I'm surprised at Kudlow. From Obama's speech:
"Over the next few years, big decisions will be made in Washington, on jobs and the economy; taxes and deficits; energy and education; war and peace -- decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and our children's lives for decades to come."
"I began my career helping people in the shadow of a shuttered steel mill, at a time when too many good jobs were starting to move overseas."
"And when the house of cards collapsed in the Great Recession, millions of innocent Americans lost their jobs , their homes, and their life savings -- a tragedy from which we are still fighting to recover. "
"Now, I've cut taxes for those who need it -- middle-class families and small businesses. But I don't believe that another round of tax breaks for millionaires will bring good jobs to our shores, or pay down our deficit."
"I'm asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country -- goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit; a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. That's what we can do in the next four years, and that's why I'm running for a second term as President of the United States. We can choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer jobs."
"I've worked with business leaders who are bringing jobs back to America -- not because our workers make less pay, but because we make better products . . . After a decade of decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years."
"And now you have a choice: we can give more tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United States of America."
There is more, but my point is clear. Kudlow missed a major theme of Obama's speech. While I find Obama's view of jobs frightening - the idea that in his dream world the government creates and controls jobs - Obama droned on extensively about his view of the government's role in producing jobs.
Obama also mentioned growth twice, most chillingly this:
"We honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk-takers who have always been the driving force behind our free enterprise system -- the greatest engine of growth and prosperity the world has ever known. But we also believe in something called citizenship -- a word at the very heart of our founding, at the very essence of our democracy; the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another, and to future generations. We believe that when a CEO pays his autoworkers enough to buy the cars that they build, the whole company does better . . ."
I can see why Kudlow missed the reference to what Obama sees as the creation of jobs and to what Obama sees as the source and role of growth, but he missed something important if we are to understand the people we face. Obama is talking about growth as something government takes from 'the strivers, the dreamers, the risk-takers' and distributes among the little people. His role is to take care of us like 300 million inept copies of his fictional composite "Julia", dependent on our betters from cradle to grave. Obama and his supporters do not see jobs and growth as something coming from those who produce goods and services of actual value to others.
Julia symbolizes "jobs" and "growth" to Obama and to his audience.