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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / The President’s Speech

The President’s Speech

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Go ahead and vent.

My prediction is that the Repubs will scream like scalded weasels, even if President Obama’s entire address turns out to be “Today is Wednesday, and tomorrow will be Thursday. God Bless America.”

Reader Interactions

107Comments

  1. 1.

    Patricia Kayden

    How do you know what scalded weasels sound like when they scream? Do I need to call the Humane Society?

    Yes, the Repub outrage is predictable. So looking forward to it!

  4. 4.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    My prediction is that the Repubs will scream like scalded weasels, even if President Obama’s entire address turns out to be “Today is Wednesday, and tomorrow will be Thursday. God Bless America.”

    “How dare you, Obama! Today is America!!”

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    Today is Wednesday, and tomorrow will be Thursday. God Bless America.”

    “Obama is invoking the blessings of Odin and Thor! Why does he hate Christianity?”

  13. 13.

    exurbanmom

    Love that the ad below this entry was trying to get me to join the NRA. “Ah, here come the terrorists, must get my own guns!!!111!!”

  18. 18.

    Pogonip

    Please, please, Mr. President, take a strong stand against Congress passing laws and appropriations in a timely fashion.

  27. 27.

    Corner Stone

    “It is America who has the capability to use drones pretty much anywhere we fucking feel like.”

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    @Corner Stone: It was truly impressive that the Bush administration lied about even that.
    (Pottery Barn noted at the time that they usually wrote off in-store damage and didn’t charge customers).

  33. 33.

    gogol's wife

    @mdblanche:

    I get all my news from BJ and my friends, so I don’t know what the media story is, but my Arabic-speaking friend gave me to understand that the “S” or the “L” stand for a word in Arabic that does not correspond to any contemporary nation-state, so it is impossible to translate completely accurately into modern English, so that “Syria” is somewhat correct but somewhat misleading, as is “Levant,” so it’s a judgment call.

  35. 35.

    JPL

    @dmsilev: That was Powell who had never shopped in a Pottery Barn. He left that to his family. Truth be known, while rising through the ranks, his wife was an avid sewer so probably did not shop there either. I think he jumped ship because of his daughters.
    by jumped ship, I meant changed parties.

  38. 38.

    JPL

    My opinion is that the speech was perfect. He mentioned what he needed to and didn’t say the world was ending.
    Unfortunately, the news media hyped it, and now are scrambling to fill in the blanks.

  39. 39.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Good, level-headed speech. I guess it’s back to panicking about Ebola, or maybe Scotland, for the press now. Right?

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    lamh36

    Welp, I’m guessing today was the day, so as not to overshadow 9/11 too much and maybe cause he won’t be giving a 9/11 address tomorrow, just the usual ceremonial stuff

    Anyway, the usual people will say the usual things now and since he didn’t deviate from prepared remarks much, I can already imagine what the talking heads will say.

    I turned off the talking heads as soon as Rachel went to Tweety and Tweety’s disappointment that Obama didn’t map out for him and his war games fanclub each and every bomb drop planned…

  43. 43.

    Jeremy

    No matter what President Obama does it’s not good enough for the majority of morons in this country. I’m looking forward to Jan. 2017 when the Obama’s leave Washington so they can relax and not have to deal with the morons and racists in this country.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    @raven: Powell used Pottery Barn, if you break it, you buy it. His wife wasn’t a pottery barn shopper. She sewed their drapes and stuff, which is not uncommon for military wives.
    For Powell it was a silly analogy. I was just adding what I knew about his wife.
    .

  47. 47.

    lamh36

    I def agree with Johnathan Bernstein here:

    @jbplainblog
    Hey everyone all over BHO not asking Congress for permission: doesn’t matter what he says. Issue is Congress not wanting to act either way.

  48. 48.

    gogol's wife

    @Jeremy:

    Me too, except I’m not looking forward to him not being President. I never could have predicted how painful his presidency would be for me, simply because of the way he’s been treated, but on the other hand it has been nice to have an intelligent, sane person in the office for all these years, and it will be hard to adjust to whatever we get after him.

  49. 49.

    Paul W.

    Soooo, where was that whole “Obama prepares nation to militarily intervene in Syria” thing coming from? This is not much different from our policy in Afghanistan/Pakistan, we are supporting friendly governments (Iraq, Kurds, Iran.. yes Iran) and probably getting a tacit OK from the government of Syria to also attack them there.

    I am actually much more interested in what the “coalition” looks like, and the level of international support. Most important is regional support, if we can stop getting arab nations to talk one way and then back these extremists then this kind of effort and defusal will be worth it. BUT, if we’re just propping up the weak Iraqi government and not getting regional buy in then we are making a big mistake.

    There’s no easy answers, I don’t think it is easy to judge the strategy as laid out here because we did not get enough information about the size of the threat or the length of the time expected. Ugh, I just wish Bush had never blown up the region in the first place and then watched it burn…..

  53. 53.

    drkrick

    @mdblanche:

    Is there any shibboleth-like significance to all these abbreviations or is it all just personal preference?

    My understanding is the first letter of the fourth word in the English transliteration of the group’s name refers to a geographical region that includes most or all of Syria but a significant amount of additional territory as well. The area referred to by the somewhat archaic word “Levant” fits it better than Syria would, but neither is an exact match.

    Sticking to “IS” for Islamic State and sidestepping the issue entirely seems like the best move to me, but since there are probably millions of other organizations with that two letter acronym I guess they’re going with four letters to avoid confusion. Which is working great since the powers that be can’t agree on which four letters to use.

  55. 55.

    D58826

    Listening to all of the talking heads and many of them make good points, The problem is there is no right answer or clear path forward. Everyone understood that the road to Berlin was the path to ending WWII. There is no obvious ‘road’. I think the best we can hope for is muddling thru for the next decade or so. Hopefully we will be able to muddle along picking the least bad choices until social and political changes in the Middle East and the Muslim world take a turn for the better.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @JPL:

    She sewed their drapes and stuff, which is not uncommon for military wives.

    I knew no wives who sewed drapes when I was in the army. People who live in military housing for a few years using furniture provided by the base don’t bother.

  58. 58.

    lamh36

    Ugh… Tweety wonders if you are Baghdadi “does this make them afraid of America”..Ugh…fuckin’ Tweety.

    So essentially he’s mad that we won’t have “troops on the ground”

  60. 60.

    max

    @Mike in NC: Leon Wieseltier? Didn’t know that worthless fucker was even still alive.

    He’s been practically creaming his pants over in EvenTheWaffentwerpRepublic over having a war. Nothing like the prospect of dead Muslims to turn that guy’s crank.

    Pretty good speech, but far more of a rallying cry and Congressbait that anything specific. ‘Amping up air strikes’. I did like how he referred to Iranian air strikes and forces supporting Iraqis as ‘allies’. Which is what they are, even if unnamed.

    max
    [‘A very finely calibrated speech.’]

  62. 62.

    lamh36

    @BBCKimGhattas 9m
    One man v disappointed tonight- president Assad. His gamble to get the US to beg him for his help to defeat #IslamicState has failed.

  63. 63.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Jeremy: Well said. I’m glad that President Obama was reelected but he and his family have been through the wringer. He’s a classy guy.

  67. 67.

    PopeRatzo

    Fucking president. Deja vu all over again. I assume all the Obama loyalists are getting ready to enlist tomorrow?

    Like @D58826 says above, “all we can do is muddle through for the next decade”. But I guess we’ve gotta make sure we’re blowing people up while we’re muddling through.

    I half expected Obama to show a video of the leader of ISIS punching his girlfriend on an elevator. Aluminum tubes all over again, with an extra helping of jingo sauce.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    There was a line something like “truth, justice and something else” (I don’t recall the third word). I couldn’t help but think about Ferguson and hoodies and skittles and militarized police and the lies that are told every single fucking day by the republicans and wonder where is the truth and justice we supposedly stand for in this country.

    There also seemed to be a lot of chest beating “America, fuck yeah!” toward the end, which isn’t usually President Obama’s style.

    The last two times President Obama has given a speech I have felt like he’s saying things that aren’t his usual style, and that he is saying them in response to things behind the scenes that I am unaware of. It makes me uneasy.

  69. 69.

    Jeremy

    @gogol’s wife: We’re going to go back to having phony presidents that follow stupid polls and sticking a finger in the wind. I’m not a Hillary hater but I doubt she will achieve much domestic wise, and her tendency to provide poll tested responses doesn’t inspire much confidence. I’m not even going to talk about the republicans because their field is a joke. Pretty much we’re in for a downgrade.

  70. 70.

    JPL

    @raven: I’ve met his wife and his analogy was silly. Hey, I’ll share the connection when you come to Atlanta for a meet-up.
    Atlanta really has a black eye this week along with the Hawks ownership and the state senator from Dunwoody suggesting that blacks aren’t intelligent enough to vote.

  72. 72.

    PopeRatzo

    @Paul W.:

    Ugh, I just wish Bush had never blown up the region in the first place and then watched it burn…..

    We’ll be saying the same thing about Obama in 6 or 8 years.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    So nice when the usual suspects stop by with their Obama hate. As if their Drive-by of Hate actually has an influence on anyone who reads it.

  79. 79.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Paul W.: Well said. You’re right that the “coalition” is key.

    The BBC had a story this morning, I think, where someone was asked whether Iraq would accept Arab troops on the ground to help fight ISIL. The reporter said that just about everyone on the street believes all kinds of conspiracy theories about the US and that they’d be more suspicious of some grand plot if foreign troops showed up.

    It’s a tough problem. The new Iraqi government probably doesn’t want a bunch of foreigners traipsing around, either. It would make them look weak, among other things.

    I suspect this will drag out at a low level for years, rather like the situation in Somalia and Yemen. It’s hard to see Assad going away or defeating them. Iraq will be weak for years. US and foreign assistance will cause pain, but we won’t take them out by capturing their Führerbunker – they don’t have one. ISIL and Baghdadi may feel that since they declared the Caliphate that they can’t let up now. In that case, it might be very bloody for a shorter time period (before they are defeated).

    We’ll see.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who wonders what the Republicans are going to find fault with to cause a battle over his proposal and to try to force a defeat of it while trying to keep their hands clean.)

  81. 81.

    Jeremy

    @WaterGirl: Well President Obama has said positive things about America but plenty of people accuse him of not loving this country or being a foreigner. Most of these people saying these things happen to be white and mostly male.

  84. 84.

    beth

    @Baud: he was just on CNN. They actually let Jay Carney push back on his nonsense. Basically President McCain was not happy – we had this thing won in Iraq and the black guy blew it.

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    @Jeremy: Oh, I know he says positive stuff about America all the time, but this was pretty much “chest beating” and so out of character.

    I think I liked it better when he spoke from the heart as opposed to saying stuff to preemptively keep the village idiots from say he is weak or he is leading from behind or whatever bullshit they spew.

    He did make the point that it’s important for us to show a united america – but good luck with that.

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    What planet are you from? Or have the armed services changed that much? I doubt it.

    As a career dependent of an Air Force officer, I can tell you that none of our houses was furnished. They usually did have blinds, so you didn’t have to make drapes, but a hell of a lot of wives did.

    I assume you are extrapolating from your BOQ experience. Those were furnished.

  90. 90.

    Jeremy

    @PopeRatzo: Wow more Obama hate…. Yawn ! Don’t worry the negro will be gone in 2 years and white will be back in the White House. When things go south and they will you won’t be able to blame the negro anymore.

  92. 92.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Steeplejack: In Germany, furniture was available from post housing. Rather ugly, but functional. I believe it was because it was cheaper do do that than ship people’s total household goods overseas. I didn’t live in a BOQ (other than during schools). I had one apartment furnished byt he owner in a heaving Germanic fashion ( it came the cleaning lady – for some reason, I was asked to pay double the going rate, but it was worth it). My other apartment was technically unfurnished, but because I took it over directly from a married couple I got to take over the married allotment of furniture from the base.

    ETA: I was never permanently stationed in CONUS.

  95. 95.

    JR in WV

    @PopeRatzo: I already served! So there!

    I served platters of dinner every night for 3 months, every sailor’s responsibility, back when I was a Bo’sun’s mate.

    Then you started work as a REAL bo’sun’s mate, being a sailor…

  96. 96.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @JR in WV: From what I have seen and heard, there is a lot more serving (in the servant sense) in the navy than in the army. At times, I had a driver but that was it. he wasn’t my servant (or batman); his job was to drive so that I could do my job. I got food or coffee for him as often as he got it for me.

  97. 97.

    srv

    @Paul W.:

    I am actually much more interested in what the “coalition” looks like, and the level of international support. Most important is regional support,

    I’ll predict that KSA, Qatar and Turkey will not allow anti-ISIS/L operations from airbases located there. I don’t understand how you have a coalition with the primary supporters of ISIL.

    We should kick Turkey out of NATO.

  101. 101.

    joel hanes

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    whoever sits in the chair in the Oval Office next, if they think it’s going to be easier

    unless they’re black, it will be easier.

    Americans remain damned misogynistic, but not a patch on how damned racist we are.
    I’m pretty sure that the Obamas (and the Secret Service) have gone through several kinds of hell that we know nothing about, and that won’t be reported until the second wave of biographies in about twenty-five years.

  103. 103.

    mclaren

    Wonderful news. I gather Obama made a speech promising military action against ISIS, which is absolutely marvelous. Since Obama always does the opposite of what he publicly promises, this means that Obama plans no military action against ISIS whatsoever.

    Glad to hear it. That’s a real load off my mind.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    Just got back from dinner and an evening out.

    In Germany, furniture was available from post housing.

    I believe that was available as an option, mostly for young service members just starting out or who might only be in for one tour. My parents did a tour in Germany late in his career (Kaiserslautern), and Uncle Sam definitely paid to move their household goods there and back. Undoubtedly the same for lifers Colin and Alma Powell.

  105. 105.

    Bystander

    If HRC is the next POTUS, va-jay-jay will be the new tansuit.

    (Anybody else enjoy Roseanne Barr’s reference to Joan Rivers as a “Vagenious”?)

  107. 107.

    Pococurante

    @mdblanche: Details of Arabic translation actually. ISIL is the most accurate name. You will never, ever, hear the Obama administration refer to them as IS. It confers too much legitimacy.

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