I listened to Barack Obama’s inaugural address. It’s rare that I get much out of a politician’s speech but this speech was noteworthy for its utter lack of original insight. The speech contributed nothing to America and nothing to my thinking. It was just cliches. Yet millions were entranced by a pretty face.
If you were inspired by this speech, I want to date you because you are easily turned on.
Dennis Prager said on his show Jan. 20: "I was looking forward to more soaring words."
"I said after his victory speech Nov. 4 that it was one of the most profound and moving victory statements I had heard. I was looking forward to something even more uplifting and more soaring and more inspiring for the inaugural. It just wasn’t there. The best line of all was when he addressed the Muslim world. We seek a new way forward based on mutual trust and mutual respect. To those leaders who seek to build their society around distrust of the West, know that your societies will judge you on what you build, not on what you destroy."
"It struck me more as a fine talk to give during a campaign but not for an inaugural address."
It was the most looked-forward-to speech of my lifetime and it was a big nothing.
Dennis: "I feel like a party pooper. I was hoping for an inspiring address. I did not find it inspiring. It was more of a work plan and not a clear one. I think most people will praise it because they want to think it wonderful."
"He followed the prepared text word for word. As I followed along [with the text], he laid this down as a foundation and now we are going to hear some inspiring words."
"I am inspired by having a black president."
"The speech points out that we still don’t know who this man is."
"He seems to be a rock and we need a rock in the presidency."
"There were lines that made everybody on the Left happy and there were lines that made everybody on the Right happy. And maybe that was his point: I want to make everybody a little happy."
"He shifts incoherently between the government will change everything and the individual will change everything. Most of the time, Americans have believed in the individual American."
"What does it mean that the nation is in economic crisis because the nation is not prepared for the new age? I suspect he’s talking about energy."
Obama mentioned global warming twice. "He’s going to look foolish. To say this in freezing Washington… He says he wants science to have its rightful place again, but it is not science that drives global warming talk but politics."
"The role that government will have in this speech is frightening to me."
Caller: "If he wants personal responsibility, why is he going to find me a job?"
Dennis: "That it wasn’t inspiring does not mean it wasn’t smart. It doesn’t panic the traditional American value system while offering comfort to those who voted for him."
"One has a fair question — what wil lthe government not do? After this speech, that is my main question."
"We will transform our schools, colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age? What does that mean?"
"Joseph Lowery has entered the Hall of Fame for truly dumb comments. He thought this through beforehand. He said this at the inauguration of the first black president. That’s astonishingly stupid. It borders on racist. When yellow will be mellow? What does it mean? That Asians will be mellow? Yes, all those Asian rioters in American history. This is a benediction at the inauguration of the president of the United States. The man is 87 years old and you’re going to tell him what to say?"
"Then he gets to the whites, do what is right, that is offensive. Just the comment we needed. I think Obama was cringing at that moment."
"It was worse than bad. It was stupid."
"Let’s be honest. To many people, letting yellow be mellow has to do with urinating and not flushing to save water. I’m sure Asians sat there thinking, isn’t that beautiful? I’m included in this man’s benediction. I’m deeply touched."
"You want to know my latest dumb comment? I was speaking to the WPO (World President’s Organization) last week and said I had traveled to 82 countries and been to all of them at least once."
"I will give you a proof that this was not a great speech. People will not take any memorable phrase from it. You had two million people who are crazy about this man in a way that people have not been crazy about a president since John F. Kennedy, and they applauded maybe three times. They were ready to applaud constantly but there was nothing to applaud."
"There was a lot of God-invocation. When Democrats do that, nobody says anything. When Republicans do that, people assume there will be an inquisition the next day, or at least the beginnings of one."
"The whole point of an inaugural address is to inspire. It is not a state of the union address."
"Will any pupblic commentator say it was not inspiring? Will they feel so much pressure to say it was inspiring when it wasn’t? There was nothing moving about this speech."
"I felt the speech was a downer and Lowery just put the nails in my coffin with his foolish foolish mocking of a benediction benediction."
"Doesn’t the Left believe that America should not lead? That the UN should lead? Isn’t America leading American exceptionalism?"
"George Bush is more transparent than Barack Obama. I have a sense that Bush will wake up tomorrow morning whenever he wants with no CIA briefing and no intense schedule… I have a 1% idea of what it is like. When I go places, I often stand and pose with 30-40 people. He may wake up and go, ‘Yahooo! Laura, let’s go to Subway.’"
"A life directed by feelings is a less happy life. A life where ideas, people, experiences, art are taken seriously is much better."
"I don’t think anybody who heard it remembers a thing."
"It was a cover all my bases talk but you can’t be inspiring with a cover all your bases talk."
