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is getting a bit of flak for this quote:

"What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud."


Here it is on video:

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/49244.html


My question is:

Is this any different than saying "I have never been more proud of my country than I am right now?"

What is all the flak about?

Is it that people are ignoring the word really in the speech?

Is it that they want to find something, anything, to be outraged about?

It was pretty cool to watch Joe and Mika (Morning Joe) fight (their word, not mine) this morning about this very thing.

I haven't heard of this, so I don't have any answers to your questions.

But here's one more question.

What are some basic common issues that Obama wants to unify us around?

peacock2121 wrote:is getting a bit of flak for this quote:

"What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud."


Here it is on video:

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/49244.html


My question is:

Is this any different than saying "I have never been more proud of my country than I am right now?"

What is all the flak about?

Is it that people are ignoring the word really in the speech?

Is it that they want to find something, anything, to be outraged about?

It was pretty cool to watch Joe and Mika (Morning Joe) fight (their word, not mine) this morning about this very thing.

Is this any different than saying "I have never been more proud of my country than I am right now?"

Yes, your rewriting allows for the possibility that this country has things in the last 26 years to be proud of, Michelle's comment is all about her and Obama, which is sort of Clintonish

MarleysGh0st wrote:
What are some basic common issues that Obama wants to unify us around?

He wants us to unify around the issue of electing him.

It gets so tiring watching the media, en masse, making a mountain out of a mole hill. They nitpick every little thing that is said. This one sentence will be discussed ad infinitum for the next two weeks on every cable news, talk radio station.

Sir_Galahad wrote:It gets so tiring watching the media, en masse, making a mountain out of a mole hill. They nitpick every little thing that is said. This one sentence will be discussed ad infinitum for the next two weeks on every cable news, talk radio station.

Amen!

The only thing I recall Michelle Obama getting flak about was her quote about Obama being the only candidate who could "save America's soul".

I don't know about you, but if I feel my soul needs saving, the government is the LAST entity I'll look to to do it.

"for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. "

First, you must separate the country (people) from the government. Obviously she is not now proud of the government. Just the people. So, she has never been really proud of the people that make up this country.

O.K. She was born in 1964.

Became an adult in 1985 (I'll give here a couple of years grace).

Since then, the Berlin wall came down. She is not really proud of our hand in that happening?

How much money has been spent an aid in Africa since 1985? Not just government hand-out but private donations, both money and time.

What about how we responded as a county of people after 9/11. Not proud of that Michelle?

Nope, she is now only proud that (it seems) a lot of people are willing to vote for a candidate that they don't really know anything about and who has a 'plan' but can't tell us anything about it. So she is proud we are enough of an idiot to set her up for life financially.

But not that the people of this country are more willing that the people of any other country, bar none, to give their money and lives for the cause of others.

At least Roger Clinton was only a half brother and Bill had no choice.

The only problem I had with the statement is that I never knew hope went away.

This reminds me an awful lot of 1992, when we had a recession that was one of the shallowest and shortest in history- but to hear people speak, it was as bad as the Great Depression.

We're spoiled as a people. God forbid we should ever go through REALLY rough times.

christie1111 wrote:

Sir_Galahad wrote:It gets so tiring watching the media, en masse, making a mountain out of a mole hill. They nitpick every little thing that is said. This one sentence will be discussed ad infinitum for the next two weeks on every cable news, talk radio station.

Amen!

I don't think it's so much the politicians that we need to change, it's the 'mass' media.

flockofseagulls104 wrote:

christie1111 wrote:

Sir_Galahad wrote:It gets so tiring watching the media, en masse, making a mountain out of a mole hill. They nitpick every little thing that is said. This one sentence will be discussed ad infinitum for the next two weeks on every cable news, talk radio station.

Amen!

I don't think it's so much the politicians that we need to change, it's the 'mass' media.

Why, thank you, Flock.

peacock2121 wrote:is getting a bit of flak for this quote:

"What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud."


Here it is on video:

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/49244.html


My question is:

Is this any different than saying "I have never been more proud of my country than I am right now?"

What is all the flak about?

Is it that people are ignoring the word really in the speech?

Is it that they want to find something, anything, to be outraged about?

It was pretty cool to watch Joe and Mika (Morning Joe) fight (their word, not mine) this morning about this very thing.

Good moorrniiing from Canada.

I have to admit that I find almost everything about the junior Senator from Illinois cringe-inducing,even apart from the implicit endorsement of protectionism which already is causing nervous gurgles up here.

He does have a nice voice.

At least as modulated on TV commercials.

The use of "hope" as the rhetorical center of his campaign endorses so wide and nebulous a range of meanings, as to be actually meaningless.
It even outdoes the universal use of "change" as a goal, and the spectacularly cringe-inducing use of "help", as in "help is on the way" from 2004 Kerry-Edwards, which made me want to throw ripe fruit at my televison.

The best progenitor I can think of, is the use of "love" by John Peppermint Wintergreen in Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band".

and now, for Pea's actual question...

IMHO

The use of "really" as a comparative may be considered a somewhat vague intensifier, and a secondary use of the word whose primary use is the adverbial form of 'real', as synonymous with true or actual: "Does God really exist?".

Especially with the preceding clause, "For the first time in my adult life...", it is reasonable to assume "really proud" as expressing existence, versus non-exisence. Of the pride, at least.

The criticism:

Spot on.

With a proviso, that it is a little unfair that political speaking is an activity at which one will be judged for the most part by the .001% stupidest thing one does.

oopsy, Dr Canada Guy!

No words came out.

peacock2121 wrote:oopsy, Dr Canada Guy!

No words came out.

The words are late but worth having waited for.

My edit is complete.

etaoin22 wrote:

peacock2121 wrote:oopsy, Dr Canada Guy!

No words came out.

The words are late but worth having waited for.

My edit is complete.

They were worth waiting for.

The question I got from you speaking about 'hope' is this:

How is what 'people' are saying Obama is doing for them (giving them hope or whatever) different from what 'people' said Reagan did to give them pride?

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.

I listened to this this morning and there was no "really" qualifying hope the quote is

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am proud of my country.

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.

I listened to this this morning and there was no "really" qualifying hope the quote is

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am proud of my country.

Sorry, suitguy. You are wrong on this factual point. Watch the video I gave the link to - watch her lips - it is there. There is a hiccup in the audio and she said it.

That is unless there was doctoring going on.

peacock2121 wrote:

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.

I listened to this this morning and there was no "really" qualifying hope the quote is

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am proud of my country.

Sorry, suitguy. You are wrong on this factual point. Watch the video I gave the link to - watch her lips - it is there. There is a hiccup in the audio and she said it.

That is unless there was doctoring going on.

LOL, so now we're lip reading. I confess when I watched the network broadcast I was not trying "to read her lips" but I didn't hear "really" then and its not in your video clip either. I replayed the network clip several times because it was different from your quote here.