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Hi, I'm Stuart Shepard. This is Stoplight!
It's graduation season.
(Obama) "Congratulations class of Twenty-thirteen."
Graduates get to put on a robe and a funny hat and listen to a speaker who's encouraging
them to dream big and go far. Most of its fluffy rhetoric that's generally harmless.
(Obama) "...And we don't always talk about this idea much these days: Citizenship."
"Let alone celebrate it."
But sometimes the speaker says things that make you wonder. Did the students develop
the discernment to hear what he's really saying?
(Obama) "I'm not going to get partisan either because that's not what citizenship is about."
So a citizen will not be partisan in a graduation speech. Fair enough. So if you were an Ohio State
graduate in the audience, did you smile when he later said...
(Obama) "That's how a small minority of law makers get covered to defeat something the
vast majority of their constituents want."
The part of government where a small minority of law makers can do that would be the Senate.
That minority party of course is the one the President does not belong to. So he's calling
out one party for putting the brakes on his party's agenda which is a "Partisan" statement -- in
a graduation speech -- which he said earlier is not proper for a citizen. I'll let you
decide what that says about him. I also really enjoyed this part.
(Obama) "We have never been people who place all of our faith in government to solve our problems"
"We shouldn't want to."
Here's a little poll. What's his solution for Health Care? Government. Economy? Government.
Energy? Government. Poverty? Government. Housing? Government. Environment? Government. Do you detect a trend??
And then in a perfectly non-partisan fashion he sets his agenda for the students to tackle.
I can summarize it for you. Take more money from successful people.
Push little children into government preschools which means more government employees.
(Obama) "..To build better roads and airports and faster internet."
Did he really say their challenge is faster internet? Well yeah, it's a boiler plate part
of his speeches. He also says all that will take grit and fortitude.
(Obama) "I dare you class of Twenty-Thirteen to do better." "I dare you to dream bigger."
We do too.