President Obama’s double speak

Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen from the Politico have a “what he said versus what he meant” article posted today about Barack Obama’s speech last night that sums up a lot of the double speak we heard from our “brilliant” President. Examples:

Here’s a translation of key passages:

“Now, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that for too long we have not always met these responsibilities – as a government or as a people. I say this not to lay blame or look backwards.”

TRANSLATION: He said it precisely to lay blame right on top of George W. Bush. The entire speech was laced with shots, some more obvious than others, at the former administration. They were all harnessed to a single purpose: convince the public that every risk Obama takes or dollar he spends is to clean up the mess Bush either left behind or failed to address.

[…]

“I know that it’s easy to lose sight of this truth — to become cynical and doubtful; consumed with the petty and the trivial.”

TRANSLATION: That would be you, Republicans, reporters or anyone else who diverts attention from the big issues by jumping into conventional political fights. This is an attempt to elevate himself as the first president of the 21st century and diminish critics as whining carpers. This worked magically on the campaign trail. The task gets harder when the cynics and critics are those outside of Washington concerned about the spending and bailouts. [Toldjah so. -ST]

It’s a pretty good summary. Make sure to read the whole thing.

On a related front, it’s also good to see the AP thoroughly factchecking Obama’s claims. Too bad they didn’t take a more serious approach to doing just that last year.

Related: Oh brother. Leave it to CNN to paint Obama’s speech as Reaganesque:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama addressed Congress shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, but a casual viewer might have believed it was actually morning in America.

“Morning in America” was the theme of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign, and it was front and center in Obama’s most critical event since Inauguration Day.

Maybe they got their talking points from Obama spox Robert Gibbs yesterday.

Last but not least, Michelle Malkin has awarded the Obamedia Drool Bucket Award for uber-fawning mainstream media reactions to The One’s speech to the AP’s Ron Fournier. Find out why here.