ABOUT THAT CAMPAIGN SPEECH LAST NIGHT

I think Charles Murray encapsulates what I was thinking:

Is He Really This Ignorant?

About halfway through the speech, my wife, watching me mutter darkly at the television screen, said: "Why are you so upset? He hasn't said anything." And that pretty much sums it up.

I know the speech was supposed to be upbeat and not for policy wonks.

But I'm worried that it's not just a matter of what he chooses to put in speeches, but what he knows. It looks very much as if the president is oblivious to everything we've learned about social programs and educational reforms in the last 40 years—and by "we" I include policy analysts on the left as well as right. The guy never indicates that he is aware that we've tried a whole bunch of the same stuff he wants to try and evaluated it repeatedly and—read my lips—it doesn't work.

He makes a great candidate, though

.

Indeed. As if the campaign of 2007-2008 wasn't long enough, now it can be understood that it has been extended for another few years. A friend and I were talking last night and, like Murray, we simply couldn't believe that this guy intended to repeat all the leftist policy mistakes of the last century or so, and pretend that he is pushing something new and improved. It boggles the mind, really. But my friend managed to put it all in context. He pointed out that Obama would simply do what all the rest of his intellectual comrades have done when their beautiful fantasies don't work and inevitably bring on a situation far worse than the original problem they were trotted out to solve: he'll simply say, "But I meant well."

And all will be forgiven. Memories will be quickly wiped clean; and in a few years another leftist demagogue will rise and bring forth the same useless notions and label them hope and change. And the cycle will repeat itself yet again.

UPDATE: Why am I not surprised at this? The MSM was quick to hail the "historic" speech made by our Messiah, and gleefully report how much everyone loved it, but they can't avoid the reality: it was just a bunch of platitudes punctuated by more calls for government spending and expansion. Here's what the economic side of the country heard, hidden in the hopeychangey stuff.