I'm sorry President Obama...we are NOT the envy of the world

[Horse with no Name]

Our education is NOT the envy.

Our markets are NOT the envy.

We are NOT the best anymore and seriously....we REALLLY need to quit feeding that meme OR do something to make us the best again.

[EFerrari]

1. Did he say that on the stump?

[Horse with no Name]

10. Yes. He is talking about how we are the BEST in the world

education, healthcare....the envy of all.

Standing in his oxford shirt with sleeves rolled up in front of the Hee Haw set.

[EFerrari]

13. That's pretty gross. n/t

[dameocrat67]

42. it was dead dirt boring speech all deficits and not jobs

people wonder why i am losing interested in politics but it is because they politicians, socalled left, and socalled right are not interested in me.

[mwooldri]

52. America has the best healthcare and education money can buy.

And that is the problem : "money can buy".

If you have the money, then you can get the best education and healthcare in the USA. No need to go overseas.

However if your lot in life left you with a plastic spoon in your mouth rather than a silver one at birth then the health care and the education you can get is not the best in the world in America, I'm afraid.

[TaupeDem]

58. Hee Haw set? why would you disparage groups of people like that? these are the same people

we're going to need votes from. That wasn't a nice comment at all and we wonder why many view our party as elitist.

[Horse with no Name]

64. Did you see the set?

It was a barn type setting...didn't look at ALL authentic. I can say that because I grew up on a farm and never saw anything like that except on Hee Haw.

Reminded me greatly of Bush's fake "Western White House" in Crawford.

[otohara]

72. Didn't He Say Universities

people come from all over the world to attend our universities.

Is that a lie?

Hee Haw...bit of a slam against the people in farm land?

[Horse with no Name]

73. It was a SET...It was not a farm

and it resembled the Hee Haw set. I dare you to watch the video and claim otherwise.

It was VERY cheesy.

[otohara]

74. Rent a Barn

Big red barn available for cheesy Americana backdrop for a President who is called unAmerican relentlessly by the right and a everything else by by the left.

[Bryn]

77. Sounds like Baghdad Bob

LOL

[Safetykitten]

I was waiting for that barn window to open up with a HeeHaw comedian!

But that aside, we are not the envy of the world...well except for popular culture crap.

[roguevalley]

57. I heard him say he cared. He didn't care if the other side didn't, he

did. when you get to the point where you have to say you care, you're toast.

MESSAGE: I care.

Remember?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

2. He should always disparage America.

That's a winning strategy. :eyes:

[EFerrari]

5. Cheap, false dilemma. n/t

[Starbucks Anarchist]

14. How is it a false dilemma?

The OP is bemoaning the fact that Obama is stating his pride in the country. Logically, it follows that he wants Obama to do the opposite.

[EFerrari]

16. Nope. There are a range of choices between saying we are the envy of the world

and disparaging this country.

Like actually speaking to the problems he's supposed to be solving and isn't -- unemployment, illegal foreclosures, people with no health care, homelessness, the drain of his six wars.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

21. He does speak to those problems.

Unfortunately, the GOP wants to block him at every turn. DUers fail to realize that he needs a supermajority in Congress to really get liberal legislation passed. And I don't know where this "six wars" meme came from. I've seen it pop up within the last few days.

[EFerrari]

27. It pops up from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya and Somalia.

Ask our servicemen if it is a "meme". :puke:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

29. I'd hardly count the last four as "wars."

Have we even suffered US casualties in those areas?

[EFerrari]

32. If you don't know, you don't seem to be "counting" at all.

Do only American deaths count as war to you?

Good grief.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

35. I know I've never heard of US casualties in those areas.

And you trotted out our servicemen in your argument's defense, so don't act offended when I highlight American casualties or the lack thereof.

[EFerrari]

39. You didn't hear about it because the Pentagon denied our presence

until it was impossible to deny any more, & they threatened the reporters like Jeremy Scahill who worked those stories.

Obama has six wars going and that's not even counting Colombia. It's not a meme, it's a fact.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

40. I'm well aware of our presence there.

But I still don't think they rise to the level of "war."

[nadinbrzezinski]

54. Well Somalia has a nice black hawk down

Yemen had a few diplomats

but that's ok. There are wars and there are wars. These are LOW INTENSITY operations... but to the people in the middle of them, they are wars.

And this is WHY we need a draft.

[Selatius]

78. Technically speaking, they are all considered "conflicts" like Viet Nam. They were all undeclared.

Just because we only commit a small number of troops and launch a limited number of missile strikes and bombing runs does not count anything less than "war" to civilians who are caught in the crossfire or watched friends and families die in the crossfire. Arguing over semantics doesn't really change the reality of violence.

[sudopod]

87. I guess it's a kinetic military action or something.

They're just brown Islamish people anyway. Hardly even count as people, right?

Anyway, yay America!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

100. No brown Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Because I distinctly counted those as full-fledged wars.

[sudopod]

101. So you agree that killing hundreds of foreign people

using billions of dollars worth of advanced weaponry in thousands of sorties is the criteria for a war?

Welcome to the ranks of the enlightened, Sister!

:hug:

[cwydro]

67. Well, we did suffer casualties in Somalia..

not that long ago.

[JDPriestly]

50. I have never heard Obama say much about homelessness.

And he has had ample opportunity to do something about the foreclosures. Why hasn't he?

[scheming daemons]

26. he spent most of the speech talking about those problems

But the only thing you focus on is that he had the nerve to talk up the country a little bit.

[WCGreen]

7. Bizarro world some people in it exist...

[Scurrilous]

8. Heh.

:thumbsup:

[Horse with no Name]

15. Why can't we just tell the truth?

There is a lot of room between telling the truth and disparaging America.

Many folks are hurting out there and being told that we live in the "best" country yet they don't have access to ANY of the things he is talking about...isn't a very good or a very true message.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

19. Obama frequently mentions people who are hurting.

But he packages it in an optimistic message about the opportunities present in this country.

And I happen to agree with him. I've been all over the world and there's no other place I'd rather live. That's not to say we're perfect, but I sure as hell don't want Obama to go down the path of negativity.

[EFerrari]

24. Yes, he frequently mentions Americans who are hurting as if

he is an observer and not the leader of this country. That's an abdication and a cop out, not to his credit in any way.

And your personal preference has no bearing on how the US rates objectively in the quality of life among developed nations.

This country is screaming for help, for leadership and Obama is on a campaign tour. Typical.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

28. Of course he's on a campaign tour.

The election's next year. What else is he supposed to do, sit on his ass and wait for the Republican to move into the White House?

And once again, people fail to realize that he's not a dictator. No matter how many speeches he gives, no matter how much he uses the "bully pulpit," it all comes down to votes. If DUers want to see real legislation passed, they need to work to get a commanding majority in both houses.

[EFerrari]

31. LOL. Yes, the only choices are the poles. He can go on tour

for re-election OR sit on his behind. (Another false dilemma).

And yet another one: Obama can't lead because only a DICTATOR could show leadership in this country.

Seriously, :wtf:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

33. I didn't say he couldn't lead.

I said no matter how much he leads, it still comes down to the votes. He can't pass legislation via fiat. We need supermajorities. I can't make it any simpler than that.

And you complained how he was on an election tour, which implies he should be doing something else.

[dionysus]

53. it goes like this; if he does a campaign stop, he's craven and selfish. if he doesn't, he's letting

the GOP win.

if he's not angry enough, he needs to use the bully pulpit. if he uses the bully pulpit, it's just a "pretty speech"

he doesn't mention the homeless. except when he did, but when he did, he wasn't leading.

and so on and so forth.

:rofl:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

55. Pretty much.

[EFerrari]

61. Yes, it is if all you can do is think in black and white terms

which you seem to have covered. Well done.

LOL

[Riftaxe]

34. His speeches on Poverty in America are mesmerizing

or will be as soon as he makes one, and acknowledges it exists. Sadly it is a campaign season and there is no cash in even recognizing the problem that years of high unemployment brings with it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. Sooner or later American Exceptionalists will have to come

to that reality.

[sammytko]

3. Have you ever lived outside this country?

You would be surprised....

[EFerrari]

12. "There are starving children in Somalia" is not a solution

for the problems Americans are facing right now. It was fine for my mom to say things like that but she was just my mom, not the president.

[Bluebear]

17. Educate us, please!

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. Yes... so has my husband

and the billing department in the UK is not the same as here, for example.

[bluestate10]

62. I have lived outside the country.

Everywhere I have been people want to come here. Scandinavia? I met a woman there who was honest enough to admit she over stayed her US visa until found and forced to go home.

[sudopod]

88. I have. Norway is pretty kickin. nt

[polichick]

4. That really is a tired old lie at this point - though I'm not sure it was ever really true.

[Ship of Fools]

6. I agree. Mr. President, PLEASE consider changing the tone and message. Please?

[marmar]

9. I don't even think he really believes that.

nt

[hifiguy]

11. Compared to the rest of the developed world

our educational and health care systems are laughingstocks and everyone and their brother Mike knows it. :eyes: I can name a dozen countries I'd rather live in without even thinking too hard.

[Igel]

60. People see what they want to.

Some people see a large number of high schools that are failing, classes that mostly fail the tests and schools that graduate kids that can barely read. As though this wasn't happening in the '50s and '60s. They see a health care system that doesn't serve a significant portion of the population and is very expensive.

Others see a university system and many high schools that are at least the equal of the best in other countries, with the caveat that we have more such universities per 10 million people than any other country in the world (except probably Israel). They see a country that still publishes about as much technical, including medical, scholarship as the rest of the world combined, still has state of the art hospitals that are the envy of almost anywhere (with the caveat that some hospitals may beat "ours" in a given procedure or technique).

Some only see equality as the important metric. Those people widely quoted and OECD report last spring that put the US low on a lot of secondary-school educational standards. I looked at the stats behind the report, and it was depressing: Our poor students did almost as well as some "good" countries' students, our good students blew them away--but the difference between the top and bottom groups was important. The "good" countries were often uniformly mediocre, while the US ranged from fairly bad to excellent. Other "good" countries were pretty good, but siphoned off 30-40% of their students into vocational programs that were *not* considered by the report compilers. Those stats compared apples and yoghurt.

Some primarily see excellence as the important metric, and have reasonable standards for excellence. In a world in which we're 5% of the population we don't do 60% of the important research, and shouldn't; that's fine. It's enough that we do far, far more than you'd predict from our population size.

[democracy1st]

18. sounds like a freakin republican with no ideas or idea whats going on!

[xchrom]

20. It's not or it's badly articulated - but part of our national angst since Carter

-- is that we know this to be true.

But our temporarily embarrassed millionaire status prevents us from really talking about it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. Starting early with cliches I see. YES WE CAN!

:eyes:

So this is what he'll be doing for the next year...running around the Country telling us how we should be grateful... that we are the ENVY of the World...laying a big ole guilt trip on us so we'll all shut up while he continues to give away the store? :rofl:

[EFerrari]

25. Were his grandparents Calvinists? It sounds like it most of the time. n/t

[scheming daemons]

23. there's a helluva lot more ppl trying to come here than trying to leave

And like it or not, the rest of the world still looks to us for leadership. They don't always get it from us, but they want it from us.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

30. Exactly.

I'm the child of immigrants myself and I'm very grateful that my parents decided to come here.

[krabigirl]

36. not as much as ten years ago, not even close.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

51. Our post-9/11 security measures have something to do with that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

45. Actually that is changing

and quite fast...

And that is over the last five years or so by the way.

[treestar]

85. +1000000

We even have people who live here illegally rather than go back.

[sudopod]

89. We're better than Poland, lol

USA USA USA!

(Note: I did not forget Poland. +5 for me)

[taught_me_patience]

37. Our immigration policy is the envy of the world

We're still the #1 place that immigrants want to come to.

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. That has been changing over the last ten years

and accelerated over the last five.

[ipaint]

38. American exceptonalism.

Utter garbage but the comfy upper middle class eats it up.

[Diclotican]

41. Horse with no Name

Horse with no Name

At one time, before Reagan, US was the envy of the rest of the world.. Today not so.... One time, US was indeed a country the rest of the world admired, and tried to make their own.. Not that any more..

One time US had the best schools in the world, and you still have great schools, if you is able to pay for it..

One time your system was envy of the rest of the world.. Not anymore..

But, you can make it posible again, if you turn around, and make the sacrifices nessesary to do it..
If you shoose it then..

Diclotican

[nadinbrzezinski]

48. And how are you my friend?

We have been thinking about you and what happened in your country.

[Diclotican]

56. nadinbrzezinski

nadinbrzezinski

Hello My friend im fine.. The most shock is over, even tho the soroow is stil there.. But we wil surive and posible make our country a better one than it was before.. Breivik shall never ruin our democracy.. He wil end up in a prison cell for the rest of his life.. Despised by everyone.. Even his own kind hate him, and have turned their back on him.. So he is really a lonely man now..

It have been kind to se how suportive everyone have been when this hit us. It was a horrible act of terror.. And most feared it was the extremist Islamics who was bombing Oslo.. It was not them, it was a lone "wolf" of norwigian decent who did it.. And the newspapers is full of the case, and wil posible be that for a long time. At least to the case is closed next year..

Next year, wil be interesting, as the man wil go to trial, and hopefully the prosecutors wil make a ironclead case, and he wil never se the light of day again.. Or at least not the outside of a nice little cell...

Diclotican

[PufPuf23]

47. One would hope POTUS Obama would be an honest broker and a

reality check than a spokesmodel.

POTUS Obama would have done the USA, The People, the World, and the Democratric Party better if he had not enabled neoliberalism in economic and foreign policy in action as POTUS.

The neoliberal economic and foreign policy is an empirical and theoretical failure and differ little from that of the neo-conservatives in objective or actual result.

[elehhhhna]

49. he meant the third world

we are the best at talking shit about being the best

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

59. When all else fails wave the flag. And, don't forget "God Bless America" to top it off.

:puke:

[tnvoter]

63. If we are not the envy of the world, why do so many come?

I disagree with you. If the U.S. were not "all that," people wouldn't be literally "dying" to become Americans. I know lots of people, including those who are NOT from third world countries, who would give their left arm to live in this country.

We are, in fact, the envy of the world.

You may not like the politicians we have. Many Americans don't. But the system is far better than others in creating prosperity.

[Nye Bevan]

65. Millions of illegal immigrants; people overstaying visas and sneaking in over the border.

The USA certainly seems to be attractive to many, many people.

[EFerrari]

66. Immigration is at a 60 year low. n/t

[Nye Bevan]

68. Do people die of thirst in the desert trying to sneak into Mexico? (nt)

[EFerrari]

71. The flow is very much the other way right now. n/t

[Horse with no Name]

75. They don't have to. There are MANY expat communities in Mexico

and my many border crossings I do not recall being asked where I was born, forced to prove citizenship or frisked on the Mexican side--only the American side.

http://www.expatcommunities.com/mexico-expatriates.html

[Lydia Leftcoast]

81. They are no longer coming from Western Europe

or Japan or Australia or other developed countries.

Most of the countries that are supplying America with immigrants are Third World.

I just came from nearly a month in Scandinavia, and anyone who emigrated from there to the U.S. today would need their head examined.

[Bluerthanblue]

90. western europe is only allotted 27,000 visa's a year-

http://www.lawcom.com/immigration/visabul.shtml

according to people who know.

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of people who want to come to the US. As hard as that might be for you to believe.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

94. Look at your own nearest large city

If it's typical, there's a huge Latino neighborhood, and neighborhoods of Southeast Asians, Chinese, Africans, and maybe Eastern Europeans (in Portland, for instance).

Where is the Scandinavian neighborhood in your city? Where is the German neighborhood? Does anyone live in the Japanese neighborhood anymore, or is it all restaurants and import shops?

[Joe the Revelator]

69. It must be miserable being you.

[Horse with no Name]

76. Not nearly as miserable as someone who is paid to defend

the indefensible. I sleep like a baby at night.

[Joe the Revelator]

79. That's your response? That I'm a paid shill? Come on friend, you can do better then that tired line.

[ceile]

95. May I borrow your rose colored glasses? n/t

[Odin2005]

70. Carter tried to be honest, and look what happened to Carter.

Americans want to be told that we are #1. In that way we are no different that the Ancient Roman Republic, political candidates in Rome has to wax poetic about how glorious Rome was even though they were committing atrocities abroad and stealing the land of farmers at home.

[indepat]

80. Sounds like so much RW hyperbole except our 11 aircraft carrier battle groups

that can be stationed exert hegemony on the seven seas are surely the envy of the world who can take comfort that such military might were possible only through the rest of the world funding much of our sophisticated weaponry. :patriot:

[0rganism]

82. any candidate who *doesn't* say something like that is going to lose big

There's nothing American voters want, nay, need, to hear more than, "We're Number One!"

Simple politics. It doesn't matter how true it might be that we're number 13 or number 39 or number 124 in some specific area, you'd better wear that flag lapel pin proudly and chant "USA USA" when your side has the ball, or start planning your retirement.

The fact that Obama's pandering so blatantly to the most vapid idiots among us gives me some hope, actually. For a while, I've been wondering if he even cares about re-election, or maybe planned to throw the race from the beginning. At least when he does this he's showing signs that he's going to campaign like he knows it matters.

[Bluerthanblue]

83. we may not be the envy of the world, but people are dying to become

one of us.

Or have you not noticed?


:shrug:


"The Best" is pretty subjective- :shrug: Your "best" may not be everyones.

I'm sure you can find better things to get mad at him for, No??

[treestar]

84. It is a thing one must say to the American people

We've been number one since the USSR fell. We must be told that. Our egos are too big.

Besides, it means nothing.

[primavera]

86. Nice quote by Edith Wharton

"How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be 'American' before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, and having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?"
- Edith Wharton, letter to Barrett Wendell (19 July 1919)

[Bluerthanblue]

102. that is an excellent quote- which addresses the

notion that if people aren't flocking to the US in record numbers there must be something very wrong with us, very well.



Many of those who were immigrants came here as the result of persecution, famine, poverty, and hopelessness. During the later half of the 1800's land was free for the settling. That situation couldn't go on forever-

:shrug:

[tgal]

91. Well we do have the most prisoners in prison

per capita than any other country.

751 per 100,000 people.

So see we are number one in something.....


Thanks for the post Horse, agree, quit feeding the meme or do something.

[mnhtnbb]

92. Damn. Are the TV's at the White House still tuned to Faux News?

Where does he get that kind of crap?

[Rex]

93. We are number #1 in largest debt on the planet!

See? We are #1!!! USAUSA!!!

[ceile]

96. Agreed. n/t

[tawadi]

97. Wish he'd get some new speechwriters. eom

[senseandsensibility]

98. Most of all, even above what you stated in your OP, our

HEALTHCARE system is not the envy, but the laughingstock, of the world. K and R, and it's so disappointing to see time and again how out of touch Obama is.

[pam4water]

99. He has bought in to the American exceptional-ism BS. Sad.