesus not go and weep at the site of Lazarus’ tomb? Why then should this age’s Chicago Jesus not go and pretend to weep along with the residents of Newtown for their loss?
Sorry, don’t agree with the concept that it was a “good” speech. No, didn’t listen to him either, but I’ve seen enough of the adulation post speech and criticism of it, to form the conclusion that it was indeed, a sanctimonious, polispeak speech.
I don’t even believe Obama had any business going to Sandy Hook at this time. He inserted himself into the narrative, and the babies aren’t even buried. Not appropriate. Pres. Bush sent hand written condolence letters which were much more genuine than this disingenuous president. Obama is an individual who supports infanticide, the killing of babies born alive from botched abortions, kind of an oxymoron that he would grieve for children.
Must have not been any campaign money to go after, so he’ll look all circumspect and make himself the story.
BTW, the idea that his speech was on the level of Lincoln…well, that’s just bizarre. Two different eras and an entirely different set of circumstances.
The One, His Infantile Majesty, hits me square in my Oversensitive GAG Reflex for Bullshit(OGRB). It has been nearly impossible to listen to him since he became president. Can’t do it. Sometimes I’ll read his comments or a speech, but I CANNOT listen to him.
[…] seems that Obama gave a speech concerning the Newtown massacre that Professor Jacobson considers good;however, I failed to catch it, but noted a concerning turn of phrase in a Hot Air analysis: In the […]
[…] Obama’s “historic speech” in Newtown, Connecticut Sunday night, he injected […]
The situation in the White House today is right out of Hollywood. It’s the same character structure we’ve seen in many big promoted movies. Just go back and note the role of the ‘Guiding Light’ and who says the ‘wisest’ lines. The American audience has been scolded and made to feel guilty with fantasy and entertainment. But now it’s their reality. No surprise that BO is so skilled at presentation – he’s 100% actor. And the promo people are giving him every opportunity to be seen and heard.