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McCain Sheds His "Green Speech" Skin, Shines Amid Protests

CitizenSugar — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:00:39 -0700

I might venture out on a limb and say McCain's speech in front of the National Federation of Independent Business yesterday helped to erase the mean, green debacle of a week ago. He was the old McCain again. Hey. You know what I mean.

He opened with a chuckler: "I have never run a small, struggling enterprise — unless you count my presidential campaign last year," but was soon interrupted by an anti-war protester who heckled him from the audience.

The woman burst out with "War is bad for small business!" McCain responded, "one of the things Americans are tired of, one of the things they're tired of is people yelling at each other in America, have you noticed that? They want us to respect each other's opinions. . . . Americans want a dialogue," to wild applause. After another protester jumped in and was lead away, McCain said, "now that we know, now that I know who I will be facing in the general election . . ."

To see my highlights, the parts that grabbed me — with a funny cherry on top at the end,

President Bush Announces New Policy on Cuba

CitizenSugar — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:00:23 -0700

Moments ago, President Bush announced a landmark policy change with regard to Cuba. Americans will now be able to send cell phones to Cubans. It's a change that Bush hopes will encourage the new regime of Raul Castro to increase freedom of expression for Cuban citizens

The announcement was made in a speech intended to mark Cuba's 106th anniversary of independence. I'm a political speech aficionado, and don't usually cotton to the simpler prose preferred by Bush — but this one had the prints of a new scribe all over it. To see what he said,

2-For-1 Deal — Obama, Clinton Double-Header on the Economy

CitizenSugar — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:39:03 -0700

It's a cavalcade of speechifying this morning! Obama! Clinton! Bush on the war! Here's the update:

Hillary just started her economic speech in North Carolina with a laugh saying, "If you want to go forward you put it in D, if you want to backward you put it in R."

She then went on to make her speech local, by drawing in the challenges and innovation of the Wright brothers (different Wright this time!) at Kitty Hawk.

Hillary focused on the workforce end of the economy, proposing a $12.5 billion, five-year initiative to rebuild the middle class by helping laid-off workers and boosting job training. The program includes about $2 billion a year for worker retraining and $500 million a year in grants for on-the-job training. To see good excerpts of both, as well as full coverage of Obama's speech from earlier this morning,

Hillary Clinton Pays Bush Criticism in Speech on the Economy

CitizenSugar — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:00:39 -0700

In Pennsylvania this morning, Hillary Clinton delivered what her campaign is calling "a major policy speech" on the economy. Sharpening her focus on the housing crisis as the crux of the trouble, she aimed her criticism at the current administration's handling of the situation. Clinton said, "we need a president who is ready on Day One to become commander in chief of our economy . . . that means acknowledging that our economic crisis is, at its core, a housing crisis."

Touching on the broad reach of the financial slump, Clinton said, "Abandoned houses and boarded up homes mean higher crime rates." The speech lands amid stark assessments of the country's economic state, with weekend reports showing signs that payday loans are the latest indicator of housing distress. In her economic plan unveiled this morning, Clinton called for "unscrupulous mortgages lenders to establishing a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and a five-year interest rate freeze on subprime mortgages."

Will these ideas help? Do you think the economy is getting the attention it deserves? Do you think its strength will have an impact on the outcome of the election?

Source

President Bush Speaks on 5th Anniversary of Iraq War

CitizenSugar — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:48:58 -0700

President Bush just spoke at the Department of Defense this morning, marking five years since the beginning of the Iraq war. He thanked the troops and summed up the mission thusfar saying, "because we acted the world is better and the United States is safer."

President Bush spoke around recent official reports that show no link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein saying that the reduction in violence in Iraq and the alliance of some local groups with American forces is “the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network.” He remained firm and optimistic in the mission saying, “by spreading the hope of liberty in the Middle East, we will help free societies to take root — and when they do, freedom will yield the peace we all desire.”

The speech happens amid protests, like the one above held yesterday in Washington DC. Reports out today also show that 71 percent of Americans think that the Iraq war is hurting the economy. President Bush responded to this saying today acknowledging the high cost of the war in "lives and treasure." To see his response,

Barack Obama Speaks on Black and Wright Issues

CitizenSugar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:38:30 -0700

Barack Obama has just delivered a speech addressing the spiraling recurrence of questions and debate surrounding remarks made by Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright. The inflammatory statement made by Obama's spiritual adviser led to poll results released yesterday showing that 56 percent of voters would be less likely to vote for Obama given the remarks. Acknowledging that the subject of race has also become unavoidably prominent, Obama boldly and powerfully addressed the effect of both on his candidacy saying,

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

He then unflinchingly tackled the issue of race, acknowledging that "anger" and "resentment" have built over time on all sides of racial divides. He said by addressing the issue honestly, therein lies the only path to growth.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle — as we did in the OJ trial — or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina — or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day, and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

Did these words move you? Is this the path to change? Do you think that a bold and inclusive statement like this speech will satisfy those who disagree with Obama's relationship to Wright, or who may be considering the issue of race? Did he succeed in both silencing the Wright controversy, and addressing the broader issue of race in this country? Is this the appropriate time to make this statement?

Did he sound presidential to you?

To read the most personal explanation of both his relationship to Wright and his race,

Detroit's State of the City Includes N-Word and Wild Applause

CitizenSugar — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:00:41 -0700

Kwame Kilpatrick. Tell it. I've loved this mayor since I first saw him and his aggressive pinstripes on Real Time with Bill Maher. His State of the City address slammed into my radar given that it hooks into both of the current huge controversies: the Spitzer sex-scandal and the Ferraro race-issue. I daresay I've found the absolute appropriate response to both — and best of all, it's a political figure speaking powerfully "off-teleprompter." This is the goods.

He speech addressed responses he's gotten to his own scandal. He knew he was going for it too, given the preface, "And finally tonight, and this may be the most talked about part of the speech after laying out all of that. But I feel that I cannot leave this auditorium with my wife and my sons sitting there without addressing this issue."

In the past 30 days, I've been called a n----- more than any time in my entire life. . . This unethical, illegal lynch-mob mentality has to stop.

Judging from the forte reaction to his, off-the-cuff passionate riff of rhetoric, he hit the exact right chord. Detroit still loves him.