ENOUGH…. One of the more memorable lines from Barack Obama’s acceptance speech from the Democratic convention was built around one word: “Tonight, I say to the people of America, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land: Enough.”
With the McCain campaign and political reporters having a fit over Obama’s use of the phrase “lipstick on a pig,” he used the word again this morning, at an event in Virginia.
“Some of you may have — I’m assuming you guys have heard this, watching the news,” Obama said. “I’m talking about John McCain’s economic policies, I say, ‘This is more of the same, you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig.’ And suddenly they say, ‘Oh, you must be talking about the governor of Alaska.’
“See it would be funny, it would be funny except — of course the news media all decided that that was the lead story yesterday. They’d much rather have the story — this is the McCain campaign — would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversions than about the future.
“This happens every election cycle. Every four years. This is what we do. We’ve got an energy crisis. We have an education system that is not working for too many of our children and making us less competitive. We have an economy that is creating hardship for families all across America. We’ve got two wars going on — veterans coming home not being cared for — and this is what they want to talk about. This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about.”
“You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It’s not the Democratic candidate. It’s not the republican candidate. It’s you, the American people, because then we go another year or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you. Enough.”
“I don’t care what they say about me, but I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift-boat politics. Enough is enough.”
My guess is the message is intended to reach two audiences. First, the media, which chases every soccer ball the McCain gang throws onto the field; and second, the public, which Obama hopes is getting sick of McCain’s foolish games.
The message certainly isn’t intended for McCain, who knows no limits, has no shame, and doesn’t understand the concept of “enough.”
