Profs Grade Obama's Inaugural Address; Demonstrate Reality of Grade Inflation
Inside Higher Education, a great web publication that covers all sorts of things related to college and beyond, pulled together a bunch of rhetoric and communication professors to grade Obama's big speech yesterday.
Steven J. Farsonworth, University of Mary Washington (grade: A-):
…Obama gave a compelling sermon on that day every four years when many citizens worship together at the American church.
Mary E. Stuckey, Georgia State (A-/B+):
…It will likely be remembered for its mentions of gay rights and for his insistence that the journey is unfinished and possibly for his argument that our national principles endure but national policy must change to fit context.
Ronald C. White, Jr., Lincoln biographer (B+):
…I believe this was a stirring speech but not one of his finest speeches. Despite its foundation, he tried to do too much, and spoke throughout in the same intense tone. The speech will serve as a "guiding star" for his intentions in the next four years.
William Brown, Regent University (B):
…My overall grade of B is probably generous. The speech lacked transcendence. I predict the speech will not be remembered.
Martin J. Mendhurst, Baylor (C+):
…It was not a speech for the ages.
What did you think of the speech (full text here)?
Here's a 90-second look at how Obama's first-term promises stacked up against reality. Take a look!
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D. Lacks focus, content, originality, footnotes or bibliography.
“There are some who say” – who are they?
Profs Grade Obama’s Inaugural Address; Demonstrate Reality of Grade Inflation
Awesome. Surely we can now put the whole Nick the cosmotarian thing to rest? Oh who am I kidding?
Are you kidding? When they occasionally seek out ad hoc non-libertarian allies on specific issues, instead of insulting them for their non-total allegiance to freedom? It’s obvious they only care about cocktail parties!
It’s cosmotarian cocktail parties all the way down.
THERE CAN BE NO IRISH IN THE TRUE SCOTSMEN PARTY!
“We’ll give some land to the niggers and the chinks… but we don’t want the Irish!”
Not eve Irish Whiskey?
Well, their Old Fashioneds are to die for.
Jus’ sayin’
What did you think of the speech?
I *felt* it was awesome!
/Obamatron
Seriously, what I got out of it was: “The US is socialist now, biotches!”
“Roll over Abe Lincoln and tell William H Harrison the news”
I give Obama’s speech the highest grade of doubleplusgood. I see that he only wants what’s best for me and I promise to be a productive worker in support of my glorious government that will always keep me safe from myself and others.
smart move ^. better to not cause trouble. you could position yourself as a very useful citizen, No. 43229876
This professor gives Obama an “F”, for “Fuck You”.
See, this only proves you’re not authentic.
I didn’t care for the line, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” It wasn’t made clear enough that he was referencing the House of Representatives.
News flash: colleges are full of left wing assholes!
One man can’t train all the libertarian website editor-in-chiefs.
Muphry’s law strikes SIV: editors-in-chief!
Muphry’s Law? Looks like Joe’z Law strikes Nicole.
Nevermind, Google was not my friend this day.
What? Who would have guessed?
OT: DAYUM!
Outstanding. Now, just wait for Ted to complain that the list is not all on one page.
Thank you for the warning. 🙂
My good deed for the day.
Your appreciation of the yellow peril just further shows how much you hate America.
Sad thing is, some folks here have argued that, unironically, before…
I know, I just wanted to beat them with sarcasm before they showed up with their twisted views.
Look, it’s my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can.
Know your enemy…
Wow. I am not even that into Asian women. But every rule has an exception.
I’m a fan of #10.
She is a bit trashy for my tastes. I like number 9.
“I am not even that into Asian women”
Maybe you’ll prefer Jessey Meng as a blond then.
http://photos.360treasure.com/…..g-mei-011/
Works for me.
Jessey Meng looks pretty hot at 45. I’m guessing that the translation in my head for Liu Yan’s TV show is better than what it is in reality.
China’s central planners have clearly been adding some red meat to diets.
Some are evoking Lincoln in comparison, and in fact, I would go so far as to say it was Lincoln Logesque.
The media and the academic estblishment really are part of a cult. The below link is to a Foreign Policy article written by a WAPO reporter about Obama firing the commander of CENTCOM. It is behind a paywall. But basically the whole article is about how Obama’s entire national security team are so dangerously stupid and arrogant they don’t even realize when they fail and will fire and or destroy anyone who points out a failure.
But at the end of the article the guy says “he still likes Obama” and spent the weekend driving down the east coast listening to Dreams of My Father on Tape.
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com…..mes_mattis
Did we ever get an answer why Obama fired the AFRICOM Commander and that Admiral right after Benghazi? Was he even asked?
No one asked. You should be thanking Obama Drake not bothering him with questions.
“spent the weekend driving down the east coast listening to Dreams of My Father on Tape.”
WTF.
WTF is right. This guy is a political reporter for the Post. What political reporter hasn’t read that book? The odds are pretty high he read it years ago and decided that he just wanted to hear it again this weekend. Really?
Hey John, everyone gets off on their own thing. The dudes gotta masterbate to something.
Can’t he just get a mobile subscription To Me in My Place or something? He is probably too feminist to go for outright porn. But for the love of God do something.
Linked by Archduke Pantsfan last night.
Have fun, assholes.
1. How does Sugar Free not now about this.
2. This can’t be real
Katie: Female – 27 – She is a birth & postpartum doula and placenta crafter (placenta prints, capsules, tinctures, etc.), though she is well outside of the hairy grandmother midwife image that may spring to mind. She likes to create in the kitchen, clean (yes, really), take pictures and travel.
No way does that person actually exist.
And if that wasn’t bad enough:
“Kris: Male – 36 – He is a former business owner (IT Consulting)/Mortgage Holder/Slave to Society, but has abandoned that load of crap in favor of rediscovering himself and finding something to do everyday that he is passionate about. He likes regrowing his foreskin, playing guitar, throwing a frisbee, traveling and reading biographies of heroin addicted 80s rockers.
There’s no way that’s real.
Jesus. I’m glad I came back to look at this thread.
Is this a sign that we need to leave the planet and nuke it from orbit so this sort of thing never infects the universe.
Done in a very obscure sci-fi novel: “The Persimmon Sequence.”
I want to know how commenters find this shit in the first place. 🙂
I think had mentioned they were looking for a place to stay in Phoenix.
“Steven J. Farsonworth, University of Mary Washington (grade: A-):
…Obama gave a compelling sermon on that day every four years when many citizens worship together at the American church.”
That’s the guy that got it right.
It was a sermon meant to get the true believers fired up for the revival, and if you look at the comments at NPR and elsewhere, Obama’s followers are all emotionally primed again. Mission accomplished.
They’re swayin’ in the pews, and pretty soon they’ll be rollin’ in the aisles. He could make them open their wallets into the offering plate right now if he wanted to.
Incidentally, I don’t think people who were raised fundamentalist or evangelical are especially susceptible to this kind of thing. They’ve been through countless weeks of prayer, etc. before, and, after a while, you can get pretty cynical about the whole experience. It’s the people who have never been to a revival before that get carried away. And all Obama’s true believers, they think themselves agnostic and atheistic. They don’t even realize that believing in Obama is a lot like religion.
I find just the opposite. I know a lot of liberals and a lot of Obama supporters. And they seem pretty grim lately. Most of them don’t even think there should have been an inauguration of this size. They don’t seem primed at all in my world sample.
I’m going by the comments I’ve read at places like NPR, but I hope you’re right.
You can both be right. Obama has to know he’s lost some people so the speech was intended, as Ken said, as a Revival.
Really??? A “sermon”? WTF???
I couldn’t possibly stomach watching the whole thing, but from the snippets that I saw, it was probably the most intentionally divisive and polarizing inauguration speech ever given in this country.
Like I’ve said before, the phony Mr. Nice Guy mask is off for good now. The guy you saw yesterday is the real Obama: a nasty extremist, and an invincible ignoramus who thinks he knows everything.
I’ve been seeing that Obama for four fucking years.
You, me, and a lot of other people. But many of the cosmos writing for Reason think he’s a pretty swell guy at heart.
I was at the gymn and thankfully there was no sound from the TV’s. All I saw was Obama walking down the street next to Rick James.
“Martin J. Mendhurst, Baylor (C+): …It was not a speech for the ages.}
I disagree in part. It was a speech for the ages 8 to 12.
An age group slightly above the crowd Elizabeth Warren writes for.
It was an F. It did not talk about our debt, 1+ trillion dollar deficits, and spate of new regulations — both of which threaten our economy more than anything and will lead to the very things Obama dislikes (such as people going hungry etc) only ten times worse. West has a quote something like our safety net has become a safety hammock.