GM is toast

[pyesetz]

     Another excellent speech from Obama.  He is now 2-for-2 in weekly addresses that use the word "sacrifice", a word that George Bush Jr. has always avoided.  I was a bit surprised that Obama actually said "deflationary spiral", but then his trademark is a willingness to face facts.  Perhaps later he will dare to say "imminent collapse of the US dollar".

if we don’t act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year.
     My impression of what most experts now believe is that millions of American jobs will disapppear next year regardless of any swift or bold action that could be taken.

2.5 million jobs… rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels; fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies
     I wondered why, in his previous speech, he mentioned "2 million jobs".  Why the specific number for his Rooseveltian roadwork program?  Now it's 2.5 million and includes "modernizing schools" (I don't know what he has in mind here) and "fuel-efficient cars".
     So Obama intends to create a make-work program for building cars?  Where will he get the skilled-but-jobless workers for that?

what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action
     Last week he told Congress that if they didn't extend the unemployment benefit, he would do it himself as president (using the Unitary Executive powers that Bush added to the office).  This time he is even more vague about what steps he will take if his demands are not met.  Obama still has available that army of 5 million volunteers that he assembled for his election campaign.  They could make a lot of trouble if he told them that it would be useful to do so.

It is time to act. As the next President of the United States, I will. Thank you.
     The words "God bless" are notable for their absence from the end of his speech, which is otherwise textually similar to the sorts of "crisis speeches" that US presidents tend to make when they are characters in adventure novels.