This kind of story is irritating. First, it has President Obama sort of wandering off script when he got wound up in a speech. So, he used an unusual phrase ("take of your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes"), and a string of don't do this, do that sort of phrases. The speech was for the Congressional Black Caucus, and was the latest in a series of campaign speeches. The news, and much of the internet has been treating the speech as a stunning rebuke by the President of the Caucus, or maybe black people in general. But was it?
I didn't think so when I first heard it. In fact, having argued on several liberal blog comments boards, I knew exactly what the President was going for. There is a tremendous amount of whining and grousing on those things. Liberal Democrats all cranky, and saying they're not voting, or they're voting Green or whatever. I've wanted to put a boot in their asses too. And that's what I heard in the speech. Not the President yelling at the Congresspeople in attendance, but about getting their help shutting down that attitude.
Particularly when put into context with the other speeches, it is clear that the storyline being written in the press is more than a little bit skewed.
My Blog List
