What is the GOP looking for? *UPDATED*

The usual suspects have gotten all excited and hyper about a speech President Obama gave in 2007...are you bored with it already. Me too. BUT what does interest me is, why are the conservatives all agape about this speech?

He was running for the presidency at that point, and talking in Virginia at a ministry conference at Hampton University. So, this was a speech that was on the record as his race against Hillary Clinton heated up. But, if it had something to tell us, Team Clinton didn't see it. So I'm at a loss.

But the National Review has taken a stab already tonight. Here is the top 5 controversies of the speech:

Hurricane Katrina “was a powerful metaphor for what’s gone [in America] on for generations.”

Hmm. Okay...? And...

Oh well, I'm sure there's some real crackerjack stuff to come.

“It was also there — at Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago — that I met Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who took me on another journey and introduced me to a man named Jesus Christ. It was the best education I ever had.”

Oooo! Jeremiah Wright! He can be pretty controversial...And was known about, talked about ad nauseum four years ago. In fact, I feel like I saw this quote, or a pretty similar one, back then. ...This is REALLY old news.

NEXT!!!

On his run for the Illinois State Senate: “And the second thing people would ask me gets back to the question about why we can’t seem to take the bullet out in this country and do the works and the deeds and unite this country."

Take the bullet? Odd metaphor...I guess. Granted, this is without reading the context that was used in the speech. A speech where he talks about the LA riots, and a baby born after the riot, with a bullet in it.

BUT, we can look forward, I'm sure, to context being left it. Before long it will be taken to imply some violent intent by the president, and a threat to "freedom loving real Americans." Which means it could be bad, after it is twisted and used in a lie...as can most anything. And Team Romney is pretty friendly with casual lying.

“[The poor] may need help with basic skills — how to show up to work on time, wear the right clothes, and act appropriately in an office. We have to help them get there. That’s why I have called for $50 million to begin innovative new job training and workforce development programs.”

Hmm. That could be taken to imply bad things...I guess. Can it? Not really. I mean, classes and support are often set up to help people get and keep office jobs. ...Yeah. I don't see the controversy.

“We need to give our young people some real choices out there so they move away from gangs and violence and connect them with growing job sectors. That is why I am also going to create a 5-E Youth Service Corps. The ‘E’s’ stand for energy efficiency, environmental education and employment. This program would directly engage disconnected and disadvantaged young people in energy efficiency and environmental service opportunities to strengthen their communities while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important and growing career field.”

Sigh. Green jobs...are bad? I don't know.


What do we have? Mention of Hurricane Katrina as metaphor. Reverend Wright. Bullet metaphor. Office job training support. Green jobs for kids. If this was the $10,000 Pyramid my reaction to that list would be to say, "Clutching at straws? Weak sauce? A sad last grasp for controversy?"

Is this it? If it is, Romney really is on his own. His wit and personality are all that is left to save him. That, and voter disenfranchisement along with rigged voting machines. So let's not get complacent. And remember, the worse it gets for the GOP, the dirtier they fight.

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ADDENDUM:
Okay. Based on what I saw from some conservatives on twitter last night, and things mentioned this morning, I guess the damning part of the speech is the Katrina stuff, and the fact that Obama sounded...black...shhh.

Yeah. In 2007 Obama felt that the government hadn't done a great job helping during the hurricane, and after. Is that an unpopular opinion? I mean, Obama said int in 2007, in front of FOX and other media, and no one really seemed nonplussed by it. So, still, what?!

And sounding black...Geez. How dare he scare the white folk with that kind of talk. Congrats, Hannity and Drudge, you found the key evidence that will convince the racist anti-Obama base to not vote for Obama. Brilliant!

I think we can now even more surely say this last ditch shot at the president is a dud.