Said speech was in Osawatomie Texas no, wait, he meant Kansas, where President Barack Obama hopes to recreate a little electoral magic represented by Teddy Roosevelt’s speech in 1910… to wit, splitting the Republican vote and thus getting a Democrat elected. The speech itself is pretty mediocre, even by this President’s standards: but then, if you’re looking for deathless prose then you’re following the wrong Presidential administration. As Ace of Spades notes, President Obama seems to have a definite problem with this entire capitalism thing; to which I would add that this is really a perfectly normal position to take… if you are a person who has spent his entire adult life being paid from an account funded by other people’s tax money.

Also, it is probably mean-spirited of me to note that the three most obvious major differences between Obama’s speech and Teddy Roosevelt’s are these:

1. Teddy Roosevelt knew who John Brown was (I understand that Osawatomie Brown is a sore topic for Democrats, of course).
2. Teddy Roosevelt started his speech by endorsing the notion that throwing out politicians who broke campaign promises was a darn good idea (I understand that Obama’s habits of routinely breaking his word is a sore topic for Democrats, of course).
3. Teddy Roosevelt could draw a crowd (30,000 vs. Obama’s 1,200). Smart of the White House to pick a high school gym, though: that way they don’t have to worry about too much in the way of open space.

But the real news? It’s this passage:

I think about a company based in Warroad, Minnesota called Marvin Windows and Doors. During the recession, Marvin’s competitors closed dozens of plants and let go hundreds of workers. But Marvin didn’t lay off a single one of their four thousand or so employees. In fact, they’ve only laid off workers once in over a hundred years. Mr. Marvin’s grandfather even kept his eight employees during the Depression.

Based on the Obama administration’s past track record with companies that they mention by name in their speeches – Solyndra, Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co., New Chet’s Restaurant – this pretty much means that Marvin Windows and Doors is just counting the days until it needs to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. Seriously, this President can kill jobs just by looking at them wrong…

Moe Lane (crosspost)