A Tale of Two Speeches

I listened to the President's speech today on the value and costs of college, and was left profoundly depressed.  This President, who has done nothing about the cost of college education for the past three-plus years, is suddenly motivated. Could the looming arrival of the month of November have anything to do with that motivation?


The speech was a cynical exercise in vote-buying. This President has no record of accomplishments, he has at best been "present" and at worst, well, at his worst, we wish he had been just "present." He has broken the bank, and set us up for decades of debt and impossible to fund liabilities. All he can do is promise more of the same. As evidenced by his speech today in North Carolina, he continues to stoke the fires of resentment and envy, and to pit voters against taxpayers. He also continues to lie, or at least deny reality. He tells college students that a college education is the surest guarantee for a path into the middle class; he says this with a straight face on the same day that data has come out showing that one in two college grads faces unemployment or "underemployment." The most likely result of a college education nowadays is a guaranteed path to a bed in your parents' basement, and to massive indebtedness. That, of course, is no surprise as a typical college education is close to worthless on the market.  As I have related before, it has fallen to me to hire recent college grads for various jobs, and the typical grad is, to put it bluntly, an ignoramus with an inflated ego and a greatly exaggerated view of his worth.


In any other business, those who run colleges would have gone to jail on a variety of fraud and price-fixing charges. But, not in America. No, not in America. On the contrary, President Obama wants to give students and college administrators even more of the taxpayers' money so we can have more "gender studies" majors filling the ranks of the Occupy "movement." Correction. I exaggerate. What he really wants is for the college crowd to vote for him next November 6. He doesn't really care what happens to them after that as he continues his war on the American economy.


Naturally in any speech by our President, a great deal of it has to be about him. How many more times are we going to hear about how he and Michelle "only finished paying off our college loans eight years ago?" Is that even true? Who knows? His whole university education is a mystery. We are not allowed to see his transcripts; or know how he managed to land in a series of prestigious elite schools; or ask how he managed to pay for those schools.


I was in a dark mood when I switched on Governor Romney's speech from New Hampshire.  I have to admit I had never heard Ann Romney speak for more than a minute or so. I was deeply impressed by her presentation. She clearly is a secret weapon for the campaign. She speaks very well, has a very human touch, and above all a sense of optimism, happiness, and humor that is refreshing.  A real champ.  I am now not at all surprised by the fury with which she is met by the loons on the left. We can expect many more attacks on her.


The Governor's speech was a masterpiece. I am a political junkie and have been one since 1960. This was one of the best "victory/campaign launch" speeches I have ever heard. It was also beautifully delivered; clearly the Governor has learned how to give a speech. It was full of optimism, hope, and a deep understanding of the magnitude of the failures of the Obama administration. The way in which he flipped the fairness issue was outstanding--talking about the unfairness of a grandparent now unable to afford gasoline to visit his grandkids; the unfairness of a mom having to work a second job, all thanks to the Obama economy.  He has made "fairness," the real kind, a Republican issue. I think the Democrats will have to rethink their whole "fairness" spiel.  It was Reagan, but perhaps even better: I thought Reagan at times came off like a Hollywood actor reciting his lines. I thought Romney came off as genuine, human, funny, and with a clear vision of how he intends to put an end to our national nightmare.


If he can keep giving speeches like that one, he has a real opportunity to become President and save us from the Community Organizer.