Pain Trickled Up (Obama’s Cooper Union Speech)
March 27th, 2008 Posted in Of InterestHow many people can create a refrain like “pain trickled up” (a nice crystallization of its substance) as part of a detailed economic policy speech? In his Cooper Union speech today Obama made a call for regulation and transparency and acknowledged of the role of widespread fraud (and its facilitation by Republican policies) in the current financial crisis.
In the more than two centuries since then, we have struggled to balance the same forces that confronted Hamilton and Jefferson – self-interest and community; markets and democracy; the concentration of wealth and power, and the necessity of transparency and opportunity for each and every citizen.
A subtle tribute hear to Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech on slavery, which also appealed to the views of the founding fathers.
The difference between McCain’s policy free speech and Obama’s is simply embarrassing.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSuT5zN2SPI]
One Response to “Pain Trickled Up (Obama’s Cooper Union Speech)”
By Toby Higbie on Mar 27, 2008
Agreed. I read the speech online this morning and when I came to “pain trickled up” I immediately Googled the phrase to see if this is something that has been circulating. It looks like this was a new one, and one that bloggers and reporters rightly latched on to. It’s great. Clinton came out with a reply that Obama’s speech offers no concrete proposals, natch. It doesn’t matter. At this point, anyone can come up with proposals (and he does mention some). But who can articulate the path forward?
I’ve been reading Reagan speeches this week to prepare for a class. Obama is the anti-Reagan. He even uses historical sketches in the same way, but to the opposite end.