"And I'm sorry.
"I'm sorry this election turned into a campaign of hate. I'm sorry every ad was dipped in venom.
"I'm sorry we called you at all hours. I'm sorry we hounded you until you wanted to blow up the TV and pull the phone from the wall. It's wrong. It's unforgivable. I am going to make sure, by the time I leave office, laws are in place that keep people like me -- and my opponent -- from doing that again.
"The truth is, the guy I ran against is not a bad man. He's not a total fraud. He's not the death of all good ideas. He's not the devil incarnate.
"He wouldn't have ruined the country. He would have done the best he could. He would have picked smart people, and they would have tried the way most of us try.
"His philosophy on some things is different than mine. But he would not have repealed every law that matters to you. He would not have harpooned the economy. He would not have sold America to a foreign power.
"We trick you into thinking the other guy would be a dictator. It's a lie. But it works to get us elected.
"It worked for me.
"But it has to stop."
So many loopholes
"So does the money we spend. They say over $3 billion went into TV ads electing presidents, Congress and governors. Three billion? On TV ads?"You're right. That's insane. We talk about campaign finance reform, but we don't do it. We don't want to. It's like a kid cutting his own allowance. So we make laws, but we allow for loopholes, and the loopholes eat the laws the way termites eat a house.
"That has to stop. It may seem disingenuous now that I'm in office, but I'm going to expose every loophole, point out every hypocrisy, and not care about whom I anger in my party, until Congress is shamed into real reform. I will keep coming straight to you, the American people, telling you the tricks and lies and backroom deals that are going on, until honest reform is passed.
"By the way, the same is true on waste. We collect your money hungrily but spend little time analyzing if this program or this study or this appropriation is worth it.
"The truth is, we blow an extraordinary amount of your taxes on things we don't need. So I'm going to make waste analysis a top priority of my administration -- and not just some report from the Government Accountability Office that sits on a desk.
"Each year of my term, I will report on how we can cut at least 20% of what we spend without affecting a thing. I have to think we blow at least that much. I mean, have you ever seen government bureaucracy? I'm PART of it! I know!"
Doing the right thing
"Also, now that the voting is over, let's get this straight: Not everyone who earns money in this country is the devil, and not everyone who doesn't is a freeloader."We pitted you against each other to try to win the election. It was wrong. It was disgusting. America is the land of opportunity -- for everyone. That's what we should celebrate. Instead, we painted a picture where you were on one side of the 47% or the other. We encouraged the poor hating the rich and the rich resenting the poor. We used class warfare to get us to this office, not because it is right or decent or moral -- but because it works.
"Shame on us.
"Shame on me for being a part of it.
"I want to be better. I want to lead better. I want to begin by inviting my opponent -- who took close to half of the vote -- to be part of my inner advisory cabinet. I want to make sure I surround myself with people of both sides.
"I don't want to reach across the aisle -- I want to live in the aisle. I am the president. I have to surrender partisanship.
"The hate will never stop until it starts to stop with me. The fact is, elections should be celebrated as the greatest exercise of freedom and democracy this country has. They shouldn't be as poisonous as a snakebite and as dreaded as an execution. Hopefully, in four years, I'll have helped change that. I'm sending every American a copy of this speech. Hold me to it. Please. You have that right.
"After all, I work for you, don't I?"
Mitch Albom, The Freep.
Nice thoughts, great post, Lou, but I don't hear the devil shivering yet, pigs are not flying, the cows aren't home, and monkeys are not flying out of my butt ...
ReplyDeleteI can dream can't I?
DeleteLOL. Never happen.
Very nice! Maybe someday the electorate will mature to the point of being able to accept these thoughts. Until then, we will have a pro wrestling style build up to every election.
ReplyDelete'Maybe someday'?
DeleteSorry. What's the phrase? 'Not gonna happen.'
Jean
louman,
ReplyDeleteSure, and at the end of the speech you can append "In closing, in the spirit of an open, fair and transparent government, I promise to lay bare ALL the facts regarding the Benghazi attack."
I can't imagine any way that there will be anything credible forthcoming on that matter. I would have bet that a Romney administration would probably have whitewashed anything significant, not to cover it up but to simply close the book. I am QUITE certain that the best we'll see from the Creep-in-chief will be worthless.
Jean
Jean,
DeletePeople do not care about Benghazi attack. It wasn't them, they didn't hear about it on the news, they didn't read it in the paper, they didn't know the person so it didn't happen.
This is what we have become as a nation. Self serving.
I simply do not understand the Benghazi thing and the only reason conservatives have latched on to it so vociferously is because is supports their daily outrage message that Obama is incompetent at even getting out of bed. It was a failure of management, failure well below the level of Obama. I also don't understand the cover up, but Jean, now that the election is over, you will see Fox news drop this very quickly and move on to other things.
DeleteMax,
DeleteWere you around during Watergate?
The premise was not just the break in but the cover up.
Who knew about it? When did the know about it and what did they do about it.
As it applies to today:
1. Is there a cover up? It would be much worse as people were killed.
2. Who knew the security was poor at best and why wasn't it corrected? Was this a presidential policy decision?
3. Why wasn't it corrected?
4. Did the people notify the correct people to address the shortfall?
5. When the embassy was attacked, when did they call for help?
6. Who made the decision not to send help?
7. As the British have large forces on the ground, why were they not called.
8. We have a action team 450 miles away, why were they not deployed?
9. Did the president know?
10. What did he know and when did he know it?
How do you know it was a failure of management below Obama as little has been released?
In the real world, gross negligence with loss of life would result in people being fired, people being sued etc.
The outrage for me is people were killed and no one cares.
"The outrage for me is people were killed and no one cares."
DeleteIt's a lie that no one cares. What I believe many conservatives are outraged about is that Obama did not lose his presidency in Nixonlike shame over the death of these four Americans. Since 9/11, we have lost quite a few people to incompetence and while I would hope that would be enough to change things, it seldom is. We engaged in acts of war in Libya and then left behind a soft target for Al Quada to attack. Was there any more or less hubris in that then anything else we have done in the middle east?
"In the real world, gross negligence with loss of life would result in people being fired, people being sued etc."
This rule does not apply to those with power, be it elected or financial. We gave a free pass to Bush for 9/11 and Iraq, and we gave a free pass to the entirety of Wall Street. At best, we seek partisan accountability and nothing more.
The questions remain. Unanswered, much like fast and furious. Pretty funny how politicians can hide and cover up what ever they would like.
DeleteAnswer this. If this happened under a Republican, would the media give it a free pass?
If people in Congress and in the White House cared, why is it the press totally ignores the subject, half of Washington completely pretends it didn't happen. Party on.
And Bush was responsible for 9/11 how?
Is Bush responsible for Iraq or was it faulty intelligence?
Needless to say, we have 4 people serving their country and everyone pretending it happened as we have a presidential campaign to win.
Max,
Delete"It was a failure of management, failure well below the level of Obama. I also don't understand the cover up,"
The administration seems (note the word, please) to have lied or at best, mislead. If it was even worse than that, I am quite sure we will never know. If it WERE only lying or misleading, what is there to not understand? I'm sure you've seen the liars at the evil FOX replay the DNC snippet. We can't very well have the President look foolsih a week after that, can we?
MY GOD!!!! IF NOTHING ELSE, HE WENT ON A JUNKET TO LV? BUT HE STAIED 'CONNECTED'? REALLY?!?!?!?!?
Yes, that was me screaming.
Those poor, brave men.
And if it was, as you say, a failure of low level management, three months later, and there are no repercussions. Perhaps now that he's been re-elected, his investigation will lead to a clear explanation of what transpired, preceded by and ending with a solemn, heartfelt expression of condolences to the families, yes? And a pledge for all of us to move on, afterall, there is a lot of work to do, and we have to heal, huh?
Reprehensible, spineless, narcissistic CREEP-IN-CHIEF. I can't wait for the day he HAS to move out.
Jean
No disrespect intended to Mitch Albom, But I've had enough of the demand for wordy ass kissing. In the real world, the Democrats have steadily moved away from a progressive agenda that protected the middle and have solidly embraced the money and control of Wall Street. They have embraced ridiculous extensions of tax cuts that are doing nothing but further increasing the income gap and wealth disparity of this country. From the Republicans, there has been a constant drift further right. Despite the slaughter of the 06 mid terms, they have doubled down over and over on what they are selling. Even last night, the message on Fox was that the only problem was that Republicans didn't explain their message well enough. Really?
ReplyDeleteThe time for lip service is done. Albom's request in the face of what reality exists is ridiculous. I don't want to hear a sweet message, I want to see both parties govern. Period.
The message you missed is that both parties have been hateful to each other, disrespectful to the American people and it's time for it to end.
ReplyDeleteThe message Albom missed is that the entirety of America has been acting like a spoiled, petulant child for a very long time. Albom makes a lot of money selling heart touching prose, I don't begrudge him that, but while we buy his books, we turn around and tell each other to F off. Why do we keep pretending that the hatefulness in Washington is somehow NOT a reflection of how we feel in every town, city and state across America? The hate in Washington is the hate that all of us have sent there Lou. It's time for us and people like Albom to stop demanding of our leaders things we won't do ourselves. We don't respect them after we elect them, why should we demand something different back from them?
DeleteAs it turns out no matter who you send to Washington and with their best intentions, they soon learn to follow the party line or else.
DeleteProbably the best reason for term limits is to end the self destructive hate embedded in Washington. A prime example, the not so super super committee. Both parties sent their hard core and we ended up where we started with nothing.