Obama’s speech didn’t sound like an incumbent President. It sounded like defensive one.
On Romney/Ryan: They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.…but Obama didn’t give us a plan, only class warfare and hope. The only “plan” he has is to hopefully tax the wealthy.
The stinging class warfare quote stuck with me because it was so contradictory:
My grandparents were given the chance to go to college, buy their own — their — their own home, and fulfill
the basic bargain at the heart of America’s story: the promise that hard work will pay off; that responsibility will be
rewarded; that everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules
The promise that hard work will pay off….for the government, who want to tax you more for your success (Buffett Rule, millionaire surtaxes, etc)
That responsibility will be rewarded…and so will irreponsibility (Sandra “pay for my contraception Fluke”, anyone?)
And the gem: “that everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules ….especially those darned wealthy who need to “pay their fair share”, to cover the 47% who didn’t pay taxes at all last year.
More on that theme:
I want to reform the tax code so that it’s simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on
incomes over $250,000, the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president; the same rate we had when our economy created
nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a whole lot of millionaires to boot
…so we can tax them more!
Daniel Horowitz had an excellent analysis of the problem of the idea of fairness and taxes. I highly recommend it.
What else is there to say?
“I” was mentioned 72 times.
“HOPE” was mentioned 17 times
“Tax” was mentioned 12 times
“Fair” was mentioned 7 times
“Economy” was mentioned 6 times
“Constitution” was mentioned 0 times
“You elected me to tell you the truth“….no, we elected you to uphold the Constitution and lead the country back on a path to prosperity. You have not done so, and that is the truth.