Obama replies to Buffett - change can't wait

Warren Buffett recently complained that the Obama administration is trying to do too many things at once, that they should simply focus on the economy.

This reads like a reply ...

The White House - Blog Post - Taking on Education

In the opening of his speech today at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the President met critics head on who complain of too much change, too fast:

Every so often, throughout our history, a generation of Americans bears the responsibility of seeing this country through difficult times and protecting the dream of its founding for posterity. This is a responsibility that has fallen to our generation. Meeting it will require steering our nation’s economy through a crisis unlike any we have seen in our time. In the short-term, that means jumpstarting job creation, re-starting lending, and restoring confidence in our markets and our financial system. But it also means taking steps that not only advance our recovery, but lay the foundation for lasting, shared prosperity.

I know there are some who believe we can only handle one challenge at a time. They forget that Lincoln helped lay down the transcontinental railroad, passed the Homestead Act, and created the National Academy of Sciences in the midst of Civil War. Likewise, President Roosevelt didn’t have the luxury of choosing between ending a depression and fighting a war. President Kennedy didn’t have the luxury of choosing between civil rights and sending us to the moon. And we don’t have the luxury of choosing between getting our economy moving now and rebuilding it over the long term.

The Kennedy comparison is unfortunate, maybe he probably should have paid more attention to Vietnam and less to the moon landing.

I trust Obama on this one. Bush and the GOP laid waste to much more than most people imagine. We're on a boat with a thousand leaks, we can't patch them one at a time.

Americans who don't like this should have voted for Al Gore in 2000.

PS. On reflection, I think America is now discovering that they've elected a geeky intellectual who meant what he said. That must be unsettling.