Patterico's Pontifications

12/1/2009

Obama’s Speech at West Point

Filed under: Obama,War — DRJ @ 5:16 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

This is an open thread on Obama’s speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The UK Guardian is liveblogging Obama’s speech here and Yahoo News is live-streaming it here. The full text is here.

— DRJ

57 Responses to “Obama’s Speech at West Point”

  1. I updated the post with a link to the full text of Obama’s speech. The Instapundit says a search doesn’t show any use of the word “victory.”

    DRJ (dee47d) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:27 pm

  2. No but al Queda is scheduling a party for mid 2011. Maybe in September.

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:28 pm

  3. Every time I listen to this guy, he isnt talking to me. He’s talking at me or to some other countries citizens.

    Dopey (a812c5) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:29 pm

  4. Apparently he did not take that “man in the mirror” thing in Politico yesterday very seriously. Just way too many “I’s” “me’s” and “my’s” to be appropriate for this speech.

    elissa (5ec918) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:32 pm

  5. There were a few statements that were quite good, rather compelling. But his whining about deficits and partisanship were laughable, and it was good of him to prop up those strawmen so he could mow them down. Read from TOTUS. He is good at that.

    JD (9e41b2) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:35 pm

  6. Anyone else notice how many cadets were seemingly dozing off during the speech?

    Hondo (eb6164) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:36 pm

  7. Elissa – If he did not say “I, me, my” he would have nothing left to say.

    JD (9e41b2) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:39 pm

  8. I liked Obey’s suggestion of a war surcharge on anyone making over $30,000. Please, Allah, let them push this.

    JD (9e41b2) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:43 pm

  9. Yeah my daughter had to sit through this speech = I wonder how she fared… Yjink she would rather go back to the tear gas isolation chamber of hell

    EricPWJohnson (953640) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:51 pm

  10. I’m listening to the speech on 630 WMLA in the Washington area, during Mark Levin’s program, with the bonus of Mark’s comments.
    Mark just said exactly what I was thinking of, and I paraphrase: “I understand now what people in Cuba must feel when listening to Fidel’s endless speeches that say nothing of substance, just propaganda full of lies and empty rambling.”
    I know this kind of mind-numbing, idiot-making kind of speechifying too well.
    What distinguishes Obama from the commies is his despicable loathing that permeates his every sentence of the country he leads and that afforded him all the (undeserved) privileges in the world.

    Pansy (76ca12) — 12/1/2009 @ 5:54 pm

  11. Just way too many “I’s” “me’s” and “my’s”

    then let me add a “him” in reply….

    “F him.”

    redc1c4 (fb8750) — 12/1/2009 @ 6:03 pm

  12. I know this kind of mind-numbing, idiot-making kind of speechifying too well.
    What distinguishes Obama from the commies is his despicable loathing that permeates his every sentence of the country he leads and that afforded him all the (undeserved) privileges in the world.

    Talk about needing to look in a mirror. Project much? That statement says nothing about Obama and everything about you. That Levin guy sounds like a real crackerjack original thinker too.

    (Yawn. Hey by the way have you heard about this whole Birther movement…you might want to look into that.)

    Assclown Pumpkinheads (f0d390) — 12/1/2009 @ 6:07 pm

  13. How dare he lecture us on the need for unity in the war on al qaeda?!? It was his folks that destroyed it.

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b) — 12/1/2009 @ 6:08 pm

  14. Anybody notice the huge banner behind him saying “Mission Accomplished”?

    Larry Reilly (45c8f2) — 12/1/2009 @ 6:10 pm

  15. “…That statement says nothing about Obama and everything about you…”

    Projection, thy name is Trolly. But my favorite part is the studied lack of self-awareness. Self importance, sure. But self-awareness? Not so much.

    It must be all the sock lint in his sinuses.

    Eric Blair (bc43a4) — 12/1/2009 @ 6:11 pm

  16. STFU, Mawy.

    JD (a606ad) — 12/1/2009 @ 6:35 pm

  17. BTW, didn’t (never) watch (I can’t afford to be buying that many flat-panels), so can someone tell me how long this one went on?
    Past experience seems to indicate that brevity is not one of our President’s strong suits.

    AD - RtR/OS! (66f601) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:02 pm

  18. But self-awareness? Not so much.

    Hey Prof., Me doth think teaching college age nimrods has damaged your ability to interact with adults not so easily cowed by your well practiced “I’m tough, but I’m fair and if you mess with me I’m going to kick your ass old school style” classroom persona.

    Don’t you have some papers to grade?

    Also, don’t you get tired of defending babbling idiots like the TeaTards and the birther-tards?

    Assclown Pumpkinheads (f0d390) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:03 pm

  19. My own take is that, when I can, I never listen to an Obama speech. If there’s a transcript, I read the text. His speeches are full of rhetorical tricks and shallow evasions.

    Tonight he said that no delay had occurred as a result of his admittedly lengthy deliberation process. The claim was that no plan that was before him called for more troops in Afghanistan before 2010. Note that as of late October, 2009 the General McChrystal August 2009 request for a minimum of 40,000 and as much as 80,000 troops had still not reached Obama’s desk. Well shucks, if the staff is keeping things off of Obama’s desk and out of Obama’s inbox, why there is nothing before him calling for more troops.

    It takes time to train, equip, and move 30,000 or 40,000 troops. Obama did not give the “go” signal until December 1 or thereabouts, and it’s therefore doubtful that too many of those troops can be in Afghanistan, ready to do what they’re supposed to do, before the beginning of the 2d quarter of 2010. I suppose that Obama’s statement was technically “true” but his statement that no delay was occasioned by his lengthy testing of the political wind is in fact a bald faced lie. Joe Wilson was right. “You lie.”

    Mike Myers (3c9845) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:14 pm

  20. Dahling Assclown:

    Talk about arrogant, vapid ignoramuses…
    My comment was based on observation, experience, and analysis of Obama’s performance.

    Projection is not what you think.
    It’s like when you like refuse to accept you’re a homosexual and then you go out like and rail against homosexuals and make laws against them.

    I’m like against Obama’s commie instincts precisely because I came to this country to like precisely escape communism and the dictatorship of the know-all Pater Patriae and Salvator Mundi and his acolytes and like if I were “projecting” by your definition I’d be a commie in democratic clothing going the slimy ACORN way.

    You little pathetic like cum unthinking homo miserabilis.

    Pansy (2d48f1) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:16 pm

  21. Also, don’t you get tired of defending babbling idiots like the TeaTards and the birther-tards?

    Awesome rhetoric there, Poindexter. Wow – Teatards and birther tards in the same sentence. Move over, Lenny Bruce, we have a new and brilliant voice of twoof to plower!

    Hey Prof., Me doth think teaching college age

    And you’re a college graduate, yes? Given your mangled syntax it would be interesting to hear what your major was in – was it Gender Inequality Studies, sweetie?

    Dmac (a964d5) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:25 pm

  22. Assclown PS:
    Love it that you name yourself an “ass.”
    I wonder why.

    Pansy (2d48f1) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:26 pm

  23. You little pathetic like cum unthinking homo miserabilis.

    Ah…ah…ah…there you go projecting again….

    Very very undignified. Very very revealing of your innate lack of character.

    But that was already pretty apparent.

    Assclown Pumpkinheads (f0d390) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:40 pm

  24. And you’re a college graduate, yes? Given your mangled syntax it would be interesting to hear what your major was in – was it Gender Inequality Studies, sweetie?

    Oh, Dmac. Be still, my heart. One of the classiest most elegant ladies on the internet just flamed me. I think I can die a happy man now.

    Assclown Pumpkinheads (f0d390) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:43 pm

  25. Victor Davis Hanson nails it.

    SPQR (26be8b) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:45 pm

  26. I was also listening to Mark Levin during the speech. Levin was an absolute riot.

    Hondo (eb6164) — 12/1/2009 @ 7:53 pm

  27. MEMO TO POTUS
    SUBJECT: FERTILIZER

    Quite a load of Kabul shovelled out tonight.

    MacNAMARA REPORTS GAINS BY VIETNAMESE

    (Feb. 20)- [JFK’s] Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara returned to the Capital today and reported improvement in the South Vietnamese effort against Communist insurgents.

    A spokesman for Mr. McNamara said that the forces of South Vietnam, supported by the United States, “are hitting the insurgent Communists harder.” -source, NY Times, 2/21/1962

    ‘It’s deja vu all over again.’ – Yogi Berra

    And just because you say it’s not, doesn’t make it so. It was not lost on listeners that the last people on the list informed about this latest ‘counter-insurgency policy,’ after foreign powers (both allied and corrupt), government officials and military personnel were the American people, the folks who have to pick up the multi-billion dollar tab for this dinner party. In and out by 2012 or so… gives fresh meaning to the term, ‘American Express,’ since it’ll all be put on the plastic. What a waste.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:02 pm

  28. I suspect the little president man actually is looking at this as a marvelous opportunity to waste more money. It’s how he rolls.

    happyfeet (0003d3) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:10 pm

  29. IMP – It is rich to hear a leftist whining about costs and deficits.

    JD (4dffeb) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:10 pm

  30. # 23 Ass

    I was expecting a thicker response, but there you are, trying to cover up your lack of reassesment of “projection” with a couple of anemic epizeuxis tropes like “ah…ah…ah…” and “very very.”

    I am as “shocked, shocked” as Captain Renault.

    Pansy (2d48f1) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:25 pm

  31. The One had to finish writing his “Peace” Prize acceptance speech before he could finalize his “war” strategy.

    jeff (1d63a6) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:29 pm

  32. “..“I’m tough, but I’m fair and if you mess with me I’m going to kick your ass old school style” classroom persona…”

    Oh, that’s hilarious, Troll-boy. Clint Eastwood I ain’t.

    Honestly, you are think you are witty, and are half right.

    I still think you are a sockpuppet. The only reason you appear to post is to be a jerk. And yet you say other people waste their time….

    Fact is, the only people here who have historically tried to insult me about my profession are trolls, students still stinging from academic probation, or mentally disturbed people.

    Most posters here could care less what I do for a living. How odd that you find it necessary to…well…right some of your self-perceived past wrongs?

    Seriously, dude. Don’t you have something else to do?

    Eric Blair (bc43a4) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:33 pm

  33. # 26 hondo:

    Absolutely. It was like a point-counterpoint, punch-counterpunch match of unbelievable power. Better than any post-factum analysis.
    It’s hard to believe ABC allowed Mark do this demystification/deconstruction of Obama’s sanctified rhetoric.

    Pansy (2d48f1) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:36 pm

  34. Can anyone figure out what delusions are the source of IMP’s latest incoherency?

    SPQR (26be8b) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:37 pm

  35. So, you folks get what you want (an escalated war) and you have the temerity to bitch about that. Why are your panties always in a bunch?

    timb (8f04c0) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:41 pm

  36. I laughed over Obama’s listing of his accomplishements.

    Renewing alliances around the world – What do you have to show for that effort Biff?

    Opening a new dialogue with the Muslim world – How’s that working out so far Champ?

    On America’s place in the world – Speaking out against tyranny and injustice – You were noticeably silent when Iran was crushing its election protestors Big Ears.

    daleyrocks (718861) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:45 pm

  37. #35, We want an escalated war?

    The mentally retarded have just checked in!

    HeavenSent (01a566) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:47 pm

  38. “So, you folks get what you want (an escalated war) and you have the temerity to bitch about that.”

    timb – Obama campaigned on winning the war in Afghanistan, not on fighting and running or doing it half assed. It’s simple. Think before you comment.

    daleyrocks (718861) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:47 pm

  39. Can the Nobel Peace Prize be taken back?????

    HeavenSent (01a566) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:51 pm

  40. Timb, this was the “good war” right?

    B’asshole O’Moron should know — he is a Nobel Peace Prize winner you know!

    HeavenSent (01a566) — 12/1/2009 @ 8:53 pm

  41. “…We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender…”

    Posted just in case someone wants to hear what a real man sounds like.

    Dave Surls (13f423) — 12/1/2009 @ 9:58 pm

  42. Why do you guys rise to the bait with trolls like AP? Nothing pisses these thread-jacking jokers off more than ignoring them.

    As for the speech, I enjoyed how much effort he put into insisting that there was no delay, and how committed he is to our security. Apparently he DOES read blogs.

    I also got tired of hearing about all the things that “I” am, that “I” have done, that “I” will do. Not nearly as much “we”, “our,” etc.

    Yo, prez, check it out. We don’t CARE about how great YOU are. We want you to help keep our COUNTRY great. And you ain’t.

    Steve B (5eacf6) — 12/1/2009 @ 10:52 pm

  43. Fact is, the only people here who have historically tried to insult me about my profession are trolls, students still stinging from academic probation, or mentally disturbed people

    No finer profession than teaching. I’m just taking note of the attitude. You’re the one who needed to marginalize and condescend.

    Anyhow, no post on that traitorous LGF fellow round these parts yet eh? He thinks birthers and teatards are racists, fascists and loony toons.

    I know, crazy right??!!

    Assclown Pumpkinheads (f0d390) — 12/1/2009 @ 11:51 pm

  44. Here’s the speech Obama should have given. It would have brought down the house:

    “My fellow Americans,

    “As we are all aware, Afghanistan is experiencing the resurgence of the Taliban – former sponsors and protectors of al Qaeda. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 were planned and launched from there. Our vital national interests demand that we prevent these militants forces from once again obtaining a safe haven for planning and executing future attacks.

    “At the request of General Stanley McChrystal, we are authorizing an additional 40,000 US troops to protect the civilian population from terrorist intimidation, to train and equip Afghan military and police forces, to sweep Taliban from the countryside and to deny the Taliban support across the country’s borders. When we have accomplished these tasks, we will begin to draw down our forces as victors.

    “To the Cadets of the US Military Academy, I have one final order: Go Army! Beat Navy!”

    arch (24f4f2) — 12/2/2009 @ 12:52 am

  45. #44 – Amen.

    This is about the USA defeating al Qaeda and (as needed) the Taliban. This is about the USA refocusing her efforts in Afghanistan. This is about the USA’s fight against terrorism.

    This is not about one man. This is not about trying to please all political sectors by throwing a bone to each. This is not about trying to come up with a strategy that doesn’t sound too much like the strategy employed by the previous administration.

    Corwin (ea9428) — 12/2/2009 @ 5:01 am

  46. Such a crude threadjack attempt, AP. But that’s all you do. And that’s why you remain Just Another Troll.

    And there is that word “condescend” from someone who belittles others and behaves in a snide and faux-superior fashion.

    You are just a troll, here to pick fights. And I still think you are a game-playing sockpuppet.

    Whatever, Assclown.

    Eric Blair (a4e58a) — 12/2/2009 @ 5:45 am

  47. Hey, Assclown. One more thing.

    Just about every time you post, you suggest a different topic be discussed on Patterico’s blog, usually in an insulting way.

    Here is a thought: why don’t you write to Patterico and see if you can do a long guest post? Of course, that would take more work than playing Troll Games.

    But then you could show everyone you are more than a Troll Like Entity just posting to insult and play games, you know?

    Eric Blair (a4e58a) — 12/2/2009 @ 5:52 am

  48. Spiegel had a pretty succinct recap as well:

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,664753,00.html

    rtrski (c69273) — 12/2/2009 @ 6:51 am

  49. A spokesman for Mr. McNamara said that the forces of South Vietnam, supported by the United States, “are hitting the insurgent Communists harder.” -source, NY Times, 2/21/1962

    One of the few times McNamara ever spoke the truth.

    My father was in Vietnam. By the time the US pulled out – pulled out because of bullshit politics included spitting on soldiers as they returned home – the average age of the VC was around 14, and they weren’t even teaching them how to reload their AK-47’s anymore.

    We were within sight of winning, and we gave it up, damning the people of South Vietnam to hell.

    It’s “good” to see that your side has the same reasoned, considered approach to life you all had back then.

    Scott Jacobs (445f98) — 12/2/2009 @ 6:57 am

  50. I’d like to issue Obama a little challenge: give a speech without using the word “I”, “Me”,”My” or any other word referring to himself. Since he’s not running the country competently, that should be a good place to start.

    Rochf (ae9c58) — 12/2/2009 @ 7:32 am

  51. Hey, check this out!

    http://www.westpointgradsagainstthewar.org/

    humanity's patriot (ae1d2a) — 12/2/2009 @ 11:29 am

  52. I love link-spam trolls.

    JD (4e0002) — 12/2/2009 @ 12:25 pm

  53. Damn, I clicked on that link. don’t bother. It’s boring. We already won in Iraq, and it doesn’t mention Afghanistan.

    Truly, the war against the Taliban is a necessary effort. Those cadets at West Point today clearly believe that. They volunteered to fight this tough war, and one of their enemies will always be domestic propaganda.

    Looking at what the Afghanistan war represents, I have to wonder, if this isn’t our enemy, what kind of injustice is worth fighting for?

    Dustin (cf255c) — 12/2/2009 @ 12:32 pm

  54. Dustin – people without health insurance are worth fighting for. Taking more money from successful people is worth fighting for. Destroying our economy with Cap & Trade is worth fighting for. Spending almost a trillion dollars on the “stimulus” package is worth fighting for. Our actual national security, not so much.

    JD (4e0002) — 12/2/2009 @ 12:36 pm

  55. Comment by humanity’s patriot — 12/2/2009 @ 11:29 am

    Is that a permanent name-change blubonnet?

    Stashiu3 (44da70) — 12/2/2009 @ 12:43 pm

  56. One of the classiest most elegant ladies on the internet just flamed me. I think I can die a happy man now.

    Only after you get hired for that dream job of Head Fluffer that you’ve prepared for all of your life.

    Dmac (a964d5) — 12/2/2009 @ 1:40 pm

  57. Stashiu! Hilarious. It is sock-puppets galore all over the net recently. TWOOFERS ROOL !!!!!!!!!!

    JD (4a5c67) — 12/2/2009 @ 1:47 pm


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