OBAMA’S SPEECH: “BABY TALK.” “Consider the condescension implicit in the president’s statement—’a term that most people outside of Washington have probably never heard of before.’ These ‘people outside of Washington’ are not little children being lectured on an obscure subject by a worldly adult. These people outside Washington are … citizens. Judging by the polls, most of us have opinions about whether, and under what conditions, the debt ceiling should be raised. We don’t seem to be as ignorant as Obama thinks we are of the term or concept of a debt ceiling. But the president assumes we’ve never bothered our pretty little heads about such a thing.”
UPDATE: Peter Roff: Obama Shameless As Debt Crisis Looms.
But Rand Simberg finds something in the speech to praise:
He called the country the “greatest nation on earth.” Twice, I think.
Does this mean the apology tours are over?
We can hope.
MORE: Ann Althouse analyzes the speeches: “I’d say Boehner won.”
But, from the comments:
Obama is rounding the final turn and is whipping his political horse to come across as the Leader Who Wanted to Save the Value of the Dollar.
Something tells me that the dollars inflation is the feature and not the defect to the real Obama. It always has been.
Once you put away the habitual presumption that all of the forces at work in DC want a solution rather than a default, then it becomes clear who wants the default now before the 2012 election he is sure to lose… unless the Crisis of all Crises in engulfing the country and he can pin it on Congress.
Given his actions of the last couple of years, this’ll be a hard storyline to sell even with media support. But yeah, that doesn’t mean it isn’t the plan.
MORE STILL: A reader emails:
In his speech tonight, President Obama made sure to mention that President Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times during his presidency. By my math, that’s more than once every six months while he was in office. And yet, now it’s dangerous to only extend the debt ceiling for 6 months. Can someone get President Obama to explain what’s changed?
Self-interest.