Last Wednesday the President spoke about the economy at Carnegie Mellon University. Administration officials billed this as a major economic address, the follow-up to his speech last April at Georgetown. I think the most accurate and fairest way to understand the views of an elected official begins with what he or she says. The problem is that this speech is more than 5,000 words, so almost no one will read the whole thing.
In summarizing it I still ended up at around 1,300 words. Think of it as getting 75% savings.
I will respond to the speech soon. For now, this is my attempt at a non-judgmental summary. Where you don’t see quotation marks I am paraphrasing him, fairly I hope.
The speech naturally breaks into three parts:
- Part I: The Choice
- Part II: The Foundation
- Part III: The Laundry List
There are some obvious topical subdivisions which I have labeled.
