Obama's Victory Message: Get On Board

America's not as divided as the razor thin margin in the popular vote might indicate, the president says in his victory speech

After acknowledging how "messy" and "complicated" democracy can be, the president closed his victory (campaign?) speech tonight striking a rather collectivist tone: 

"I believe we can seize this future together, because we are not as divided as our politics suggest, we're not as cynical as the pundits believe, we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than just a collection of red states and blue states, we are and forever will be the United States of America and together with your help and God's grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live on the greatest nation on earth. God bless America."

Not as divided as 49.6 percent for Obama, 48.9 percent for Mitt Romney and 1 percent for Gary Johnson (at 2:00am ET) might seem. If there's any lesson in the election, it's to remain cynical: the national debt stands at more than $16 trillion with a fiscal cliff around the corner and a president that just gave a campaign speech on election night.

Transcript of the speech here.

Comments

[Caleb Turberville]

So, American exceptionalism is cool again?

[Generic Stranger]

Only for TEAM BLUE. When TEAM RED talks about it, it just proves that they're xenophobic racists.

[Caleb Turberville]

Xenomorphs?

[Caleb Turberville]

Republicans hate Xenomorphs?

[cavalier973]

Boy, I sure do. The buggers get into your crawl space and good luck ever getting them out again.

We've lost three Terminix guys in the past two months alone.

[Generic Stranger]

Of course. Xenomorphs are both illegal aliens AND black.

[Corning]

and a president that just gave a campaign speech on election night.

I will give him credit for realizing that with 49.6 percent the fight is not near over.

[Len Bias]

I predict a miserable four years for Obama.

The lagging economy will likely not improve, and he won't be able to blame it on Bush anymore. ObamaCare still unpopular, and facing massive resistance. Benghazi and F&F are still hanging over his head, and the House may pursue this. Half the country voted against him.

The fights in the next four years will be ugly, and probably more than his sensitive soul will be able to bear.

Moreover, Bush barely won in 2004, and by 2006 the country had turned on him and the retaliation was swift and severe. The GOP still hasn't recovered. Does not bode well for Dems.

The fight is FAR from over. It looks to be relentless in coming years.

[Sudden]

The lagging economy will likely not improve, and he won't be able to blame it on Bush anymore.

Precisely because the most onerous provisions of his two signature legislative achievements (PPACA and FinReg) will go into effect during his second term.

It is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

[Alien Invader]

It's going to get better?

Says who?

[Brutus]

Exactly. And exactly why Chicken Littles like Mark Steyn are far more right than they are wrong. Obama is putting a pot more mouths on the public tit, mouths that vote.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

The lagging economy will likely not improve, and he won't be able to blame it on Bush anymore.

If he can blame it on Bush now, why won't he be able to blame it on Bush 4 years from now?

[Len Bias]

Of course, he will continue to blame it on Bush, but this claim will look less and less credible the further away we get from Bush. Especially if the economy continues to stagnate or get worse.

He and his believers will continue to blame Bush, but I'm guessing a large number of the 49% who voted for him will stop buying it.

[Alien Invader]

No they won't.

[Brutus]

Not a large number, but mayb enough. Most of Obamabots love the Koolaid and can't wait for the next glass.

[Drake]

Yep - I never understood how FDR could win twice during the Great Depression that his policies were driving. Now I do.

People are fucking stupid.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

the president closed his victory (campaign?) speech tonight striking a rather collectivist tone

This surprises absolutely no one.

[Syd Henderson]

He's going to get considerably more than 49.6 % of the vote. Most of the votes on the West Coast haven't been counted yet, and that's one of his strongest regions. He's going to wind up around 51%.

[Randian]

Yeah 1.4% is "significantly more"

[MJGreen]

What does it mean to "win" or "seize" the future? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??

As for cynical... "He's not one of us." "Voting is the best revenge."

*slaps self* He's a politician. This is what he does.

[Ken Shultz]

"We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions."

Who's this "we" he's talking about?

Speak for yourself, Mr. President, and I'll speak for me.

Oh, and fuck you, Mr. President!

I don't give a shit what you think of my individual ambition.

[R C Dean]

That's the Royal We, Ken.

What he's saying is "I am greater than the sum of your individual ambitions."

[sasob]

a president that just gave a campaign speech on election night.

That's because it's all that fool incompetent fake knows how to do. It's all he's done since he's been in public life.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Let's not be too harsh. His putting has improved markedly in the last four years.

[Sudden]

Le sigh.

There is a silver lining in this somewhere. I'll try and put my finger on it in the morning.

[John C. Randolph]

The bright spot in the evening is Colorado opting out of the drug war. Of course, they'd have to secede to have any hope of getting the DEA to quit harassing their people.

-jcr

[Jeff]

Coloradans might not be interested in the drug war, but the drug war is interested in them.

[cavalier973]

President Obama? You can go hump your own leg, you grisly goblin.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if Obama will get another Nobel Peace Prize for not being Mitt Romney?

[Bingo]

Drone bombings are just another way of saying peace.

[Anonymous Coward]

The peace of grave might not be what Alfred Nobel had in mind.

[Bingo]

Honestly, I'm mostly disappointed in my haircut.

Secondly, I'm disappointed in the electorate. Things aren't going to get better. The election was a referendum of full retard vs. partial retard, and full retard won. Obama has been W's third term, and everyone agrees that W was crap. But he still gets re-elected!

Romney was a welfare-state mainstream republican, and he lost hard. The question is: was it because he didn't promise enough? Is there any hope for a socially liberal, economically conservative party in america at all? I seriously think we've gone off the economic deep end at this point.

[Bingo]

Oh and to elaborate on my haircut: I like things high and tight, double entendres fully intended. This is neither high nor tight. It's like the Mitt Romney of hair cuts.

God I'm mad.

[Adam330]

David From doesnt't think so. Incredibly, he was blaming Romney's defeat on the GOP's "libertarian economics."

[Alien Invader]

The question is: was it because he didn't promise enough? Is there any hope for a socially liberal, economically conservative party in america at all?

Good questions. I think the answer is still yes, though maybe not for much longer.

Romney couldn't close the sale because he's got a record. He doesn't walk the walk. How many people believed he was going to be a free market type and seriously reign in spending? I think not many.

Ron Paul walks the walk. But, sorry, his foreign policy is insane. And he needs to push the gold standard story waaaay into the background.

I think, the problem isn't that Romney's message doesn't sell, it's that there's nobody on the stage that can sell it. "But Gary Johnson...." isn't the answer, Americans by and large just aren't going to take a third party candidate serious.

Plus the fact that as much as I like Gary Johnson (and voted for him, thank you), he just doesn't have the right personality to pull it off.

[AlgerHiss]

Johnson got a million votes?

Way to go Gary! That showed 'em who's boss! No doubt those votes would have gone to Obama.

[Alien Invader]

Except mine.

[SIV]

GayJay greatly exceeded my expectations.
Ed Clark's record is still safe it appears.

[Libertopian]

YES WE CAN!

[Bingo]

Mary Stack is still around?

[Alien Invader]

Fuck it up?

[HazelMeade]

Answer: No.

I loathe everything you believe in and will fight your philosophy and your policies with every ounce of my being, to my last dying breath. I will resist your government every day, in every possible way I can, for as long as I live. I will never submit to being a subject of a collective. I will never consent to having my life directed by society's whim. I will never never consider myself as being owed, or owing, society anything.
I refuse to be a member of the entitlement society. I refuse to be a ward of the state, and I refuse to let myself be used as a slave to support those who do.

[Ken Shultz]

I want to be the first to sign your petition, Hazel.

[Oso Politico]

Get on board? More like abandon ship - which I did many long years ago...