Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A Few (Not Very Deep) Thoughts on the President's Speech

He said, "I have appointed a proven and aggressive Inspector General to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud." While I always like hearing ferret as a verb, I can't help but think our ferrets can't find their own asses with two paws and a flashlight. (Gus seems to have no problem finding She-Devil's butt, though.)

During the first few interruptions for applause, Obama had a sour look on his face, like he'd rather address the press. At least they don't cut him off while he's on a roll.

Speaking of sour looks, did someone force-feed a lemon to Joe Lieberman?

There were some really nice rhetorical flourishes and turns of phrase in the speech, but my favorite was actually a new look at an old problem: "Dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country - and this country needs and values the talents of every American." It's unpatriotic to drop out. I never thought of it that way before.

But here's something I don't think I've ever heard a president say before: Curing cancer in our time? I haven't seen any bloggers mention this yet, but for me it was a moment of electricity. It was like Kennedy saying we'd go to the moon. We can do this. We must do this, and we need the will to fund the research and make it happen.

Rob

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Needless to say, I loved every word he spoke dealing with education, even when he was critical of it.

Andy said...

I thought that the dropping out line was great. Contrast that with "if X, the terrorists win" It is a new day in America

Greg! said...

I'm wondering -- can we get him to add diabetes to the "cure-in-our-time" list? A little bit of self-interest, considering I've just tipped the scale into officially diabetic.

Rob S. said...

Sure, Greg. Just for you.

(And seriously? Man, that sucks. Take good care of yourself, man.)

Rob S. said...

And you're absolutely right... diabetes is something we absolutely should be able to kick in our lifetime.

Dave said...

Call me cynical (and late to the blog party), but there's just too much money to be made treating cancer (and other maladies) than curing it.