At the U of Chicago, on the Supreme Court stuff. Listen live here.
Obama is about to speak
April 7, 2016 • 2:41 pm
9 thoughts on “Obama is about to speak”
Comments are closed.
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Obama is really comfortable in this environment. Easy to see why he was such a popular teacher at the Law School.
I feel this was a terrific talk.
Unfortunately, towards the end, less than 5000 people were viewing.
Well, it was not publicized. The only reason I knew about the livestream is that the University of Chicago News Office mailed the faculty.
I came in at the end when he was responding to a question about drone strikes and collateral damage.
He seemed very articulate and straight forward about it. Shame to think how many people (on the left) label him a hawkish neo-neocon for such a reasoned position.
I think he made clear what everyone knows already. The republicans are going to do nothing on his nomination for the court, as they have done on just about everything else for the past 4 to 7 years. It’s amazing how so many people in one party seem to think with one brain. Perhaps there is only one brain and it is heavily damaged.
I’m impressed with Obama when I hear him speak. He’s smart and informed…unlike some candidates we all know.
Washington and Adams worried as they begin to see the development of political parties. The were worried it would cause a roadblock to progress. I think they were right to worry. The Brits, Germans, and French, seem to have avoided this difficulty to some extent through the parliamentary system and other alternatives. Maybe too late to change now.
Roosevelt had a hard time convincing the country to get into WW2. Obama is having a hard time getting broad support for fighting global warming. We do not turn on a dime.
Yes, I think you should pick something much larger than a dime. The “party” system poked it’s ugly head up soon after George Washington took office and it only continued to get worse. Actually, it already existed before then with the state conventions to ratify the constitution. There were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists and now that we can look back and study every slice – The federalists were today’s Democrats and the Anti-Federalists were you know what.
Jefferson himself, became the leader and chief of the Anti’s only they gave it another name while Hamilton was the lead Federalists. The party system was inevitable and Washington could not stand it and somehow knew it would result in nothing but bad in the future. Washington was a true 18th century man and he was also right.
And, don’t forget that the framers were very cautious in designing the government and put in a very rigid system of checks and balances which is very good a blocking excess, but it is also a straitjacket when action is needed urgently.
Also remember that even the guys who made the constitution 230 some years ago knew it would need a lot of adjustment. Even Jefferson said he figured each generation would need to write another one every 19 years. Just think at the time they were 13 states and about 4 million people. No indoor plumbing and no electricity. You know, the good old days.