The time has come. Obama’s first speech to a joint session of Congress takes place tonight at 9 p.m., broadcast on all major television stations. Will he extend a hand towards Iran, following up on his promise to engage in open discourse with President Ahmadinejad? What will he say about health care reform? The economy?‚
We’ll see tonight. But we know one thing, the kid is feeling some pressure. It’s a big speech that will outline what Americans and the world can expect over the next few months and perhaps even years.
He may talk about what the administration refers to as “AFPAK” – the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I refer to it as a double-edged sword that has the potential to maim the collective world.
Obama said he’s going to send nearly 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but as CNN’s Christiane Amanpour outlines in a report, “[he]‚ seems to be pulling back from a promise to help rebuild Afghanistan and promote democracy there.”
The economy will for sure come up, and the kid is going to have to outline a plan to cut spending, something he said is absolutely necessary. The U.S. spends so much money on foreign missions, and right now we can’t afford to help everyone in the world without first helping ourselves. We should be priority number one. Too many people are out of work, that’s just a fact.
Obama will hopefully come through on a lot of his campaign promises tonight, especially those to do with foreign policy and the economy (one of the main reasons he was elected was because his economic plan kicked McCain’s ass).‚
In classic Obama fashion, everything he says will sound great, just because of his oration skills. But how much substance there will be beneath the kid’s words will be open for debate following his speech.
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