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So that means he should be exempt from nerves?
Get off your ing high horse.
Yeah that was the worst poem I've ever heard. And the delivery was worse.
So that means he should be exempt from nerves?
Get off your ing high horse.
I'm just sayin, you have over a million people there and they invited a total buzzkill.
Seriously. I may not be the most qualified person to judge poetry and I may not be the smartest man on earth, but my IQ does have three numbers and I know my way around a bookshelf. I can say, in my limited judgment, that was one of the tiest poems ever read on such a grand scale. the nerve of someone who write something so ty and long before reading it to the whole world.
Seems like Kay Ryan, the country's current poet laureate, would have been the more appropriate choice.
Inaugural Poem
Published: January 20, 2009
The following is a transcript of the inaugural poem recited by Elizabeth Alexander, as provided by CQ transcriptions.
Praise song for the day.
Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is s ching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.
Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."
We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."
We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.
Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.
Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."
Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.
What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.
In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.
The content of that poem is not so bad, just the delivery was so monotone and slow. It was sucking the energy out of the entire DC area.
The oath mess-up wasn't a buzzkill in the slightest. If anything, it broke the ice because it did demonstrate some nerves. It invited a little light-hearted laughter, not a buzzkill.
I literally laughed out loud at this line. Agape Love's a great concept and all, but it's kind of played &... overtly cliche. And while I won't really knock somebody citing agape love in this setting, seriously, you gotta paint it in such literal, lazy, cliche, brushstrokes?
Agreed. The poem wasn't that bad (but not inauguration worthy either). It's the delivery that was awful.
Pretty much what I thought.
terrible speech -- best part was Obama going from personal responsibility to the government will fix everything... who falls for this garbage ?
There was nothing that suprised me (or that I disagreed with). He was articulate, understood the moment, and was clear. He was tough on foreign policy and restored America's bully-pulpit. He was humbled by the moment of his election as an African-American. Perhaps too clear during the transition now is that he seems overwhelmed by the economic task at hand. He is not diminishing this a bit.
It was great that he took the chance to say that are problems still do not reach those of the rest of the world. That was good.
Better than most. Not his best speech and not the honest emotion of Grant Park.
Just saw the speech. Great speech. Im glad he didnt revert to the ol "Yes we can" stuff. Pretty much agree with everything TimVP said in this thread.
The oath stumble wasnt that bad.
He was for me the final symbol of an administration full of incompetent people. If he was incapable of remembering an oath from the Cons ution when he is the Chief Justice, then he should have written it down so as not to screw up this historic moment. He ruined the moment.
You also said he's stupid.
He's smarter than you. Are you stupid?
Roberts was just distracted mentally writing his decision for Lightfoot v Bowen.
I think that's a perfect description and fitting since it appears to be how Obama thinks he can govern.
Message to Roberts - cheat sheet.
the speech was nice.
how can something be extremely mediocre?I thought the speech was good. Going in I thought it was going to be a speech that had a main aim of getting him re-elected -- such as the speech on election night. But I was pleasantly surprised that he gave a speech much closer to the tone of the speeches he was given when he first started his campaign. Solid moderate speech
I also liked that he had a good level of authority and conviction without going back to the played out catchphrases. Plus it steered clear of most sissy liberal talking points.
Only two problems I had with the speech: 1) Not really any memorable line to remember it by. 2) Some of the analogies were weak and the word play was extremely mediocre. I'm surprised that speech writer kid went to some basic and overused text instead of raising the overall level a bit.
But yeah, overall I give it a. Much better than his election night speech and better than I anticipated.
by the way, I haven't watched the speech, and to read it isn't really the same, so I don't really know how it went. It would be crazy to think he would have been able to meet the enormous expectations for this speech, but hopefully it wasn't too far off
Best line of the speech, IMO. The portion Pluto quoted was 2nd.What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.
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