Don’t Just Show Up. Be Great: Beck Delivers Oval Office Speech on American ‘Excellence’
- Posted on April 18, 2012 at 6:21pm by
Tiffany Gabbay
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Those who watch The Glenn Beck Program will have likely seen GBTV’s reproduction of the Oval Office in its new home at the American Dream Lab studio. Glenn Beck delivered his first, poignant address from that very office last week and followed up the occasion with yet another speech this Wednesday.
Centered on American “excellence,” Beck explored the virtues of the true American way — one that rewards a job well done rather than for simply “showing up.” While society has gone down a path where “participation trophies” form an integral part of daily life, Beck insisted that America deserves better. The turmoil of life, be it “injustice,“ ”pain,“ or ”poverty” can be remedied, he promised, if one takes the initiative to do so.
The message was a plea to Americans to return to the values of accountability, self-sufficiency, and a proactive mindset.
When looking for tomorrow’s leaders, Beck asked Americans to pick up a mirror and gaze at their own reflection. “There’s your leader.”
Below is a partial transcript. To read the transcript in its entirety, please visit GlennBeck.com
We have raised successive generations of Americans to believe that it is enough to merely show up, and all of life’s rewards will be owed to them.
It is what I call our “sticker” culture. Everyone gets a sticker for showing up. They tell is that’s good for self-confidence.
I say it’s good for false confidence.
We give out stickers and trophies for participating in life. Not for excellence. Not for winning. Just for showing up.
So why are we surprised when our young adults arrive to the workforce unprepared for criticism? Unprepared for challenge. Unprepared to learn from failures. Why are we shocked when they flee from commitment at work, at home, in life… at the first sign of trouble?
I believe all of us — all Americans know this to be true because we see it every day. It’s frustrating and it is tragic. A generation lost to self-indulgence.
But I believe Americans still appreciate true excellence – and that they want to reward it. In music. In sport. In technology. The best and the brightest and the hardest-working still reap the largest rewards.
And that’s how it should be.
That’s how America wants it.
That is what has made us, dare I say it, exceptional. That’s the way it should be in every part of our lives.
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Comments (106)
Salamander
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:53pmWhat you need in that set is a rendition of bad lip-syncing like the one for Joe Biden, which still has me in stitches! While there might be some tendency for global misunderstanding of the comedy, I don’t think it would do any more harm than the “RealMaGilla”, Mr. Apology himself!
Report Post »Red-Long-Braid
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:41pmAnother Great Speach from Glenn….
Boy can you see Soro’s trolls all around these speaches?
God Bless you Glenn and all the ones helping you
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:54pmyou mean crypt keeper! (oh well, maybe we’ll get lucky soon..hes kinda decrepit, looks like he would be lucky to make it past september!)
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:39pmI still say he looks damn handsome back there!
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 9:57pmblaze, why did you change the photo? He looked just fine! don’t let them bully you! He looked just fine. Some people manifest jealousy by mean comments. Wear it as a badge of honor…and know they cannot attack on substance…so they act like spoiled 3rd graders and attack whatever else they can find. their statements say more about them than you! (and he did look damn fine…now he just looks …even better! )
Report Post »sizzler2220
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:36pmAnd, then Obama looks more and more like Alfred E. Newman with a tan.
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:41pmdead on!
Report Post »sizzler2220
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:34pmYou are right! Glenn does looks like little Ralphy from the Christmas Story. That is what makes him so loveable. Glenn Beck is the best!
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:43pmshall I make a bunny jammies joke…XoXo TeaBUNNY! LOL
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:13amI told that to a friend a couple days ago, a grown up version, spot on, LOL, love the movie too.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:31pmBeck asked Americans to pick up a mirror and gaze at their own reflection. “There’s your leader.” Amen Glenn! Keep up the good work brother!
Report Post »geonj
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:27pmglenn has a lot of important things that someone needs to pay. but i worry about the megalomania it takes to build a copy of the oval office and speak from the seat that belongs to the leader of the free world. even if that leader is another megalomaniac, (socialist, hater).
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:34pma megalomaniac is “important” thing.
Report Post »TyrannyNoMore
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 9:03pmNahh….it’s not megalomania. This is just Glenn’s way of messing with Obama. He is touching his stuff, as Glenn has put it in the past. Beck is doing an anti-parody of sorts. That is to say, he is being the president, if only for a few minutes, that Obama could, or would never be. Where as Obama is a walking caricature of a bad SNL skit, Glenn is showing Obama up by being more presidential then he has the capacity, or desire to be.
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:05amHe didn’t build the set, he purchased it, it’s the set from JFK, he had the Winston Churchill bust made, but you’d know that if you watched the show. Why is it any different to you than the set on SNL or some other sitcom that has these duplicates? This is how Glenn gets inside the lib head and burrows in, he takes their toys and plays with them and libs being who they are, cry and scream and stomp while tweeting, poor little babies.
Report Post »Biddle
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 11:36amAmen. Once a level of such piety is reached, you no longer see the speck in your own eye. You cant. Humility is gone and you become, “you’re own leader,” as Glenn said. Do you see the problem with that? (especially God fearing people out there…do you see the huge problem that presents?). Our personal issues, small or great (foul speech, tax cheating, gluttony, laziness, murder, etc) should buffer and humble us from such piety, but when you dont see or feel the thorn in your own side, you become judge and jury of others. Do you not know that Christ came for the sick, and not the well? Why are you so well?
Report Post »Just in time
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:26pmGreat message, Glenn hit it on the head. American excellence, and what it represents is almost lost. I sure do miss it. We are losing the land of the free, home of the brave. I hope and pray that America will wake up soon. Or the greatest nation the world has ever known will be gone.
Report Post »Mattyboy
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:25pmAmen/right on! I will one day be a teacher. I will be teaching self responsibility to my students.
Report Post »Chrison
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:12amOnly if you’re teaching in a charter or private school. If you‘re teaching in a public school and are a member of the teacher’s union, you will NOT be teaching self-responsibility but, rather, subservience to the almighty State.
Good luck to you, though. We need more right-thinking educators like you!
Report Post »soybomb315
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:07pmdang, every week glenn looks more and more like ralph from christmas story
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:21pmThanks for your intelligent dissertation , scut farkus.
Report Post »iguanadon
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:22pmHe looks like every other drunk or drug addict that found jesus and now thinks he knows more than everyone else and has to enlighten them.
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:23pmand I hope he kicks your XXX http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvijyBIgazE&feature=related
Report Post »North_Star
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:03pmI thought I was the only one “uncomfortable” with Glenn using this oval office set. I am a GBTV subscriber and listen to your radio show every morning. I support your messages and good works….. I do feel embarrassed and very uncomfortable with this “oval office” approach. I have now been turning them off.
That’s how I feel.
Report Post »iguanadon
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:03pmWhat a total psycho building a duplicate of the oval office and then pretending to be something bigger than he is. If a democrat had done something like this he’d be all over them for being narcissistic beyond belief.
Report Post »Red-Long-Braid
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:33pmI can see your pain insignificant Troll…. go cry to papa Soros
Report Post »Atlas_Aurelius
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:48pmDemocrats? Like say, Martin Sheen (West Wing,) and every other president movie/t.v. show made in the cesspool that is Hollywood!!
Report Post »TyrannyNoMore
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 9:05pmYou don’t like it because you know it is effective for its intended purpose. That scares you !
Report Post »NYLOTTOMAN1990
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 10:56pmSo I guess when Obama stood before the Greek Columns to give his acceptance speech he was doing what?
Report Post »scapenos
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:02pmI will be honest I haven’t read the comments posted here simply because i do not have the time. But it would be my recommendation that since the duplicate of the oval office was built than perhaps we should get a Reagan look alike or even a Kennedy look alike should be delivering the speeches that someone who is a real man and deserves to be president should be saying. I have no problem seeing these going viral in a hurry.
Report Post »trueamerican40
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:55pmIt’s too late. The dims told us what they were going to do in the early 90′s and they have succeeded. To hell with all of them….looks like they will get their utopia after all…the commie dims have gone lion hunting and the lion will win in the end.
Report Post »c.foster4722
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:55pmI don’t think Mr. Beck is trying to be disrespectful to the the office of the pres.. Remember he said this is what the pres. should have said, and he’s using the office just to help get the point across. No that doesn’t make it right, but it may not be wrong eather, Anyway, it was a good message!
Report Post »anOpinion
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:31pmAnother great common sense speech; I‘m glad he’s making these, but its sad he needs to.
Report Post »bjornskis
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:21pmyou never see a arab or muslim get stripped searched
Report Post »Teabunny
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:17pmInteresting thing I ran across today. you know Obama’s 57 states one to go gaffe? from 2008… well, I googled 57 states…incidentally, there are 57 islamic states in the Organisation of Islamic cooperation (57, because zanzibar dropped out…57 one to go) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_of_Islamic_Cooperation
from afghanistan to zanzibar! Check the list! (as adam gadhan said)2007—2011
Report Post »On May 29, 2007 Gadahn again made headlines when another video “Al-Qaeda Video Warning to US by American Adam Gadahn”[26] was released on the internet. In this video Adam Gadahn listed five actions that Bush and America must take in order to prevent future terrorist attacks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Yahiye_Gadahn
ScienceIsNotEvil
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:16pm“one that rewards a job well done”
You mean like all the times Beck and his guests have said that science leads to evil and how all biologists are part of a conspiracy?
You can‘t trash everyone who doesn’t agree with you 105% then say you are for rewarding a job well done. It simply doesn’t work that way.
Report Post »frust@ted
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 8:04pmAnything can be used for evil and scinece is just as powerfull as religion is when used for evil. People follow both blindly without question, which is why I think that science can lead to evil is an accurate statement. Heck it was science that told us over a centruy ago the African Americans aren’t humans, and people wrongfully used that information to treat people terribley.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:13pmJust a little taste of whats coming…
Report Post »http://www.infowars.com/mandatory-big-brother-black-boxes-in-all-new-cars-from-2015/
Baddoggy
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:10pmShow up…and find out what idiotic law has tied your hands, removed your freedom and taxed your progress…
The American Dream has been flushed down the toilet by a Marxist turd.
Can it be restored? Not unless we go back to the Constitution. Hard work will not do it. when you are faced with mounting regulations and stiffer taxes, all the while the Government looks at you as a terrorist.
Nice words Glenn. Too bad you couldnt have said them 10 years ago when we still had a chance….
Report Post »Gman42
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 6:51pmI hate to be a kiss-a$$, but this weekly segment is pretty inspiring.
Report Post »frust@ted
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 6:47pmGlenn, not a fan of the speaches from the Oval office. I agree with what you are saying but I don’t like the way you are doing it, I‘m just trying to be consistent I didn’t like it when President Obama used the seal before he was President. I think it is disrespectful to the office.
I do think there is a difference between Hollywood having an actor play president in the oval office to have the effect of being more realistic and someone using the image of the oval office to give a message or a speach with a clear agenda.
Glenn I think you should stop using the oval office set.
Report Post »crazyrightwingmom
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:03pmI also am not sure about using this set.
Report Post »Americanbeliever
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:09pmI agree. Good message, but it looks a bit narcissistic.
Report Post »Murkman
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:11pmI’m not sure about the set either. I think too many whose hearts and minds you’re trying to reach will dismiss you flat out because of it. I understand what you‘re going for here I just don’t think the other side will hear the message over the shouting in their heads, “how dare Beck do this thing yadda yadda etc. ect.”
Report Post »Restored One
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:18pm@Frustrated, I agree with you. Will he do these segments when Mitt is the POTUS? The message is great and inspiring, but the set is inappropriate. I liked the pictures scrolling. but it was a little distracting.
Report Post »frust@ted
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:22pmWow, I’m suprised I thought I was going to get hammered by posters for saying he should stop. Good to see that us Beck fans are objectionable and don’t hang on every word he says and let him know when we think he is wrong.
Report Post »hereandnow
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:56pmI agree… just a bit uncomfortable. It’s great to get his points across but maybe he could have some figures of the founding fathers standing or sitting behind the desk and then ad-lib.
Report Post »TyrannyNoMore
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 9:23pmSeriously guys ?? You are worried about Beck being disrespectful to the office while we have a lying, seditious, treasonous, fraudulent communist occupying the real Oval Office ?? Forget about Clinton’s infamous exploits on the carpet therein. You guys just don’t get it. He is openly mocking Obama’s leadership. Cut him some slack.
Report Post »However, having said that, I would like to see some presidential impersonators, I mean really good ones, deliver speeches from that desk. Reagan, John Adams, and Jefferson come to mind. I think the visual of any of these great men tearing Barry Soetoro a new one, would be very effective.
Question with BOLDness
Posted on May 24, 2012 at 11:30pm@TyrannyNoMore
Although I agree with some of what you say, I have to disagree with you about having impersonators come onto the Oval Office set. Glenn stated early on that he is going to be very ‘respectful’ of the set. He sounds VERY presidential and is taking this very seriously. That is how I perceive what Glenn is doing. Keep it up Glenn! Don’t change a thing!
Report Post »IDONTTHINKSO
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 6:36pmI miss those who want to be winners, those that give their all! It used to be an even field, everybody wanted to be somebody, now all they want is to be, is a group of wantabes!
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 6:29pmLookin’ good behind that desk Glenn.
Report Post »joesdonebeingintimidated
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:04pmGlenn would look more at home in a straight jacket!
Report Post »chubby
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:39pmIt is just a set. Get over it!
Report Post »The message is what is important, not where it is delivered from.
I would rather see Glenn using this set than Obama using the real office. Glenn is a commentator that is trying very hard to get folks to wake up and smell the roses. Obama is an idiot that is trying to dumbdown our society and turn it into something that we will never recognize.
Question with BOLDness
Posted on May 24, 2012 at 11:35pm@chubby
I totally agree with you!! Why are these people so upset about the set? As someone stated earlier, other shows use the set and nothing is ever said. These are just excuses IMO. Glenn is way more of a President than Dumbo will ever dream of being!! Keep it up Glenn!! Don’t change a thing!!
Report Post »trueamerican40
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 6:27pmWhat do Glenn Beck and Mark Levin have in common? A brilliance in excellence.
Report Post »joesdonebeingintimidated
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:17pmwhat do you and a healthy brain have in common?….hmmm….I cant think of anything either!!!
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 9:15pmTHAT”S because you can’t THINK! Beck IS brilliant and that’s where the HATE comes from. I LOVE the OVAL and he is saying what our ABSENT, CAMPAIGNING, VACATIONING president SHOULD be saying! Thanks, Glenn.
Report Post »TyrannyNoMore
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 9:33pmHey Joesdone….are you ten years old? I‘m surprised you haven’t resorted to calling Glenn a big, fat, poo-poo face yet. Sheeesh…..who lets you losers on here?
Report Post »FaithfulFriend
Posted on April 18, 2012 at 10:36pmHear, hear. Receive my soul food daily with Mark Levin and Glenn Beck as well and couldn’t be happier about it. My moral and financial support for Landmark Legal Foundation and GBTV are always faithful.
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