Posted on 12/24/2008 9:11:17 PM PST by Maelstorm
President-elect Barack Obama is asking the country to look to George Washington's improbable crossing on the Delaware River on Christmas Day as inspiration to get through current tough times.
Obama said in a holiday message that Washington and his army "faced impossible odds" as they fought against the British on Dec. 25, 1776, the day they surprised Hessian forces and won victories that gave new momentum and hope to American Independence.
Obama used that story to say that "hope endures and that a new birth of peace is always possible" even as many Americans are serving overseas and others have lost their jobs while the economy sinks deeper into the doldrums. Obama released his remarks Wednesday, when the government reported that new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week as layoffs spread.
The Labor Department said earlier this month that employers cut a net total of 533,000 jobs in November, sending the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, the highest in 15 years.
"We know that millions of Americans don't have a job. Many more are struggling to pay the bills or stay in their homes. From students to seniors, the future seems uncertain," Obama said in his weekly radio remarks, which are scheduled to be broadcast Saturday morning.
The president-elect also offered support to Americans serving far away from loved ones during the holidays.
"This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted, knowing that a loved one is absent, and sometimes in danger. In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table," Obama said.
Referring to Washington's journey, he said "we have crossed many rivers as a people," and he said Americans can point their country in a new direction.
"Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country," he said. "That is the spirit that will guide my administration in the new year."
Obama is currently vacationing in Hawaii, where he attended a memorial service for his grandmother Tuesday.
I agree entirely. Obama and politicians like him should not be fit for any office.
Perhaps Obama is thinking back on his time in the military.. oh that’s right, he has never served.
HOW DARE this Obama-weasel talk about Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware as a point of inspiration?!?!?!
Obama is hostile to everything George Washington, our founders, and the Continental Army stand for. Obama is a wretched treasonous weasel. How dare he try to steal the achievements of the people who won our independence???? Obama would have been saying “Don’t go!” and cutting off supplies to the troops and calling for surrender.
The Obamanation is the guy who in the middle of a WAR tried to put support from our troops in combat. This Obama-puke is the guy who tried to LOSE a war with troops in the field.
Now he thinks he can appropriate the great victory of Washington’s troops for political purposes??? This Obamanation is not worthy to mention Washington’s name.
0bama’s friends are the type that edit George Washington out of history textbooks and put in ten pages of Harriet Tubman and Geronimo
He will say anything whether he believes it or not to serve his purposes.
This is what political correctness and affirmative action have brought this nation to.
Do you like it?
Obama is not worthy enough to clean the bacon strips out of President Washington’s shorts.
Merry Christmas Freepers!
God Bless you all.
General Washington crossed the Delaware to defeat an enemy intent on destroying America. Nobama should be careful where he looks for inspiration.
I would think Mao’s Long March would be more to his inspirational leanings.
The part O left out was that the German troops were either drunk or asleep. It was quite a feat to just get across that river at that time of year, but, once over, they didn’t exactly face a pitched battle.
I think O chose a fitting metaphor for his win on 11/4. He and his vote stealing pals snuck up on voters who were drunk on the rhetorical Kool-Aid he was serving. The rest slept because — except for Palin — the alternative choice wasn’t all that hot.
Zero might want to be careful with his allegories. On that day patriots butchered the enemies of our country...
If it hadn't been for the despicable McCain we would have done exactly that.
Since we can't get a noble leader through what passes for a political system in this nation there may be another way!
At any rate, this worthless piece of America-hating crap will never lead anyone anywhere except to the dustbin of history!
The Delaware crossing was an act of aggression by GW. I am surprised he mentioned it.
We must never , ever forget this fact, nor let this traitor forget, either.
Notice the increase in tie-ins to former American greats--use of the Lincoln Bible for inaugaration, the train ride from Springfield, the reference to Washington?
I don't need this skinny puke reminding me of my heritage, a heritage which the church that he and his harridan wife spent 20 years in knocking the value of.
Obama is PLAYING a game at this time. Let’s see where the dice fall.
Let us not forget Christmas 1944 in a town called Bastogne. I doubt the Obamanerd even knows what country Bastogne is in.
Symbolism is all he’s got.
He’s all hat, no cattle. And that’s the truth.
Bobble-headed liberals: “George Washington OK now.”
I guess you’re right.
It all comes down to “the powers invested in him, by himself”.
How more pathetic can it get.
President-elect Barack Obama and his family planned a Christmas Day that includes opening presents in the morning and sharing a traditional turkey and ham dinner in the evening.I notice that in the news blurb this morning about Obama, his press release said not much but did say the following:Obama and his family were vacationing at a beachfront rental home in Kailua in his native Hawaii. They were to enjoy a traditional holiday meal at their home Thursday and would have close family friends from Chicago visit throughout the day, aides said.
They know some folks have claimed that the Obama's do not give their children Xmas presents because Muslims do not do that. So they say they are "opening presents". Oh. Perhaps the friends from Chicago are lined to to pay homage to the new Messiah and are bringing some Presidential presents.
They are careful to say they are having ham. Muslims do not eat ham.
Also in his address to the nation yesterday Obama mentioned Washington's Crossing of the Delaware. Washington won at Trenton because at that time in America patriots did NOT celebrate Christmas, but the enemy did. Christmas celebrations of the kind engaged in by the Germans and a few of the British of the time were considered profane and worldly. And the German mercenaries, the Hessians, were big Christmas partyers. So they were spent the next morning, and Washington's sober troops easily bested them.
[1] Amplitude Modulation, a signal encoding method of broadcast radio, that also is used to label a band of frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum from 520 kHz to 1.610 MHz which is allocated in 20 kHz chunks to transmitting stations. The upper and lower 5 kHz of those chunks are station separation zones, theoretically not to be used, meaning that AM stations have an audio bandwidth of a measly 10 kHz.
[2] Ante Meridian, that is times from midnight plus one minute until noon less a minute, but it does not include either noon or midnight. There is no 12 AM, there is no 12 PM, despite parking meter claims to the contrary.
[3] Washington Crossing, where the river is swollen with recent rains, high and fast. The Jersey side landing point is flooded. The reenactors are unlikely to cross. The Crossing reenactment begins at 1 PM today, and the weather is beautiful.
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