MR. OBAMA: Everybody's got an opinion. But that's part of what makes for a democracy. You know, it's contentious and people are hitting back. I do think, though, that the American people are all in a place where they understand it took us a while to get into this mess, it's going to take a while for us to get out of it. And if they have confidence that I'm making steps to deal with issues like health care and energy and education, that matter deeply to their daily lives, then I think they're going to give us some time.
FD: Healthcare, Energy, and Jobs... ok, maybe education is part of the Jobs. Obama is "staying on course" through this economic storm.
This situation was "set up" under the Bush administration. The TARP was pulled out by Bush. Lack of regulation was a hallmark of the Bush years.
Greed was not Bush: I would say that was going pretty good under the Reagan Administration - the focus has been for 30 years on financial profits and financial gains. Getting something with little or no work.
One of my students wanted to know the other day:
"If Maddoff had $55 billion, why didn't he start a business... instead of running a Ponsi scheme?"
We don't value work in this country anymore. We value the Grade or the trophy and "show me the money."
The United States of America is the world's largest DRUG USER - what does that tell you, Folks.
The War on Drugs started under Reagan.
I can make a case that Vodka as well as Star Wars took down the Soviet Union (CCCP).
I believe that Obama can put USa back together again.
He seems to have been there and come back... neither Clinton "I did not inhale/I did not have sex with that girl" and the Bush "Dry Drunk/I have not done it (cocaine) in seven years" presidents were able to say or do for themselves. As Reagan, used to say: "Are you better off today?" Yes, we are back on track!
"Yes. We can." is more than Kool-aid.
We can come back from this mess.
NOTE: Kool-Aid was originally called Fruit SMACK. And it was Drink the Flavor-Aid
Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins and his wife Kitty in Hastings, Nebraska, USA. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack. To reduce shipping costs, in 1927, Perkins discovered a way to remove the liquid from Fruit Smack, leaving only a powder. This powder was named Kool-Ade. A few years later, it was renamed 'Kool-Aid', due to a change in U.S. government regulations regarding the need for fruit juice in products using the suffix "-ade"[citation needed][dubious – discuss]. Perkins moved his production to Chicago in 1931 and Kool-Aid was sold to General Foods in 1953.[1]
Hastings still celebrates a yearly summer festival called Kool-Aid Days on the second weekend in August, in honor of their city's claim to fame.
The saying "Do not drink the Kool-Aid" refers to the Jonestown mass suicide and means "Do not trust any group you find to be a little on the kooky side," or "Whatever they tell you, do not believe it too strongly."[6] Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly is known for using the term in this manner.[7]Hastings still celebrates a yearly summer festival called Kool-Aid Days on the second weekend in August, in honor of their city's claim to fame.
Having "drunk the Kool-Aid" also means being a strong believer in a particular philosophy or mission — wholeheartedly or blindly believing in its virtues.[8][9]
The expression also refers to the activities of the Merry Pranksters, a group of people associated with novelist Ken Kesey[citation needed] who, in the early 1960s, traveled around the United States and held events called "Acid Tests", where LSD-laced Kool-Aid was passed out to the public (LSD was legal in the U.S. until 1966). Those who drank the "Kool-Aid" passed the "Acid Test". "Drinking the Kool-Aid" in that context meant accepting the LSD drug culture, and the Pranksters' "turned on" point of view. These events were described in Tom Wolfe's 1968 classic "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". However the expression is never used figuratively in the book, but only literally. [10]
The earliest known use of the term in its figurative sense (outside descriptions of people ''actually drinking'' real Kool-Aid), is from a 1987 quote about former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry in the Washington Post.[11][12] The term is derived from the 1978 cult suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple, persuaded his followers to move to Jonestown. Late in the year he ordered his followers to commit suicide by drinking grape-flavored Flavor Aid laced with potassium cyanide. (Those unable, such as infants, and those unwilling to comply received involuntary injections.) A camera from inside the compound shows a large chest being opened, clearly showing boxes of both Flavor Aid and Kool-Aid.[13] There is also testimony from criminal investigators at the Jonestown inquest stating that there were "cool aid" [sic] packets there.[14] It is unknown whether these are a reference to the Kool-aid brand packets from the trunk, or simply a generic use of the more popular brand for the product. In what is now commonly called the "Jonestown Massacre", a large majority of the 913 people later found dead drank the brew. (The discrepancy between the idiom and the actual occurrence is likely due to Flavor Aid's relative obscurity, compared to the easily recognizable Kool-Aid.) An earlier usage than 1987 can be attested at least as early as 1982 in the film The Slumber Party Massacre by Amy Holden Jones. In the scene where Valerie 'Val' Bates prepares Kool-Aid, she offers a glass to her sister and says "As the famous Jim Jones once said: 'should have been drinking Kool-Aid'".
FD: Back to the news!
First Read: The day in politics by NBC News
(No I don't get my news from FOX!)
*** A Stellar Performance? Outside of his crack about the Special Olympics (more on that below), President Obama's appearance on Leno last night was a big success for the White House, considering the criticism he was receiving going into the interview. As Washington resembles a zombie-horror movie -- with Congress eating banking executives, Republicans eating Democrats, and Democrats eating Democrats (Chris Dodd vs. Treasury) -- Obama gave perhaps his best explanation of the AIG crisis and those bonuses; he looked like the adult compared with Congress; and he bought his embattled Treasury secretary more time. Forty-eight hours ago, we might have agreed with House Minority Leader John Boehner that Geithner was on thin ice. But the White House has doubled down on their man. "This guy has not just a banking crisis; he's got the worst recession since the Great Depression, he's got an auto industry that has been on the verge of collapse," Obama told Leno. "And he's doing it with grace and good humor."
*** But A "Special" Gaffe? Yet one of the dangers of a president or political candidate embarking on a non-traditional media blitz -- especially in this 24/7 news environment where opponents are looking to pounce at every opportunity -- is making a gaffe. And Obama made one when joking to Leno about his bowling prowess, or lack thereof. "It was like Special Olympics, or something," Obama said. Uh-oh. But even before the interview aired on the East Coast, the White House apologized for the comment. "The president made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics," deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One. "He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world." President Obama also called Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, to apologize. The incident, in fact, reminds us of the crack Obama made about Nancy Reagan at his first news conference after winning the presidential election. Every once in a while, it seems that Obama gets into this mode where he relaxes a bit too much and, well, does what many folks do in private: make an inappropriate comment.
*** From Leno To The Middle East: Obama's media blitz continues -- with the president delivering remarks today at 12:35 pm ET in DC to the National Conference of State Legislators, with his appearance on "60 Minutes" this Sunday (taped sometime today with Steve Kroft; we'll be spying for him), with his presidential news conference this coming Tuesday, and with his new video to Iran. That's right, coinciding with that country's ancient festival of Nowruz that marks its New Year, Obama has cut a video speaking directly to the people of Iran. "So on the occasion of your New Year, I want you, the people and leaders of Iran, to understand the future that we seek. It's a future with renewed exchanges among our people, and greater opportunities for partnership and commerce. It's a future where the old divisions are overcome, where you and all of your neighbors and the wider world can live in greater security and greater peace." Obama even speaks at the Farsi at the end. "Thank you, and Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak." The president's credibility in the Islamic world has always been an asset the White House and State Department folks have wanted to tap into. We'll see if these remarks, with the president speaking over the heads of Iran's political leadership, get traction. www.whitehouse.gov/Nowruzhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/videos/2009/03_20_1237521600/20090320_Nowruz_Message.mp4
First Read with NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd, every weekday on MSNBC-TV at 9 a.m. ET. For more: The latest edition of First Read is available now athttp://www.firstread.msnbc.com/ !
*** A Stellar Performance? Outside of his crack about the Special Olympics (more on that below), President Obama's appearance on Leno last night was a big success for the White House, considering the criticism he was receiving going into the interview. As Washington resembles a zombie-horror movie -- with Congress eating banking executives, Republicans eating Democrats, and Democrats eating Democrats (Chris Dodd vs. Treasury) -- Obama gave perhaps his best explanation of the AIG crisis and those bonuses; he looked like the adult compared with Congress; and he bought his embattled Treasury secretary more time. Forty-eight hours ago, we might have agreed with House Minority Leader John Boehner that Geithner was on thin ice. But the White House has doubled down on their man. "This guy has not just a banking crisis; he's got the worst recession since the Great Depression, he's got an auto industry that has been on the verge of collapse," Obama told Leno. "And he's doing it with grace and good humor."
*** But A "Special" Gaffe? Yet one of the dangers of a president or political candidate embarking on a non-traditional media blitz -- especially in this 24/7 news environment where opponents are looking to pounce at every opportunity -- is making a gaffe. And Obama made one when joking to Leno about his bowling prowess, or lack thereof. "It was like Special Olympics, or something," Obama said. Uh-oh. But even before the interview aired on the East Coast, the White House apologized for the comment. "The president made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics," deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One. "He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world." President Obama also called Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, to apologize. The incident, in fact, reminds us of the crack Obama made about Nancy Reagan at his first news conference after winning the presidential election. Every once in a while, it seems that Obama gets into this mode where he relaxes a bit too much and, well, does what many folks do in private: make an inappropriate comment.
*** From Leno To The Middle East: Obama's media blitz continues -- with the president delivering remarks today at 12:35 pm ET in DC to the National Conference of State Legislators, with his appearance on "60 Minutes" this Sunday (taped sometime today with Steve Kroft; we'll be spying for him), with his presidential news conference this coming Tuesday, and with his new video to Iran. That's right, coinciding with that country's ancient festival of Nowruz that marks its New Year, Obama has cut a video speaking directly to the people of Iran. "So on the occasion of your New Year, I want you, the people and leaders of Iran, to understand the future that we seek. It's a future with renewed exchanges among our people, and greater opportunities for partnership and commerce. It's a future where the old divisions are overcome, where you and all of your neighbors and the wider world can live in greater security and greater peace." Obama even speaks at the Farsi at the end. "Thank you, and Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak." The president's credibility in the Islamic world has always been an asset the White House and State Department folks have wanted to tap into. We'll see if these remarks, with the president speaking over the heads of Iran's political leadership, get traction. www.whitehouse.gov/Nowruzhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/videos/2009/03_20_1237521600/20090320_Nowruz_Message.mp4
First Read with NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd, every weekday on MSNBC-TV at 9 a.m. ET. For more: The latest edition of First Read is available now athttp://www.firstread.msnbc.com/ !
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