Obama's Speech on Libya

I just finished watching this speech and I think it's possibly the best speech he has ever given.

I know that as soon as he is done talking, Fox News (aka the Republican Party) will begin trying to turn your attention away from this extremely positive and detailed presentation.

I am going to predict their response:

The Republicans will come from both sides.  They will say that by waiting, we appeared to be weak in the eyes of the world.  They will tell you that we need a president that is not afraid to act.  At the same time, they will pretend that he acted recklessly.  He should have told congress in advance and sought their approval.  They will tell you that in hard economic times, we don't have the money to spend on someone else's war.

His own party will have those that come out against him.  This is just posturing for the presidential run.  We are within 18 months of the next election and it's time to become visible.  Watch those that speak out and they will be the same faces you see trying to take his place as the Democrats candidate for president.

Here is my caution, no, my plea to you.  Do not allow yourself to be swayed by The Final Word.

As president, he needs to act first.  Everyone else gets to watch and then formulate a response.

The same is true with the speech.  He has to talk first.  Even as I write this, their speech writers are trying to pick apart his speech.  The Republican response will start with a "God Bless our troops," sort of false church/patriotic position.  The weak minded will say, "Hey, they mentioned God so God must be on their side."  The GOP will then go on to challenge the trillion dollar price tag assigned to the war they started in Iraq.

So, if you want to believe all of that, go ahead.  Just don't believe because it was the last thing you heard.

Here is what I heard:

1.  We learned from Iraq.  Don't try to overthrow a government  or invade without an exit strategy.
2. There is a time table for turning over power.  Wednesday.  I heard it and so did you.  The GOP will say it's not specific enough.  They will say this even if he'd said, "We will deliver the last bag of humanitarian rice at 4 pm on May 3rd.
3. He explained why he waited to go in.
4. He explained why he went in quickly.
5. He didn't mention that he did all of this very visibly and the nay-sayers could have spoken up before hand.
6. He looked into the camera and said, "We are not afraid to act.  We told you what we were going to do and then we did it."  This is an important message to the world.  Everyone needs to know that we will do what we say.  I believe he was saying this directly to North Korea and Iran.  They need to know if we say we've had enough, that we mean it.
7. He talked about why we don't go in everywhere we are needed.  He also explained why this isn't an argument to never go in at all.
8. He explained about the coalition that includes Nato, the United Nations and League of Arab nations.

As I watched him, I felt proud to be an American.  This is what we all need to stand for.  Not democracy, but freedom.

Let's face it, we're lucky to have been born in the United States.

But with this windfall comes a tremendous burden.  We cannot turn our back on the world.  They need us, and we need them.  Together, we are greater than the sum of us as individuals.

This was a truly great speech and if you didn't see it, find it online and take a look.

Judge for yourself.  You can do that because you are free to do as you wish.

My guess is that is speech is unavailable in North Korea, China and Iran.

This just in:  The official Republican response is that they think we need to overthrow Gadaffi.  Kind of like we did to Saddam.  That worked really well before so why not do it again.

Now, I'm all fired up to do some world saving...

Up, up and away...

j