In Obama’s 100 Days Speech tonight, he said a few things which I found to be interesting.
1. Keep your hands washed… not that I’m in favor of dirty hands. And if I ever run for President, dirty hands will not be part of my platform. It’s just that this may be the first time in history that a U.S. President said this in a nationally televised speech. My mom used to say this same thing, as have a number of other people in my life. It’s certainly a true statement, but it also falls under the category of “Profound Grasp of the Obvious.”
2. “…obviously, I didn’t anticipate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” Which is an odd thing to say, since I’m pretty sure most other people DID anticipate this situation last fall.
By the way, on May 24 or 25, somewhere in there but I haven’t exactly counted, I will mark my 100 Days of Living in My Box @ the Beach. Expect a “100 Days in the Box” statement. My writers are working on it. Stay tuned to this blog.
**Note – after reading Peet’s comment below, I checked the transcript of Obama’s speech, and it turns out I missed the first part of his comment about not anticipating the worst recession etc. His comment began with “When I first started this race…” Obviously, in early 07, our current economic condition would not have been anticipated by most people.
So, I stand corrected on that issue.
charley's blog 
Charlie,
Now you know what we democrats felt like when Condi Rice said “we didn’t anticipate terrorists flying planes into buildings,” or when Bush said, “we didn’t anticipate the breach of the levees.” Seems like everyone else did.
The actual quote from the press conference you refer to says this:
“You know, when I first started this race, Iraq was a central issue, but the economy appeared on the surface to still be relatively strong. There were underlying problems that I was seeing with health care for families and our education system and college affordability and so forth, but obviously, I didn’t anticipate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”
In other words, when he began his candidacy, he didn’t anticipate a financial crash. At that point (February 2007), the Dow Jones average was 12,700 and would hit 14,100 in October 2007. So actually, no, no one was anticipating a crash like that a full year before it happened.
Contrast this to the many, many warnings the Bush administration had about both the 911 attacks and Katrina.
Peet,
After reading the transcription of the speech, I realize that I missed the “when I first started this race” phrase, which significantly changes the context of the “worst economic crisis” line. Accordingly, I added a new paragraph at the end of the post.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Just want to say thanks for not calling this post 100 Day’s Speech.
I prefer Starbucks over Peet.
And no one, not even President Obama, expected the Spanish Inquisition!
Thanks for being kind about it Charley, not that I would expect any different from you.
also–NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition. Our chief weapon is surprise. That’s all. Just surprise.