Obama's sound and fury [updated]

Obama worked himself into a lather in his speech to the Congressional Black Caucus the other night, winding it up with some push-back against Rep. Maxine Waters and others who have openly complained that he hasn't done enough for blacks hit hard by his lousy economy:

So I don’t know about you, CBC, but the future rewards those who press on. With patient and firm determination, I am gonna press on for jobs.  I'm gonna press on for equality. I'm gonna press on for the sake of our children. I'm gonna press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am gonna press on.

I expect all of you to march with me and press on. Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are gonna press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC.

God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. 

At that point he gives the podium a smack for emphasis and stalks across the stage. Watch the last few minutes of the video to get the full effect.
 
The truly discouraging aspect of Obama's conflicts with the CBC is that neither he nor they would ever advocate any policy that would promote real opportunity for poor, entitlement-dependent blacks. All they've got to offer are more government programs. The CBC's only complaint is that Obama hasn't been able to expand entitlements even more than he has. But the sad truth is that his alleged jobs bill won't create jobs, nor do anything else to improve the lot of poor black Americans. This turgid drama is really a farce.

Joel Gehrke comments on the religious overtones of Obama's speech:

President Obama made an appeal to the religious faith of black voters at a Congressional Black Caucus rally, likening Biblical prophets who had faith in God -- and so refused to worship an idol -- to the black voters who "keep the faith" by supporting him and his policies - and, he hopes, his reelection campaign.

Faced with growing doubt among the faithful, the angry would-be messiah insists that, contrary to their own lying eyes, he really is bringing them to the promised land. I'm not sure calling them crying, grumbling, complaining quitters will renew their faith in him, but surely Obama knows best. He, at least, got pumped up from his sermon.

Query: Was the AP "racist" for accurately reporting Obama's dropped g's? Mark Smith, who did the transcription for the AP, explains:

Normally, I lean toward the clean-it-up school of quote transcribing – for everyone. But in this case, the President appeared to be making such a point of dropping Gs, and doing so in a rhythmic fashion, that for me to insert them would run clearly counter to his meaning. I believe I was respecting his intent in this. Certainly disrespect was the last thing I intended.

Decide for yourself. Video of the speech here and here. Whitehouse.gov transcript here.

President Obama mentions above some things he doesn't have time for. But he manages to make time, and quite a bit of it, for what's really important to him. Yesterday he put on his own marchin' shoes and played four hours of golf with Bill Clinton, followed by some serious fundraisin' for his reelection (emphasis mine):

After Barack Obama played a round of golf with Bill Clinton yesterday, the Fundraiser In Chief headed out to the West Coast for a 3-day, 3-state tour to hold seven fund raisers for the DNC and himself. These include some pricy affairs with former Microsoft execs at $35,000 a plate, as well as the usual Hollywood and San Francisco wing-dings for dummies with too much money. Obama is expected to raise some $8 million dollars during this fund raising tour. But since he will also give the occasional speech about his defunct jobs bill, the taxpayers will foot the expenses for this trip, costing us well more than $8 million dollars.

That's called "pressin' on," y'all.

***

Oh dear. Lady Gaga attended one of the fundraisers in a get-up that made her eight feet tall. Sorry, can't find a photo.

***

Conservative Black Chick finds Obama's CBC speech insulting:

The implications here that ALL Blacks are waiting for a government handout ; all Blacks wear bedroom slippers and/or are sitting on the couch not working is despicable and demonstrates how out of touch the nation’s first BLACK president really is. Why would the nation’s first Black president make such an incendiary statement telling blacks to “take off their bedroom slippers,” which conjures up a stereotypical image of Blacks being lazy.  Can you imagine Obama saying the same thing to an all white crowd in Iowa?

Blacks will stop complaining when the 16.7% black jobless rate, the highest in 25 years declines and when Obama is voted out of office. Liberal or Conservative, blacks should be horrified by Obama’s speech. Blacks have “equality” Mr. President what they need along with the rest of Americans is jobs.  This is the most insulting rhetoric I’ve heard in a long time.

Read the rest. Hat tip to Doug Ross.

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for the Buzzworthy link.

***

Go pop some corn. Maxine Waters has responded:

“I don’t know who he was talking to, because we’re certainly not complaining,” said Waters, who has been critical of Obama in the past. “We are working. We support him and we are protecting that base because we want people to be enthusiastic about him when that election rolls around.”

Obama told the audience at the annual gala to “take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC.”

Waters said she found some of the language Obama used “not appropriate” and said it “surprised me a little bit.”

“I found that language a bit curious because the president spoke to the Hispanic Caucus and certainly they are pushing him on immigration and despite the fact that he's appointed [Justice Sonia] Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, he has an office for excellence in Hispanic education right in the White House, they’re still pushing him and he certainly didn’t tell them to stop complaining,” she said.

“And he never would say that to the gay and lesbian community who really pushed him on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Or even in a speech to AIPAC, he would never say to the Jewish community ‘stop complaining’ about Israel.”

I'm not so sure about that. 

Most recent posts here. Twitter feed here. Amazon store here.