http://www.npr.org/2012/09/04/160578836/transcript-michelle-obamas-convention-speech
First, I must say that I am NOT a political person AT ALL! My boyfriend is and I sometimes listen to his conservative rants. Then I read what my politically obsessed friends on Facebook have to say. But if there was a person that I wanted to see win it was Ron Paul. He made (makes) sense to me in that he is like a grandfather who is no nonsense and will never have to go back and make excuses for something he has said.
Anyway, I chose Michelle Obama's speech because I felt she was trying to make Obama sound like just one of the lovable poor guys when she described him picking her up in an old rusted out car. Then there was the bit about his prized posession being a coffee table which he had trashed picked from a dumpster. Did he spend all of his money on drugs? Did the coffee table have a glass top?
I know Ann Romney also spoke of being poor..and I am not a big Romney fan, but it seemed less contrived.
That's all I have.
With politicians...it is all rhetoric, and not the good kind...More if the confusing kind.
Lol, I am wondering that with the internet that in the future there will be only serious debates and less "dog and pony". Rather, the viral third party parody posters and mud slingers will sway elections.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more Dez and Jesse. It's so much of a show anymore that it's hard to say who's telling the truth and who's just really good at lying (or using rhetoric). The whole being poor thing is kind of ridiculous to showcase if you ask me. I mean, I've heard this same type of story from my grandparents as well as my parents, as I'm sure many of you have. But rather than focusing on the poor aspects of the story, they tend share more on the points of how hard work and dedication paid off for them.
ReplyDeleteI agree, as well. They can talk all they want about how poor they were in the past -- even though they aren't anymore. But I think what more people are more concerned with is "Yeah, well I'm struggling financially right now. How are your policies going to help?"
ReplyDeleteExcerpt from Michelle Obama's speech.
ReplyDeleteAnd the truth is, I loved the life we had built for our girls...I deeply loved the man I had built that life with...and I didn't want that to change if he became President.
I loved Barack just the way he was.
You see, even though back then Barack was a Senator and a presidential candidate...to me, he was still the guy who'd picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger side door...he was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he'd found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of decent shoes was half a size too small.
I have to say that this political stuff is no fun for me.
That said... In her first line of this paragraph...She was saying that she did not want to lose her awesome husband...her great guy...to the rigors of presidency, after all, he was a life builder.
The way I see it, it is a deliberative enthymeme for ...he is still the same awesome guy who can build the same awesome life he built for me and our daughters as he can build for you. Really! He can! Really!
I loved Barack just the way he was. And so should you!
The rest of the excerpt shows that he was able to make something out of nothing and did well with his finances. Although I wonder if the reason why he had a rusted out car and went dumpster diving was because he spent all of his money on drugs.
I'd say there is another piece to this, Dezri, that is designed to showcase Romney without mentioning him at all. In some ways, Obama's being different from Romney is the chief unspoken premise of her speech. And that's certainly part of the poor story. While I agree with Kenny that there are limits to its effectiveness, I also think that the Obama campaign believes that Romney's lifelong privileged position makes him seem suspect in the eyes of many Americans, as if he doesn't understand.
ReplyDeleteI'd encourage you to think of these things as games, though, Dezri, puzzles of a sort: rhetoric can work as a tool of deconstruction, if you push on it. But feel free to push boundaries in terms of material to work with - there's a lot of stuff out there, some of it even funny...
I like Obama, but yeah, I don't buy into the whole poverty b.s. In order to get into politics...you need $$! To become president it takes even more money! You will NEVER see a true panhandler become president, it will never happen. Now of course its all the smoke and mirror show like others have pointed out. Which canidate can come up with the biggest sob story. Both sides are lying in my opinion...neither of them know what most of us are going through. I would feel more comfortable having Obama say, "I know times are tough, and I can honestly say I have no clue what most of you are going through, but this is what I want to do to ease your troubles." Again, that will never happen, its easier and better to get hopes up then after the election, see what happens and doesn't happen. Like Kirk said, its just a game...so to speak...a disgusting way to piss away millions of dollars, but a game none-the-less.
ReplyDelete