Grandmother Speech - By the People: The Election of Barack Obama - Preview - BBC Two

[TUCBAMA49]

Someone put this piece on the site I go to each day to get my "Obama fix" - to give me a smile when something ugly is said on the TV or when I read something about him that makes me cringe.I remembered when I watched it the day he gave the speech and it made me cry along with him.

He will go down as one of, if not , the best this country has ever seen. It will take decades and the death of the last of the racists in our country for it to be seen. Our children see no color - they see character.

[manyara02]

Barack Obama is/will be named one of this country's greatest presidents.

[nlbama04]

@manyara02 what are you smoking?! He will go down as one of the worst of all time.

[charlesmustang]

@nlbama04 And how will he go down as one of the worst ever? Because he tried to erect a government that deviates from the corrupt policies that have plagued this nation for so long? Is it because he is attempting to counteract the negative policies that have sent us into a record deficit? Is it because he is trying to make healthcare a viable option for all Americans? Or is it because his skin is black and does not look like the status quo for which u have grown accustomed? What r u smoking?

[ron13000000]

Hussein darling holywood is holywood, to run USA is a bit more complicated, isnt it?

[portlanddem]

oh please!!

Bush = Because of Utter Shithead Hypocrites!

Obama was elected BECAUSE of the worst president EVER!!! You know that as well as I do.

Obama wouldn't have even been a candidate had it not been for all of George W. Bush's failures!

[adelyn123]

@portlanddem - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Carter was the worst president ever, Obama just pasted him...now Obama will go down as the worse president ever!

I never had to worry about my job under Bush.

[portlanddem]

@adelyn123 gimme a break!

You piece of shit tea-baggers are the most crooked group I've EVER heard of!! Were you even around during Carter's term?? I doubt it.

Nice you never had to worry about your job under Bush, when mine and MILLIONS of others were outsourced not once, but FOUR FUCKING TIMES--so my employer could get yet, another, tax break!

Fucking crooks--oh and tell that other piece of shit John Boehner I'm going to do EVERYTHING I can to get him kicked out of office!!!!!

[adelyn123]

@portlanddem - you lost your job four times? HAHAHAHAHA Ya fucking dumbass! Maybe it's because you are too inept just like the president. It's not my problem you're so stupid and incompetent you can't keep a job!! I work in IT and my job's never been outsourced. I'm not a dumb ass either. At the very least, after the second job I would consider a career change. Do you ever learn from your mistakes or are you truly just a dumb ass? How's the welfare checks working out for ya?

[portlanddem]

@adelyn123 NO, dumbass. Since you seem to be just *so* brilliant working in IT, why don't you look deeper into the hi-tech sector and see the amount of jobs that were outsourced overseas thanks to George W. Bush--not Obama on this one, but Bush! No, you are a dumbass if you truly don't know about the jobs that were outsourced--that is what I was referring to. Talk about inept!!--do you ever learn from your mistakes? Obviously not, as you made it plainly clear in your response.

[adelyn123]

@portlanddem Dude, I'm not the one who keeps losing my job. Nice try buddy but you're the dumbass who keeps losing his job. How's that hopey changy working for ya? Got a job yet?  LOL or ya still cashing those welfare checks?

[portlanddem]

@adelyn123 FYI, I've never been on welfare, and I hope I am never on welfare in my life. What is hopey changy--who's changy?

[solid220]

@adelyn123 wow its kinda sad that u jst had to steal a line from palin plz next time steal a line from someone who is not iliterate

[adelyn123]

@solid220 - whatever, hows that oil spill working out? The president is such an dumbazz he can't figure it how to go about stopping it because it wasn't in a text book. Libturds don't know how to solve problems not already written in a textbook. But Obambi is quick to refuse any help from people that might actually know what they are doing. Obambi's ego is sooo large he'll let the oil spill for the rest of his ONE term before he lets someone with a real brain in to stop it!

[solid220]

@adelyn123 ummm im pretty sure obama isnt an engineer, nor did he cause it. the only thing he can do is deploy as many resources as he can to stop it. also plz stop talking when u gain about 100 pts in IQ then we can talk. also your buddies the republicans cant solve problems lets name the problems they couldnt help with, katrina, 911, the debt in which bush had a surplus when he came into office, also invading a country we shouldnt of been in, and pretty much every issue we face today.

[adelyn123]

@solid220 - Okay buddy, that's why the country rates Obambi's handling of the oil spill worse then Bush's handling of Katrina. Obambi is NOT a leader, he is a spineless little weasel that is in WAY OVER his INEXPERIENCED head! Oh, and the DEBT was NOT a surplus, the budget was (thx to republican congress)-BIG difference but I can understand how a libturd wouldn't know the difference. And while we are on that subject Obambi has increased the deficit more in 18 months than Bush did in 8 years!

[solid220]

@adelyn123 ummm wow that entire paragraph jst proved your ignorance. u do realize a surplus means that the country was making money and that surplus could've been used towards are debts HELLO? ANYONE HOME? no damn i knew it. also they did help get the surplus but a few years later with both the white house and congress under REPUBLICAN CONTROL they skyrocked the debt U FUCKING MORON. and plz 66% of regestered voters disaproved of his actions with katrina. and again wrong on the debt look it up

[solid220]

also one last thing u dumb hick bitch u do realize sarah palin is a dumb ass bitch right or are u jst into the titties over any substance

[manyara02]

@adelyn123 Actually Pres Obama's approval increased to well over 50% approval after the spill was plugged. I wouldn't go, strictly, by polls. After all, there was a time in our country where former Pres Reagan's poll numbers were 39%. Yet, guess what? He won another term. Grow up. Study the FACTS!! Leave the conjecture & prejudice on the wayside for the unlearned & puppets who stand as talking point machines for the GOP!! By the way, spineless & irresponsible defines George W. Bush!

[Flexiable]

The editing of this doesn't do the speech justice

[WillSKB88]

I am SO glad America voted for this man, he's right for them. Jus' saying s'all :D

[hpconnectmoon]

how the fuck is he right for us? he hasnt done shit to help us. the healthcare plan is a bunch of shit. besides that what has he done to help?

[portlanddem]

Do you really want me to list all of his accomplishments here in this video?? It would take about 5 separate comments because I'd be running out of room--seriously. Even aside from the health care thing.

[hpconnectmoon]

yes please do list them i dont care how long it takes.

[portlanddem]

Ok, from when he was sworn in I will start and yes, this will take many replies here. Note: I'm not going to list what he did BEFORE he was sworn in; even though his critics bitch and whine blaming him for things out of of his control BEFORE he was sworn in:

Obama hasn't done anything? Consider the record ALL within his first year:

Outstanding speech. Finally a president that solves problems instead of blaming others. In addition:

[portlanddem]

Two days after he was sworn in, Obama banned the use of "harsh interrogation" and ordered the closing of Guantanamo.

A day later, Obama reversed George W. Bush's funding cutoff to overseas family planning organizations — saving millions of lives with the stroke of a pen.

Three days after that, Obama gave a green light to the California car-emissions standards that Bush had been blocking for six years — an important step on the road to cleaner air and a cooler planet.

[portlanddem]

Two weeks after that, Obama signed the stimulus bill — a $787 billion accomplishment. Only approx 31% of it has been spent.

Ten days after that, Obama formally announced America's withdrawal from Iraq to be complete by June 2011.

A week later — we're in early March now — Obama erased Bush's decision to restrict federal funding for stem-cell research.

In April and June, Obama forced Chrysler and GM into bankruptcy, helping both of them rebuild.

[portlanddem]

In June, Obama reset the tone of our relations with the entire Arab world w/ a single speech — an accomplishment that the Bush admin failed to achieve despite a series of desperate PR moves (anyone remember Charlotte Beers?) & a "public diplomacy" budget of $1 billion a year.

Also in June, Obama unveiled the "Cash for Clunkers" program, a "socialist" giveaway that reanimated the corpse of our car industry — leading, for example, to the billion-dollar profit that Ford announced 2 wks ago.

[portlanddem]

I haven't even mentioned Sonia Sotomayor, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the order to release the torture memos, Obama's push for charter schools, his $288 billion tax cut, or the end of Bush's war on medical marijuana. Or the minor fact that he seems to have — with Bush's help, it must be said — stopped the financial collapse, revived the credit markets, and nudged the economy toward 3.5 percent growth in the third quarter of 2009 and 4.7 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2009.

[portlanddem]

Oh, and one more thing: President Obama is now a month or two from accomplishing the awesome and seemingly impossible task that eluded mighty presidents like FDR, LBJ, and WJC — health-care reform.

Obama's early returns also include a host of remarkably cautious and prudent national-security decisions that seem, these days, to have been completely forgotten including:

[portlanddem]

Appointing a conservative Bush holdover holdover like Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, as well as another conservative Kathleen Sebellius as head of Dept of Health Services, even when Sebellius came under fire from Democrats.

Appointing an establishment centrist like Leon Panetta at CIA.

Appointing a hard-ass like Stanley McChrystal to head up our military forces in Afghanistan, despite McChrystal's dubious involvement in torture and the cover-up of Pat Tillman's death.

[portlanddem]

Increasing the number of drone attacks on Al Qaeda — more in the last year than all the Bush years combined.

Reinstating, with tweaks, Bush's military tribunal system for Guantanamo prisoners.

Fighting, in another unexpected defense of a controversial Bush policy, lawsuits against the "warrant-less wiretapping" program — as recently as this weekend with a decision that a leading civil liberties group called "extremely disappointing."

[portlanddem]

Sending, way back in February, following through on another campaign promised when he sent 17k more soldiers to Afghanistan. As Fareed Zakaira recently pointed out, this was just three thousand fewer soldiers than Bush sent to Iraq for his famous "surge."

Noticing a pattern yet? The first half of Obama's accomplishments above is mostly liberal stuff. The bottom half is all pretty damn conservative. Which brings us to The Problem With America Today:

[portlanddem]

Blame it on the Internet, on partisan politics, on the economic crash, on the legacy of war or Fox News or Michael Moore, but our vital center is getting stiff — and it is starting to stink.

Liberals are upset because Obama didn't shut down Guantanamo or stop the wiretapping program or end all wars or support gay marriage and kill Don't Ask Don't Tell, while on the other hand,

[portlanddem]

Conservatives are pissed off because they hate health-care reform, family planning, real "family values" e.g. Mark Sanford, ending any war at all, organic gardening at the White House, and government in general.

What's worse, both sides are so angry and righteous that they can't even begin to give credit where it is due. When was the last time you heard a conservative cheer about that $288 billion tax *CUT*? Or credit Obama for the centrism it took to appoint McChrystal, Panetta, and Gates?

[portlanddem]

And how many liberals choose to be understanding about the practical difficulties of shutting down Guantanamo, achieving equal rights for gays, or tapping Al Qaeda's phones?

And where, on either side, can you find a scrap of humility about the staggeringly complex challenge of Afghanistan and Pakistan? Or a scrap of gratitude at having escaped global financial doom?

So the question, a year since we elected him, isn't how much Obama has accomplished.

[portlanddem]

The question is why we've turned so small and mean that we only see half of it — the half we happen to agree with, and choose to totally over-look the other sides point-of-view.

[Peterjohnpatrick]

He's a good man. He tried to introduce a health plan which he believed would receive support from the Republican Party, however their rejection of the bill, along with its rejection from members of his own party killed it. A major problem is that the US Senate now requires a 60 seat majority to pass legislation. Until recent years it was 51, making change easier, the 60 seat rule was only really used for laws concerning slavery, but has now been abused my modern politicians.

[westlondongang]

i got goosebumps

[hollium]

bless him, he's crying.

[ECTBWHO]

......

[turtle2hug]

I wish he were only to blame. The Democrats laid down like welcome mats for the opposing view.

[hpconnectmoon]

he hasnt done shit. cant believe yall voted for him.

[JMietser]

so what he has done with Guantanimo is nothing?

[smallvideobox]

He is doing enough but it is really complicated but I think you could think that of your self.

[smallvideobox]

Give him some time give him some time...

[theimben]

Can't belive yall didn't