My full reaction to President Obama's speech last night can be found here -- basically, in concluding the Iraq War and shifting to a focus on economic policy, the president is marking not only a transition for Americans but also for his national political career, which was sparked by his opposition to the war. One observation that didn't fit into the piece came from this section:
[W]e're funding a Post-9/11 GI Bill that helps our veterans and their families pursue the dream of a college education. Just as the GI Bill helped those who fought World War II -- including my grandfather -- become the backbone of our middle class, so today’s servicemen and women must have the chance to apply their gifts to expand the American economy. Because part of ending a war responsibly is standing by those who have fought it.
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it feels like the references to his grandfather are a coded signal to viewers: I'm an American, not a Muslim, my grandfather fought in the Good War, after all. With half of Republicans living in a fantasy world of symbolic belief*, it seems like a politic notion for the president to work into his speech, but it's come to quite a pretty point where that sort of thing is necessary.
-- Tim Fernholz
*Why is it that myriad real-world problems can't capture the attention of these people? Perhaps the actual threats to our society so frighten them that creating a hysterical fantasy world with an undercover Muslim president is the best coping mechanism they have.
