President Obama to Donviti: I am just getting started.
Last night this is what President Obama had to say at a DNC event.
“[I]t’s important for all of us to remember, even though it’s been almost a year [since the inauguration], what was happening in this country when we walked through that front door,” the president said. “Because, you know, people seem to have a sort of selective memory. People seem to forget, they seem to think that suddenly I was sworn in and there was this big financial crisis.
“So let’s just do a little walk down memory lane. We were facing an economic crisis unlike any that we’ve seen in our times. We were losing 700,000 jobs a month. Our financial system was on the brink of collapse. Economists of every political stripe we’re saying we might be slipping into the next Great Depression. And that’s why working with Nancy Pelosi and working with Harry Reid we passed boldly and swiftly a Recovery Act that’s made a difference in the lives of families and communities in every corner of the country.”
“I want everybody to know we believe in a strong and loyal opposition,” he said. “I believe in a two-party system where ideas are tested and assumptions are challenged — because that’s how we can move this country forward. But what I reject is when some folks decide to sit on the sidelines and root for failure on health care or on energy or on our economy. What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.
“Another way of putting it is when, you know, I’m busy and Nancy is busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else’s mess — we don’t want somebody sitting back saying, ‘You’re not holding the mop the right way.’ Why don’t you grab a mop, why don’t you help clean up. ‘You’re not mopping fast enough.’ ‘That’s a socialist mop.’ Grab a mop — let’s get to work.”
[…]
“I hope that the election was not just a fad,” the president said. “I hope that people didn’t just think, ‘Well, that’s done, that was fun, I really liked those posters.’ I need you guys to understand that what we’re trying to do is hard. And I want you to be excited by that. I want you to be energized by that. Because if it was easy it would have already been done. If it was easy it wouldn’t have been worth all the effort to get here.
“And I want everybody to know who are standing in the way of progress: I’m not tired. I’m just getting started. You can throw whatever you want at me — keep it coming, we’re going to get this done.”
Have you seen this yet?
Grab a mop, let’s get to work.
Yeah, Obama’s “just getting started” with his escalation in Afghanistan.
Not exactly the “change” we were hoping for.
Who exactly was hoping for a pullout in Afghanistan?
Indeed, anon, Obama campaigned on getting out of Iraq and focusing on Afghanistan.
Promise #134: Send two additional brigades to Afghanistan.
UI,
Indeed, anon, Obama campaigned on getting out of Iraq and focusing on Afghanistan.
How many more Afghans will Obama be “focusing” to death ?
Remember the purpose of the original invasion of Afghanistan was that the Taliban gov’t would not hand over Al Queda. Due to the assinine invasion of Iraq, we lost focus on the war in Afghanistan and let Al Queda escape into the mountains of Pakistan. Now, we have two wars that are two huges messes and the original intent is forgotten.
It depends… how many people in Afghanistan are trying to kill us?
More than a few anon.
I do think Obama is right to take some time to make a decision on the strategy. The we must send troops right now or we’re doomed camp is pretty transparently dishonest – even if he said yes right now it would take 6 months to get them in place. Taking an extra month to decide is not going to make much of a difference.
Obama does have a really tough choice. The Taliban is still active and al Qaeda is still out there, but most likely in Pakistan. We might need to do something like the payoffs we gave to the Anbar Awakening councils (it was paying them not to attack us that changed things in Iraq, not the surge). Afghanistan also has a corrupt government which makes the decision even harder. We’re between a rock and a hard place, mostly as a result of Bush’s decisions. But we are where we are.
I don’t know the right decision in this case. I think we do have an obligation to Afghanistan – but is it to stay or is it to get out?
” I think we do have an obligation to Afghanistan – but is it to stay or is it to get out?
UI,
Our “obligation to Afghanistan” is to stop killing Afghans.