Barack Obama in Cleveland Saturday 2/23: "Change is hard."

[blonndee]

Oh, WOW. Either Hillary Clinton is deliberately mischaracterizing Obama's message of change, OR neither she nor her campaign managers were aware of what Obama said in Cleveland last night about change. Which do you guys think it is? Could it be both? Or could she even be, um, "borrowing" Obama's very message, while pretending that his is the ludicrous strawman she presented it as?

None of these possibilities is very flattering to Clinton or her campaign. Whatever the case may be, Obama is right in that the way she is characterizing his supporters and his message is insulting. ESPECIALLY today, and ESPECIALLY given what he has been saying, and said again last night, BEFORE her ridiculous little spiel today.

Barack Obama in Cleveland, Saturday night 2/23/2008:

"Here's what is true. Here's what is true...is that change in America is hard. Change is hard. You know, I, I've been at this for a while. For twenty years. And I've seen my share of disappointments. You know, it requires effort. It requires time. And you don't always get what you want right away. People who have been organizers understand that sometimes you're-you start off, you get organized, but you don't quite get it that time, you don't succeed... I know how hard change will be, and you know it too! You see it in your own lives, it's hard to change your lives! It's hard if you have to change jobs. It's hard if you've gotta change careers, it's hard if you've gotta move because you're looking for more opportunity, it's hard if your child is having problems and you can't get help. It's hard when you don't have health care. You know how hard things are! The notion that people here somehow don't get it is an insult. I don't see a bunch of millionaires up in these stands. I don't see a bunch of, you know, romantics! I bet you there are a whole bunch of tough-luck stories right here in this auditorium. But the reason you are here is because you know that as hard as things get, it's exactly when things get tough, that you need hope. That nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened except for hope.”

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGgRQ5

Hillary Clinton in Rhode Island, Sunday morning 2/24/2008:

“Now I could stand up here and say, ‘Let’s get everybody together, let’s get unified… the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing…And everyone will know we should do the right thing, and the world will be perfect. Maybe I’ve just lived a little long, but I have no illusions about how hard this is going to be. You are not going to wave a magic wand and make the special interests disappear.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/24/hillary-clinton-mocks-bar_n_88194.html

[gmudem]

1. That is just too much.

Can't wait to see Tellurian try to spin this.

[Cha]

27. His neck must be getting

worked.

[Oleladylib]

2. Hope, change..sounds like a daycare operation

[scheming daemons]

4. You're right.. "Abandon all hope" and "nothing will ever change" are winning campaign philosophies

:eyes:

[KittyWampus]

25. Actually, it's one small part of training Democratic Activists which is what Obama's campaign does.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. "Its hard work"....

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #1
Forty-one percent of those 10 million are women. In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard. You know why? Because an enemy realizes the stakes. The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That's why they're fighting so vociferously.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #2
I work with Director Mueller of the FBI; comes in my office when I'm in Washington every morning, talking about how to protect us. There's a lot of really good people working hard to do so. It's hard work. But, again, I want to tell the American people, we're doing everything we can at home, but you better have a president who chases these terrorists down and bring them to justice before they hurt us again.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #3
But because Tommy Franks did such a great job in planning the operation, we moved rapidly, and a lot of the Baathists and Saddam loyalists laid down their arms and disappeared. I thought they would stay and fight, but they didn't. And now we're fighting them now. And it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work. And I'm optimistic.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #4
The plan says we'll train Iraqi soldiers so they can do the hard work, and we are.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #5
And as I just told you, there's going to be a summit of the Arab nations. Japan will be hosting a summit. We're making progress. It is hard work.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #6
It is hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #7
It's hard work to go from a place where people get their hands cut off, or executed, to a place where people are free.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #8
You know, it's hard work to try to love her as best as I can, knowing full well that the decision I made caused her loved one to be in harm's way. I told her after we prayed and teared up and laughed some that I thought her husband's sacrifice was noble and worthy.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #9
There are 100,000 troops trained, police, guard, special units, border patrol. There's going to be 125,000 trained by the end of this year. Yes, we're getting the job done. It's hard work.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #10
Everybody knows it's hard work, because there's a determined enemy that's trying to defeat us.

Bush Speech Makes Repeated Mention of Hard Work #11
And I believe both a free Afghanistan and a free Iraq will serve as a powerful example for millions who plead in silence for liberty in the broader Middle East. We've done a lot of hard work together over the last three and a half years.

[eileen_d]

7. Oh, I see.

Obama is like Bush. How enlightening. :boring:

[Yael]

8. But WAIT!!

I thought her campaign for "change" was about working hard for it?

Now I'm confused. Is hard work good or bad?

[ProSense]

10. He said "change is hard." Hillary is the one who Xeroxed Bush

hard work

[Yael]

5. He has been saying that since well before Iowa

Her campaign is completely tone deaf.

[blonndee]

9. Amazing...I knew that he had been saying that, but I hadn't watched one of his

entire speeches from beginning to end since New Hampshire, so I was glad to see how very emphatic he is about this. She is indeed a liar, then, for pretending that his message and his supporters are something different than what they are.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. The celestial choirs might come to take her away!

what is she on?

[BeyondGeography]

11. It's what he always says

which makes her either reckless for knowing it and trashing him anyway or hopelessly uninformed.

[sandnsea]

12. He's been talking about the hard work of change forever

She's a liar. Again. Over and over.

[pdxmom]

13. He has always talked about how change would be hard and require

work. Clinton has been mischaracterizing his speeches for quite a while, and should be called on it.

http://www.barackobama.com/2007/02/10/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_11.php

"But Washington has a long way to go. And it won't be easy. That's why we'll have to set priorities. We'll have to make hard choices. And although government will play a crucial role in bringing about the changes we need, more money and programs alone will not get us where we need to go. Each of us, in our own lives, will have to accept responsibility - for instilling an ethic of achievement in our children, for adapting to a more competitive economy, for strengthening our communities, and sharing some measure of sacrifice. So let us begin. Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/barack_obamas_potomac_primary.html

"Because hope is not blind optimism. I know how hard it will be to make these changes. I know this because I fought on the streets of Chicago as a community organizer to bring jobs to the jobless in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant. I've fought in the courts as a civil rights lawyer to make sure people weren't denied their rights because of what they looked like or where they came from. I've fought in the legislature to take power away from lobbyists. I've won some of those fights, but I've lost some of them too. I've seen good legislation die because good intentions weren't backed by a mandate for change.

The politics of hope does not mean hoping things come easy. Because nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened unless somebody, somewhere stood up when it was hard; stood up when they were told - no you can't, and said yes we can."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/Obamas_South_Carolina_victory_speech.html

"That is the country I see. That is the country you see. But now it is up to us to help the entire nation embrace this vision. Because in the end, we are not just up against the ingrained and destructive habits of Washington, we are also struggling against our own doubts, our own fears and our own cynicism. The change we seek has always required great struggle and sacrifice. And so this is a battle in our own hearts and minds about what kind of country we want and how hard we're willing to work for it.

So let me remind you tonight that change will not be easy. That change will take time. There will be setbacks, and false starts, and sometimes we will make mistakes. But as hard as it may seem, we cannot lose hope. Because there are people all across this country who are counting us; who can't afford another four years without health care or good schools or decent wages because our leaders couldn't come together and get it done."

[blonndee]

15. Thank you for this. He has been VERY SPECIFIC and EMPHATIC all along.

I just went from having lost respect for Hillary to being completely disgusted by her, and even more emphatically pro-'bama. In fact, I'm changing my avatar RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!111!!! :)

[Cha]

29. Yee-aah! Go

blonndee!

[TexasObserver]

14. We know Hillary can't make Special Interests disappear, since they own her.

[Johnny__Motown]

16. A Clinton deliberately mischaracterizing ? what were the odds?

[Barack_America]

17. Can I wave a magic wand and make Hillary disappear?

Please?

She's really starting to piss me off again, just after I finally got over her Nevada and South Carolina bullshit.

[Tarheel_Dem]

18. Her behavior of late just reinforces what people don't like about her....

and that's just sad. She seems to be destroying any chance she'll ever have to run in the future, but it seems she wants to damage Obama in the process. Maybe the only good thing that will come out of this is that the Clintons will no longer be considered heads of the party, and that works for me.

[kennetha]

19. To concede that change is "hard" is to concede

That Obama is an inadequate vehicle. There is no evidence of fight in his self-presentation -- except now, at the last minute. He's promise so far is that somehow the force of his own inspirational rhetoric and compelling personal narrative will make all division melt away. But once you concede that rhetoric and charisma are insufficient -- after all Bill Clinton was as rhetorically gifted and charismatic a politician to come along since JFK, I think - then you have to ask exactly what else does Obama have to bring to the table to get us beyond the gap that rhetoric and charisma are insufficient to cross.

The answer -- exactly nothing, at least nothing that has been on offer yet. Of course he has run a very shrewd, very manipulative campaign. And without getting called on it, he has played some pretty down and dirty hardball Chicago style politics. Threatening, for example, to tear up the party if Florida and MI are seated or if the superdelegates go against the will "of the people" (i.e. the states that he won.) And he has gotten the media to play cheerleader. So it's not as though he without brass knuckle political skills. But here's the catch 22. Since he parades as mister authenticity, new hope, above it all messiah, he can't make it part of his explicit pitch that he knows how to play brass knuckle partisan politics to get the 51% solution to crucial problems when the 65% solution is unreachable. Now can he?

[StoryTeller]

31. I think you are missing the entire point of Obama's campaign.

He has never, ever claimed that it is his rhetoric or charisma that will make the changes he speaks about.

He is very clear that what he is about is working together with all of us to make the country the better place we all know it can be. A main point in his stump speech is that no leader can do it all. He can't do it by himself.

He often has said that what he sees as the most powerful way to effect the changes he talks about and the changes we want is to motivate and empower us as citizens to mobilize and work for change in our own communities. This will "filter up" through the local and then national levels. On his end, as president, he would also use the power of his office to work to bring those changes to pass as well.

Rhetoric and charisma helps with that because it gets people motivated, gets them involved. But he's even said that the real test will be what happens after the elections. Will we the people go back to our old apathetic ways or will we stay involved?

Obama is visionary, but realistic. He sees not just the potential and the possibilities, but he also sees what is necessary in order to get there. He has NEVER promised that he will be some sort of political messiah to rescue the nation. He simply promises to use his skills, talents, insights, and wisdom to make good decisions and do whatever he can to motivate, empower, and encourage the rest of us to do the same.

That's where the "we" part of his message comes in. And that's the part that a lot of his detractors seem to be unwilling to acknowledge or understand. We're not just excited about Barack Obama. He's admittedly a brilliant, exciting leader with good sense and great ideas. But him by himself is not the big deal.

It's that he's helping people all over the country wake up and realize that if we want to keep our democracy healthy and strong, we have to take ownership of it and get involved and stay involved. Maybe that seems like it should be obvious, but when we have less than half the population even VOTING it tells me we have a lot of waking up to do in order to take proper care of our democracy.

It's us I think most of us are most excited about. It's something much bigger than one individual. And that alone makes this a near-revolutionary moment in our country's history.

[kennetha]

20. Actually, he sounds quite defensive

He's not at all convincing when he's on the defensive. Seems to me that in Ohio at least the "hope" message isn't really working. I guess that's why Hillary is still ahead by a healthy margin. Ohio, where I grew up, is a place that has seen politicians promise this and that. But the global economy has wreaked havoc on its working class communities. So I think charisma will only go so far there. They want to hear things that will make a concrete and specific difference to their lives and their struggling communities.

[blonndee]

21. What seems defensive (and indeed desperate) is that ridiculous performance

by Mrs. Clinton today. Did you watch the video? It's embarrassing.

[kennetha]

22. Don't agree

She's angry and on the attack. Now you may think the attack is unwarranted. But the last thing she seems is defensive. Offended, yes. But not at all defensive.

[blonndee]

23. She has nothing to be "offended" about

unless it's that the coronation to which she feels entitled has been all but yanked away from her.

[kennetha]

24. Lies are pretty offensive

Especially coming from a sanctimonious would be messiah who admits himself to be little more than an empty suit onto which people project their hopes and aspirations.

Check out his own prescient self-description:

“Undoubtedly, some of these views will get me in trouble. I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them. ”

[blonndee]

26. Lies such as what? And cut out the red herring stuff, will ya? Thanks. nt

[WCGreen]

28. Of course Change is hard...

It's made out of metal...

He He He He...

[boppers]

30. My Obama Ponies come with...

celestial choirs, *and* magic wands?


Yaaaaaay!!1!!eleventyoneone111


But wait, will Hillary give me a magical Leopleurodon?

[Berry Cool]

32. I heard that speech Saturday night.

He was right, too. In my own way, I could be called one of those hard-luck stories.

Yesterday, I played the video someone posted of Hillary characterizing his speeches as being all magic and wands and skies opening and celestial choirs singing and the delusion that things would be easy. And all I could do was shake my head and post "Um, actually, no, and you could make a video contrasting what he's saying to what she says he's saying and embarrass her terribly."