The speech at West Point by President Obama on Dec 1, 2009 was one well anticipated by the American people. Whereas some listeners were pleased with his speech and its contents, there were others who were not. After digesting his remarks over a period of hours, my final assessment was that it was a strange, vague, uninspiring speech that sounded more like a lecture. If the intent was to rally the nation it fail way short of that goal.
Never once during the speech did he say the word “win.” Of course I must admit defining what is a “win” in a war like this is difficult if not impossible. So I don’t hold him to account on that. He also threw a bone to those who have been calling for additional troops in Afghanistan while in the same breath telling those who are against additional troops that they will come home after 18 months. The president caught a lot of heat on the 18 months statement from both left and right.
The president tried to explain his long delay in making his decision to send troops but it was not convincing to me. I believe he felt trapped and politically conflicted. An anti-war liberal president having to make such a serious decision about a military matter must have been very hard for him. Afterwards there were Republicans cheering his decision to inject 30K more troops into Afghanistan. Republicans should be very careful in supporting this decision too strongly, as it might come back to hurt them during the 2010 and 2012 elections. So far the Republicans have resisted being drawn into Democratic legislation and bills that are very unpopular among the general population. But if they show too strong a support on the additional troop surge and it all turns into one big disaster, the Democrats will blame the Republicans for sure.
Personally I think Afghanistan is and will be President Obama’s Vietnam. He said it isn’t, but I would not expect him to say anything different. I doubt if his heart was in the speech he gave, the words came but the underlying “fire” to rally the nation, just was not there. But he has committed himself and he is catching flak mostly from the radical left. But the president does not have to fear them or worry about losing their support because they will support and vote for him regardless of what he does against them.
So in my assessment the speech was uninspiring and academic, only time will tell if this president made the right decision. The voters in 2008 made a choice by electing Obama, the troops don’t get a choice, but lets hope they don’t suffer too much from the choice made by the voters.

The National Football League (NFL) is a very large business, and millions of fans watch the teams of their choice each week. My wife, who could care less about football, asked me one Sunday why I watch the games with the mute button on. I told her it was my annoyance-control button-----because the commentators annoy the heck out of me with their incessant prater during the games.
To listen to them argue among themselves about some personal matter during the games about this team or that player is ridiculous and adds nothing to the game. And their bias rhetoric for or against one team or the other is downright insulting. Sometimes the bias is so bad against one team that one would think there wasn’t another team on the field.
On several occasions I thought some of them were going to come to blows over some disagreement that had nothing to do with the game at hand. And the referees are always the target of their rhetoric and ridicule. Things some commentators have uttered occasionally about referees come close to being libel. In addition, I have even missed a current play on the field because a commentator was in a snit about the previous play.
Last year, I found out more about the personal and private lives of the players than I have about their talents and playing abilities. I don’t care about the quarterback’s girlfriend, or what the running back’s brother did at a nightclub last week. I don’t want to hear about why the coach’s wife is divorcing him or how many traffic tickets the wide receiver got last month. All of that stuff has no relevance to the game being played at that time.
Maybe it is just me, but all I want to do is get a bowl of popcorn, a cold drink, sit back in my recliner and watch a football game. Yeah I would like to hear the commentators comment on the plays and the excitement of the game, but I don’t want to hear all their spurious and inane rhetoric about the private lives of the players and the coaches. The commentators need to stop the showcasing and realize that the games are NOT ABOUT THEM!!! Hence, I watch the games mostly with the mute button on--works for me. JUST PLAY THE GAME PEOPLE!!!!!!!

A few days ago a black gentleman from Vineland said that despite my conservatism even I, as a black man, must get a sense of pride seeing a black President of the United States. I told him that the election of Barrack Obama as President of the United States was very bittersweet for me then….. as it is today.
It says a lot about our nation that a black man could be elected to such a high office, but at the same time there is a serious down side to his election. The left touts his election as a historical event of huge magnitude, and rightly so if his being black is the only consideration. But with the man comes his politics and Obama’s political views are so far left that they will eventually do more harm to the nation than healing-----and therein lay the bittersweet taste for me.
Yes, as an American of African ancestry I take cautious pride in Obama’s election as president, but as a conservative I have very deep concerns and disagreements with his far left politics. Equally, I would also be just as concerned if he was too far right in his views. The unknowable for our nation is whether or not it can survive the ravages of his march towards socialism.
I doubt any president comes into office wanting to be a failure, but if Obama continues down the liberal road he is now traveling, allowing his presidency to be run by far left Congressional leaders, then I think history will judge him as one of America’s worse presidents.