Closing Arguments: Did Obama Convince?

Glad to hear more information in tonight’s speech and glad to hear something relatively upbeat! Optimism lives!

Yes! President Obama did an excellent job in his speech. He conveyed his message clearly and concisely. He also explained what is necessary to correct the problem created by the previous Republican administration. It’s too bad Jindal (and the other morons in the GOP), still do not recognize that they are to blame for the current financial woes.

I throughly enjoy, respect and Love your reporting. Please keep up the Great work. Regarding tonights Presidential Address. Major support and kudos to our President. I only wish the Republicans, the other side of the Aisle, they who caused all of this as well as the Gas companies could understand that WE AEE ALL in this together, Especailly since they ultimately were responsible the last 8 years~ Perhaps Gas companies should be bailling us all out with thier Huge, record breaking quartly profits of last year!

I think he nailed it and has accomplished a tremendous amount in such a short time.
Positive and confident with a respect for others that we should all learn how to be.

I already believe he’s intelligent and competent, he didn’t have to convince me. But ultimately I will be judging him on his track record, not whether he hit the right notes on trying to justify his policy position to armchair quarterbacks.
Nice speech, sounds like you’re on the right track, but get back to me when you’re done.

His darkiness is full of crap

President Obama has restored my faith in government. His speech was perfect in content and delivery. He explained the strategy behind the stimulus package and how each section addressed the different economic components. He talked about a long range plan to reduce the deficit he inherited. He addressed the problems of educational reform, energy, health care and the future of our country. He speech was inspirational and hopeful. The present republicans should be ashamed of themselves. Enough spin, they need to unite for the benefit of the well-being of the country. The more moderate republicans need to get their party back.

The president showed he is in charge and has a plan to lead this country. I believe he is sincere in wanting to be bi partisan, and if the Republicans aren’t willing the American people are.
This is a critical time for us and action needs to be taken.

The President is eloquent but as the stock market shows people are not convinced that the government is going to fix the economy. When Obama says that the national debt will be half of what it is now isn’t saying much. In 4 years it will still be higher than what it was the day he became President. The President talks about personal responsibility. Bailing out the irresponsible people and companies by increasing our taxes is not demonstrating responsibility. Let’s try making our congressman more responsible. How about cutting their salaries to show that they are willing to do their part. They will be able to feel what those of us Americans people that have been laid off jobs. When we get ready to retire in 10 or so years I’m afraid I won’t have anything left from 401K or Social Security to live on. Bottom line government can’t fix everything!

Certainly, President Obama gave me and many others hope that we can recover from this horrible situation brought on by the past administration’s blunders. Tonight President Obama told the nation that his plan has established committees that will oversee how all funds will be used and distributed, against wasteful programs and spending which got us into this mess. Yet, the Republicans still want to say that his reform act will hurt us more than help us. Why not give it a chance? The past is not what I want! Lets all look towards the future. We need change, not the same old ideas and concepts. I wonder what those anti-democrat, anti-Obama people will say when the U.S. starts to recover and we all start to prosper again?

It is time the Republicans pull their new suits off and resend back to the 17th and 18th century.

Obama covered a lot of territory in his speech. If he succeeds his speech will be remembered as a historical moment, if not his speech will be forgotten. I was pleased that he used the time to show he had additional agenda for the population and for Congress. He provided few specifics, but his tenor did, I believe, assuage fears in the general population. Obama’s pushing Health care as a priority is good, the current pending legislation is however not good. We need to find a way to have “universal” health care for all Americans, and a premium of perhaps 10% of the Gross After-Tax earnings of the recipients. Perhaps something like universal Medicaid? For additional coverage one could then look to the private sector for additional insurance. Such broad coverage would actually make the population healthier and tend to bring the costs down. The republican rebuttal was poorly done, and only made the viewer more aware of how much the current mess we are in was caused by the Republican agenda which gained momentum after Reagan’s landslide victories. Reagan was able to control the far right wing of his party, no Republican leader since has had that ability. Sadly Bush in the past 8 years, along with the hands-off globalization of American Industry has essentially squandered the Treasure which was once America.

“Catching Wild Pigs”
A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government.
In the midst of his story he looked at th e professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ‘Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. ‘You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up anoth er side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in The last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America . The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs , etc.. While we continually lose our freedoms — just a little at a time.
One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government ‘help’ is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America.
Keep your eyes on the newly elected politicians who are about to slam the gate on America .
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have”
Thomas Jefferson

The president glossed over a number of complex realities in delivering his speech to Congress and a nation hungry for economic salvation.
A look at some of his assertions:
OBAMA: “We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It’s a plan that won’t help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values.”
THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money does not go to home buyers who used bad judgment, it hasn’t announced it.
Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it’s important to save some of those people for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.
“I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed.”
Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it’s not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn’t afford.
“I think it’s just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans,” Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.
——
OBAMA: “We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade.”
THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, they don’t mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to pass on the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big tax increases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House. Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of his term. He may not be president after that and he certainly won’t be 10 years from now.
——
OBAMA: “Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.”
THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn’t only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.
——
OBAMA: “In this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them. We’ll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn’t make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.”
THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That’s all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama’s proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.
Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.
——
OBAMA: “In the last eight years, (health insurance) premiums have grown four times faster than wages. And in each of these years, 1 million more Americans have lost their health insurance.”
THE FACTS: The number of uninsured grew by 7 million from 2000 to 2007, the latest year for which Census figures are available, meaning Obama’s claim would be true if had been talking about averages. But it’s not true that the number of uninsured rose each year by 1 million. In 2007, the ranks of the uninsured dropped by 1.3 million from the year before, to 45.7 million.
——
OBAMA: “Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years.”
THE FACTS: While the president’s stimulus package includes billions in aids for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.
In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.
If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.
——
OBAMA: “Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs.”
THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.
The president’s own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, “It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error.”
Beyond that, it’s unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it’s clear when jobs are abolished, there’s no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.
——
OBAMA: “And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.”
THE FACTS: According to the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobile was probably Germany’s Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered by an internal combustion gasoline, in 1885 or 1886. Nobody disputes that Henry Ford created the first assembly line that made cars affordable.
——

Obama can talk, but will he do what he says he will do. So far, the stock market is lowered – every day. Obviously, his campaign speeches won Obama the election. But, us Americans
will see what Obama’s government accomplishes and so far I have not seen anything of significance but talk. To me, I am not conviced by Obama with his speeches. We need jobs instead of government assistance and welfare to help ourselves; what is proposed will lead the United States to a socialist country.

B.O. is a talking head–that’s all he knows how to do. He’s been listening to his own press. At least, President Pelosi seems happy. Convinced me? No, but then, I didn’t buy his message when he was running and I don’t buy it now. I’m constantly amazed at Americans who are willing to sell their nation down the river and believe anything–oh, by the way, I’ve got a bridge for sale..
Maybe you’d like to buy it with the money you hope to get from this false Stimulus package???

Jessica | Feb 25, 2009 3:26:53 AM
how would you know if Pres. Obama is lying? Have you read the stimulus bill? it’s been on his web site for days. Perhaps we could have afforded another month or two of Pres. Bush! If you know how to run this government, please let us know. Why didn’t you run for the office. Where were you for the last 8 yrs when Pres. Bush was running the government? Were you convinced then?

When all is said and done, more will be said and spent than done

I continue to be amazed at the people in America who cannot see through this man. He has made all kinds of promises, gone back on them & offers lame excuses for doing so.He has surounded himself with some of the most nefarious people in Washington. Now he is so full of himself he has made grandiose promises & says he won’t raise taxes on the middle class. Give me a break!Where does he think those billions of dollars come from? He & his followers like to say they have a mandate from the people, yet 48% voed against him. Not exactly a mandate. Bush gets blamed for everything but then I guess they’ve forgotten he had a Democratic congress. Obama is leading our country down the yellow brick roa & there is no wizard in Oz. Wake up America!!!

ROFL…I never laughed so hard and so long in my entire life. If you think that anyone, including the federal government, can spend them selves out of debt, then I have some beach front property for sale at 25c square mile in Montana. All I can say is I “refuse” to pay for anyone’s bad choices in life, especially when they include idiots like Barnie Frank and Maxine Waters who are not being held accountable for enabling guys like Franklin Raines to rip-off American public. What a joke… and the media, along with the slobbering supporters of B. Hussein Obama have been blind to the american publics out rage over this dad-gum mess. LOL, What a bunch of jacks!

Just meaningless words…..demanding his agenda… and will break each and every promise to the citizens… but don’t worry he will make it better by blaming it all on Bush’s administration
getting old….. I want to but I can’t… Bush’s fault..he spent too much,… now I have to spend even more.
But you won’t personally get anything…. not even that 13 dollars..But we’ll make sure you can’t complain about it…. by fringing on your 1st amendment rights. oh and we’ll take that guns too…… you scare us…
well Boo!

I believe President Obama is on the right track and his stimulus package will have a positive impact to help bring this country out of the depths of economic depression. This will take time to accomplish a little more than 14 months. America will gain so much more from the dollars spent on our country’s infrastructure, the creation of new jobs, education improvement and health care reform than what we got out of the billions spent in the Iraq war. I am so happy to see the wealthy Americans step up and pay what I consider a fare share to procure their future freedom and economic stability in this country and at the same time provide a little relief to the millions of middle class taxpayers. So sorry to see so many Americans of the other political party in denial.

He told the truth.
“Credit is the lifeblood of our economy”
Credit is what got us into this nightmare. Forcing banks to loan to uncreditworthy people caused the house demand to exceed the supply thereby driving prices skyhigh.
Everyone started taking out home equity loans and spending their ‘fake’ money. Money on paper only.
When those that could never hope to repay their loans started defaulting it spiraled out of control.
Then some players trying to manipulate the election started drawing out moneymarket funds. A letter about Indy Mac was “leaked” causing a run on the bank.
This gave the hope and changers the ammunition they needed.
All the platitudes and lofty rhetoric will not change reality. Robin Hood ideals won’t work either. Stop the class envy and go do something to make your own money.
When the producers decide to give up and live off the system too there will be no one left to finance the entitlements.
What will you do then?

All we have to do is give him chance and our support.
He’s doing a fantastic job!

Wonderful speech, but the stock market is the best poll regarding believability! The speech was emotional but so is stock trading. I can’t spend my way out of debt and neither can the nation. Even if Obama in later years reduces the deficit by half, the national debt will remain at the Obama established new level plus that remaining 50 percent. It may sound like progress, but do the math!

President Obama failed to convince. His budget includes spending of around $3.5 trillion with an anticipated federal deficit of around $1.75 trillion. Therefore, half of his proposed budget is DEBT. It’s red ink. How on earth can that be construed, in any way, shape or form, as a good thing? I also find myself asking the following question: where on earth will the money come from? Will he raise taxes? With unemployment rising, I don’t see how he could raise enough revenue in this manner to cover his massive deficit. Will he borrow from abroad? Possibly, but most other nations are suffering the aftershocks of American greed and a failed, illegitimate economy, so they probably don’t have that kind of money to lend. Even if they do, I’m sure the Chinese, Russians, Europeans, et al, are finally understanding that America can’t possibly even begin to pay back that kind of money. That leaves one alternative – printing the money. Doing so will not solve any problems, it will simply debase the dollar and send prices sky-rocketing. The solution to this problem, a problem caused by easy credit, excessive lending, lack of savings and the faulty assumption that houses would keep increasing in value perpetually, is NOT to lend more money. The only answer is to start producing things, saving money, paying off debts, stop this outrageous and unwanted military/imperial overstretch, stop fighting illegal wars (and expecting foreign powers to provide funding for said wars) and encourage people to stop buying things they can’t afford. Unfortunately, I don’t see a way to fix the problem at this stage. I see irresponsibility on the part of our elected leaders. In addition, they have either completely misunderstood and underestimated the problems we face, or they are completely unaware of the scale of our problems. The fact that the banks have provided too many loans, leading us into this situation, cannot be fixed by propping up bad banks by printing money and encouraging them to lend more money and have consumers spending money they don’t have. We are facing unprecedented problems with our economy, but a bigger problem, perhaps, is that our leaders don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing, so they’re simply trying to perpetuate a phony economy. I see big trouble on the horizon.

obama niz 2 obsessed with traditional education.people of n e age can learn alot more online then at school.also kiidz need more fun not less.he acts elitist and out of touch.people need alternate options then wasting so much of thier time regurgatating information they alraedy know at school 4 so much of thier life wen thier young.i feel his authoritariasn attitude encourages child abuse.