Obama - "It Took Time to Free The Slaves" / Someone Should Tell Him it Also Took a Republican President

Obama has to be careful with his rhetorical flourishes, because he can leave himself open to pretty devastating counter attacks.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/248513/what-radical-republican-looks-kevin-d-williamson

"Being a former member of the Republican party, I don’t often indulge my occasional desire to offer the GOP messaging advice. But every time I hear Barack Obama say something like this . . .

It took time to free the slaves. It took time for women to get the vote.

. . . I wish the Republicans would response with an ad that says: “Yes, it took time to free the slaves. Time and a Republican president. One who had the courage of his convictions.”

As for women’s suffrage, the debate about the relative timing and importance of enfranchising women versus enfranchising blacks took place almost entirely within the Republican party. You know the famous episode in which Susan B. Anthony was arrested for illegally voting? The evidence against her was a note she sent to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, informing her that she had “positively voted the Republican ticket — straight.” Take that, Rahm.


Frederick Douglass should be as much the face of the Republican party as Reagan and Goldwater."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/10/obama-channels-reagan-stay-on-course/1

"Obama, who has tried to rally the Democrats' liberal base as well as young voters, also said he understands their frustrations with the political process. But the president added that good things take time, using a rhetorical riff that involved previous causes from slavery to women's rights.

An excerpt (which is not in the video):

People are frustrated, they're anxious, they're scared about the future. And they have a right to be impatient about the pace of change.

I'm impatient. But I also know this: Now is not the time quit. Now is not the time to give up. We've been through worse as a nation. We've come out stronger -– from war to depression to the great struggles for equal rights and civil rights.

It took time to free the slaves. It took time for women to get the vote. It took time for workers to get the right to organize.

But if we stay on focus, if we stay on course, then ultimately we will make progress. It takes time; progress takes sacrifice. Progress takes faith. But progress comes. And it will come for your generation.

"