Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

How stupid are these people?

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

When we show up, we win.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

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Reader Interactions

19Comments

  1. 1.

    SnarkyShark

    Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story

    Man this guy is good. It is just amazing being fired up about voting for something for a change.

    He’s Dean, only a hundred times better. I will be volunteering a whole lot of my spare time for this guy.

    Yes we can, Hell yes we can!

  2. 2.

    Jake

    I’ve read in a few places that Obama has actually given variations of this same speech at graduation commencements a couple of years ago.

    I would not be surprised if we don’t hear too many “new” things from Obama over the next few weeks. It’s far too easy to let Clinton continue to hang herself.

    But yeah, the guy is good. Really, really good.

  3. 3.

    kind of an off white

    We will face our share of cynics and doubters. But we always have. I can still remember a conversation I had with an older man all those years ago just before I left for Chicago. He said, “Barack, I’ll give you a bit of advice. Forget this community organizing business and do something that’s gonna make you some money. You can’t change the world, and people won’t appreciate you trying. But you’ve got a nice voice, so you should think about going into television broadcasting. I’m telling you, you’ve got a future.”

    Now, he may have been right about the TV thing, but he was wrong about everything else. For that old man has not seen what I have seen. He has not seen the faces of ordinary people the first time they clear a vacant lot or build a new playground or force an unresponsive leader to provide services to their community. He has not seen the face of a child brighten because of an inspiring teacher or mentor.

    OMG he totally thru a old man under teh bus!!! NICE MESSIAH OTARDS

  4. 4.

    Dug Jay

    I agree. He can shovel that bullshit better than just about any other politician out there.

  5. 5.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    I’ve read in a few places that Obama has actually given variations of this same speech at graduation commencements a couple of years ago.

    How long did he have to prepare to give this speech? Two days? Cut him some slack.

  6. 6.

    ResumeMan

    Politicians repeat themselves all the time. The fact that he’s re-using his (excellent) material is not an issue at all.

    Besides, in this case it’s really not “just words.” It’s an admonition to the audience. So even if he said it before he hadn’t said it to those people before. So it was well worth saying again.

  8. 8.

    Nellcote

    she won’t stop until everyone just laughs at her bs which should be anytime now.

    just words…

    Senator Clinton Still Calling for a Debate
    May 25, 2008 5:32 PM

    ABC News’ Eloise Harper reports: Since the Pennsylvania primary Sen. Hillary Clinton has been calling for a debate with her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.

    She continued her plea in Penuelas, Puerto Rico, standing outside a restaurant while less than 100 people gathered on a dirt walkway. Obama has rebuffed these requests and has instead begun campaigning in states that would be important for him in the general election if he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.

    “I was informed that Univision will sponsor a debate between Sen. Obama and myself about the issues affecting Puerto Rico,” Clinton said. “I accept that invitation. Anytime, anywhere. That is the best way for the people of Puerto Rico to have their questions asked and answered and for the rest of the United States to learn more about Puerto Rico.”

    Clinton reiterated her claim that she feels as though she has been a senator for Puerto Rico, because she represents so many of then in New York.

    “I feel as though I have been your senator and now I want to be your president,” she said.

  9. 9.

    b-psycho

    Clinton reiterated her claim that she feels as though she has been a senator for Puerto Rico, because she represents so many of then in New York.

    Uh, yeah, let’s just forget that Puerto Rico doesn’t have votes in the general election. By her logic she should also be campaigning in Israel because of all those Jews in NY…

  10. 10.

    rob!

    Clinton reiterated her claim that she feels as though she has been a senator for Puerto Rico, because she represents so many of then in New York.

    she’s also the senator of everyone who’s ever urinated in public, because there’s a lot of them in new york, too.

  11. 11.

    Bey

    It will be interesting to contrast this with the address from GWB on Wednesday at the AF Academy. I’ll make a few predictions:

    “Appeasment”

    “Hard Work”

    “Making Progress”

    “Stay the Course”

    “Nukuler”

  12. 12.

    Rick Taylor

    “I was informed that Univision will sponsor a debate between Sen. Obama and myself about the issues affecting Puerto Rico,” Clinton said. “I accept that invitation. Anytime, anywhere.

    *BLACK KNIGHT*: Oh. Oh, I see. Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what’s coming to you. I’ll bite your legs off!

  13. 13.

    Pooh

    I think I’ve said this a million times before, but the emotional appeal of Obama to me is just that line: “I am asking you.” It just stands in such sharp contrast to what we’ve lived through these last few years, when everything seems to have served just to reinforce that knowing cynicism we know too well. I’ve quoted it here before, but Publius said it best at his old place:

    Ironically enough, I think Bush had the opportunity to completely change the Seinfeld worldview in the aftermath of 9/11. To me, 9/11 had precisely the opposite effect on liberals and intellectuals than World War I. World War I destroyed a world of abstractions and replaced it with a deep skepticism and cynicism from which the West has never recovered. 9/11, by contrast, almost did the opposite. It almost replaced a deeply skeptical and cynical worldview with one in which abstractions were rehabilitated.

    For instance, I found the idea of “patriotism” more compelling in the months after 9/11 than at any other time of my post-Republican life. Same deal with the ideas of duty and sacrifice. For a brief window of time, these concepts became vital again. Before Iraq, I think liberal intellectuals were in the process of forming and believing in new, intellectually-compelling versions of patriotism – a New Patriotism, based not on mindless nationalism but a shared sense of collectiveness and interdependence inspired by an external threat. It was a remarkable time – I’m glad I got to experience it.

    But now it’s gone. And I suspect it won’t come back again in my lifetime. And that’s because Bush pissed it away and exploited it to go fight his war. That was his original sin and that’s the root of why people hate him. He betrayed our unity, and exploited our national tragedy for political purposes (he did it again last night, but no one really cares anymore).

    But he could have been great. More critically, he could have attracted a lot of young liberals for whom 9/11 was a formative event. He – a Republican – had a chance to create a New American Patriotism, one that was compelling to cynical Seinfeld liberals who were in deep introspection and were willing to give earnestness a second chance in the aftermath of the tragedy. In short, he had an opportunity to free us from the Tyranny of Irony. He could have given us something to truly believe in and get behind.

    But he blew it, just like he blows everything else. What he has done is reaffirmed why we must remain ironic, even though we’re exhausted by irony. Bush has used these abstract concepts to support a political agenda and a war of choice that many of us see as wrong and potentially catastrophic. In a world where abstract notions of “freedom” and “patriotism” are used to support things like the Iraq War or torture, what choice do you have but irony and detachment from the concepts that make these things possible? Rejecting these simplified abstractions is not an exercise in immorality or amorality anymore, but one of conscious rejection, and even morality. That’s why you can’t expect us to get behind Bush’s call for patriotism and freedom – he has shown again and again that his purpose for using these concepts is to further a polarizing political agenda. You may agree with that agenda, but don’t insult my intelligence by challenging my lack of enthusiasm for Bush’s abstractions as being insufficiently patriotic or supportive of freedom. Consider me twice shy.

    Instead of asking us to really do for the greater good, he asked us to go shopping. And then took us to war.

    People have mocked Obama as the Magical Unity Pony. But it’s not the Unity part, it’s the implicit challenge to, for lack of a better phrase, be all that we can be. I’m 31 years old. And the only people who have ever really asked me to “sacrifice” for something have been sports coaches. I hope I have something to give, but most of us need someone to ask, to direct us. Is Obama that person? I don’t know, but I hope so.

    I can’t say that much for anyone else I’ve seen.

  15. 15.

    JP

    I was there (pretty far away, but the sound was good) and it was really exciting. Big crowd standing on the hill above & outside the actual ceremony. I admit I got a bit choked up towards the end (lumpy throat, teary)–but that optimism about changing the world got to me.

  16. 16.

    Chris Johnson

    Wait, are Puerto Ricans really hard working white people?

    Does she paint them, or something?

  17. 17.

    Davis X. Machina

    …to convincingly argue that the war in Iraq has “made us safer.”

    It did postpone for a few crucial years the real threats to the Republic — a Democratic occupant of the White House, Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, and a Supreme Court that actually believes in the law, thereby sparing us, if only for a time, from the ravages of gay marriage and slightly higher marginal income tax rates.

    So it was worth it.

    Iraq — not so much a war as the world’s most expensive campaign commercial.

  19. 19.

    GoMS

    I like Obama, but it is really obvious that this is just a campaign speech. I would have been more impressed if he hadn’t mentioned anything that sounded like a plea for support for his campaign. Yes, a good speech, but as a commencement speech taking place during a presidential campaign…ugh…I guess I am tired of this whole thing now.

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