So Much More Than Words

It was a time of economic uncertainty. The jobs picture was bleak. The president's approval numbers were low. The opposition was howling that his policies were ruining the economy. Voters were losing faith in his ability to handle economic matters. What did this president do? He delivered a major speech. He noted that millions of Americans had recently been thrown out of their jobs. He proclaimed there was "an urgent need to accelerate job growth in the short term." And he proposed job-creating initiatives that would cost up to $200 billion and called on Congress to enact these measures quickly.

That president was Barack Obama — back in December 2009, when his economic advisers feared that the recovery, which had been boosted by the stimulus package passed earlier in the year, was weakening. After months of wrangling in the White House, Obama and his aides had finally concluded that another shot of stimulus — though they didn't call it that — was necessary. So that month, Obama delivered a big speech at the Brookings Institution and proclaimed the need for a series of new initiatives. But what came next? Basically, not much. There was little, if any, follow-up.
~ from You Don't Have to Watch Obama's Big Jobs Speech by David Corn ~

Humans have a love affair with words. We assign great import to them. Often, in a multitude of situations, we put great emphasis in mouthing the right words, the ones that will make us look good, strong, caring and/or effective. This is as true (if not more so) in the realm of politics and governance.

But words lose their chief thrust when not backed up by congruent action. Telling someone you love them, while concurrently beating the snot out of them for every perceived slight, causes the word, love, to ring hollow. Telling someone that you're on their side and "have their back" means little if at every opportunity you switch sides. Declaring that world peace is your number one priority doesn't amount to a hill of beans if you direct your armed forces to engage in multiple "wars."

As David Corn points out, it really doesn't matter what the president says tonight in his address to the nation; what matters is what he does afterwards. Since assuming office, the president has had a great deal of difficulty in matching his actions to his words.

I'm not going to recount the myriad of his campaign pledges that have not met with any fruition. You easily can find such lists all over the internet. I'm not going to recount all of his speeches to date in which he's indicated one thing, then gone off in a different direction.

I merely want to reiterate Corn's main thesis. When it comes to Barack Obama -- a man who loves words and the turn of a phrase -- what he does matters far more than what he says. So, before we can celebrate or condemn the message contained in tonight's address, we will need to sit on our hands for a month or two.

What he ends up D-O-I-N-G will tell us far more about his presidency than anything he says tonight.