The adult in the room…

I’m sure all of us Obama supporters agree that his speech was superb.   While it admirably covered all the “wonky” stuff that needed to be discussed, I was more interested in the motif running through the speech that was  brought to a head in the final 10 minutes.

A moral issue defining our national character.  He waited until the end to expostulate this dictate, which made it all the more powerful.  Playing into his hands were the dour elected Republicans,  making their distain childishly evident, including an outright verbal attack calling the President a liar.  I may be wrong, but I believe there are a lot of citizens who truly long for a moral compass in their lives.

A quick story:  When I was a very, very young lad about 7 or so, during summer vacation, I was alone at my school while construction was going on.  For the first time in my life, from the construction crew,  I heard street profanity, which frankly exhilarated and empowered me, even though something deep inside signaled me that it was not universally accepted.  Anyway, the following day, I was back, only this time a new crew was on the scene.  I remember shouting out the previous day’s “new cool words’ thinking I would get approval  (remember, I’m 7!).  I’ll never forget, this big, gentle guy who was the crew chief of the new crew registered sheer repulsion at my words and told me that I should never, ever say them, especially in public.  (Looking back on this, I’m thankful I did not try out my potty mouth on my mom or dad!).  Anyway, I hope you get the point.  These Republicans are like 7-year-0lds who think that they can disrespect the office of the President without consequences.  Because of the President’s powerful speech and their total lack of respect for him and his speech, it is clear that they need a big, gentle crew chief to let them know that good kids don’t go around shouting obscene lies and trying to subjugate the country’s good for political gain.  So far they have no such crew chief advising them, even assuming they would listen were such a person extant.  Unfortunately for them, most of the country is finally beginning to see this clearly.