Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Michael Goodwin begins his column in today's New York Post with an extended -- and delightful -- admission:
When President Obama started talking at his news conference Monday, I listened intently for 15 minutes or so. Then I got fidgety as his half-truths about the debt grew into full-blown whoppers. As he droned on, I did something I never did before during an Obama appearance: I turned off the TV.
Enough. He is the Man Who Won't Listen to Anybody, so why should anybody listen to him?
Tuning out and turning off the president does not fill me with gladness. He cannot be ignored.
But for now, I will leave that unhappy duty to others. I am tired of Barack Obama. There's nothing new there. His speeches are like "Groundhog Day."
Goodwin is right, of course. Obama's speeches, virtually from the day he took office, have become soporific affairs. But the trend is all the more notable because it stands in such sharp contrast to the electrifying orator from the 2008 campaign. Watching the president fumble through his 200th unmemorable speech thus becomes a little like watching a star college athlete who just can't hack life in the pros. Even speeches that should have been layups for a talented talker (the Tuscon memorial, for instance) have been flat-footed and ultimately evanescent.
I'm anxious to hear diagnosis from our members of what's causing this extended dry spell. For my part, I locate two causes. First, Obama is making a mistake common among rhetorically weak presidents: he attempts to argue by assertion rather than persuasion. For all his verbal shine, I can't think of a single issue on which he's managed to substantially move public opinion in his favor. Second, and more simply: perhaps Obama's talents for speaking -- like his talents for writing -- are confined to discussing himself.
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Sep '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
I'm anxious to hear diagnosis from our members of what's causing this extended dry spell.
When he fell from Mount Olympus, he's had a tough time adjusting to life amongst the hoi polloi. I've read several books on Plontinus's original inspiration for the The One and The Many, including David Freddoso's book. My conclusion is the same as Mark Steyn: he's got his first real job where he has to work for it.
He can't do it.
Jul '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
It would have been nice if this admission had appeared in a MSM organ other than the Post. A media yawn like Goodwin's won't have have much significance until it appears in something like the NYT. But it won't happen, not as long as Pinch Sulzberger is running the paper into the ground. The very small lover of Caroline Kennedy is fully invested in Barack. The thought occurs to me: did Frank Rich get the hook because his critique of Obama was becoming too harshly Kuchinich? We elected a celebrity going on three years now. Madonna was still big then, but look at her now. They run out of candlepower as time passes; fashion changes. They begin to phone it in or, in Obama's case, reality chastens ideology. Yesterday's sensation is today's bore. He's never had to work hard, and I think he's ready now for some sinecure with perks like the UN secretary-generalship. Citizen of the World Obama. Four speeches a year, lots of time on the links. Jimmy Carter never brought it off, but he lacked Barry's looks and audacity.
Edited on Jul 13, 2011 at 4:22pmMay '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
I never actually knew what people found so enthralling about his speeches. When he talks any sort of specifics it's just dull, dull, dull. His tone makes him sound like he's harping on somebody. He always sets up strawmen and offers false alternatives.
And his diction is annoying--syncopated stops, emitting final syllables through his nose, and his strange inability to pronounce a final long "e" sound (as in "responsibilideh").
Jul '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Obama is a profoundly lazy man. Now that he's gotten the one job in all the world where no one can tell him to get off his butt and get to work, he does what one would expect of a such a slacker: he plays as often as he can, avoids exertion and blames others for his failures.
May '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
See! See! I always knew the opposition to Obama was rooted in racism! Gotcha!
Jul '11
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Criticism of the Bush administration was as easy as convincing people that America is great and he would help it be greater. All he has spoken of since involves knocking down straw men with his partisan giggle. In my field he invoked unnecessary tonsillectomies and off prompter mentioned an inhilator for asthma whatever that may be. He is disinterested in the tedious and mundane aspects of his job. He is far from the genius lifted up by the MSM and sadly, deep down inside he is shallow.
In reality, most people just poured their dreams in to the man and the fall has been hard for some and for the others the landing has not happened. Who he really is is something he may not even know himself since he has chosen to be chameleon like through so many different situations, never quite evolving past the boy who was rejected by his odd parents . My lawyer buddy knew him at Occidental and said he was a nobody who hung out with arabs and druggies. Go figure. I just read his words now and never ever listen to him speak anymore. It hurts my ears and offends reason.
May '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Sneering condescension mixed with overweening self-important gas-baggery wrapped in a thick blanket of total B.S. will only get you so far before your'e exposed for the fraud you always were.
This is the most brittle, dead-fish cold and thin-skinned man as I've ever seen in public life, and he's a lousy orator, too. Try to remember anything the least bit memorable from any of his public pronouncements besides the pronouns "I" "me" "mine" and "my". I'll wait. Yeah, me neither.
May '11
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
I agree. I have never understood why he has been considered a great orator. I have never heard him deliver a speech which seemed persuasive to me. Even his so called transcendent speech on racism where he tried to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright sounded contrived and disingenuous to me. The media wants to believe he is a great communicator but he is exceedingly boring and barely comprehensible without a teleprompter.
May '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
I can think of plenty of memorable lines, actually, just for a different reason.
- Regarding his nomination: "...rise of the oceans will begin to slow and the planet will begin to heal..."
- Regarding a protest Selma, AL that took place after he was born: "....some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born."
- Regarding asthma patients: "...you gave them treatment early and they got some treatment, a breathalyzer or inhalator..."
- Regarding Obamacare: "But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits..."
Edited on Jul 13, 2011 at 5:16pmNov '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Obama is not lazy - after all, his initiative and achievement are remarkable.
I think he just doesn't like the job. He must make real choices in the real world, not theoretical choices as in his former life. I think he has been completely blindsided by reality. For example, I doubt he ever thought about the bond market before he got this job.
Edited on Jul 13, 2011 at 5:20pmDec '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Troy Senik
First, Obama is making a mistake common among rhetorically weak presidents: he attempts to argue by assertion rather than persuasion. For all his verbal shine, I can't think of a single issue on which he's managed to substantially move public opinion in his favor. Second, and more simply: perhaps Obama's talents for speaking -- like his talents for writing -- are confined to discussing himself. ·
This is just beautifully put.
It's hard for me to objectively assess why Obama's speeches are so bad, other than what you said, Troy. I just despise how he does everything he accuses his opposition of doing and the media mouthpieces let him get away with it.
One way his rhetoric is different from, say Reagan, is, if you agree with his ideology, you come away feeling your opposition is worse than you thought and your side is righteous. With Reagan, you came away feeling better about Americans and America, whether you agreed with his ideology or not. There really is a heart of darkness in the man.
May '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Edited on Jul 13 at 05:16 pm
May '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Kervinlee
Mark Wilson
I can think of plenty of memorable lines, actually, just for a different reason. · Jul 13 at 5:11pm
Edited on Jul 13 at 05:16 pm
You got me there, Mark. Touche'. These recovered memories are almost too much to bear.
There is one memorable phrase from a presidential speech I'm longing to hear repeated by the next administration: "Our long national nightmare is over... " · Jul 13 at 5:39pm
Jul '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Mark Wilson
See! See! I always knew the opposition to Obama was rooted in racism! Gotcha! · Jul 13 at 4:41pm
No waffles, no watermelon, no fried chicken. Not seeing it.
Jul '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
David John
Obama is not lazy - after all, his initiative and achievement are remarkable.
Edited on Jul 13 at 05:20 pm
Well, if one reads Aaron Klein's The Manchurian President or Stanley Kurtz's Radical in Chief, one understands that Obama's "achievement" isn't the result of his own initiative. Obama got where he was because he was groomed by the radical Left for decades.
How else did a pot-smoking, coke-snorting layabout leverage his lackluster academic achievements at Occidental College into the Ivy League? And then how did he launch his political career? In Bill Ayers' living room.
The First Black President is nothing but a sock-puppet of the professional Left.
Nov '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
I couldn't agree more. I always found Obama's speeches to be terrifying. To me, he always sounds like an arrogant college student who'd read a few books by Chomsky and thought he had the world figured out. That's why his rhetoric was always so flowery and over the top. They were delivered by a man with no experience actually getting things done in the real world. That's why he could say things like "This was the moment when the seas stopped rising, etc." and not be embarrassed. Now reality is hitting him in the face everyday and I don't think he likes it. His speeches reflect that.
Feb '11
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
I think it has much to do with 'Mount Olympus', as this refers his time in academia. True he hasn't had to do anything resembling true 'work' his entire life but I also think it has much to do with the herd mentality and the 'closed mind' it produces. To Obama, a myriad of issues, and the ideas behind them, such as: Keynesian economics, healthcare, constitutional preference, etc., have already been 'settled'; Obama is now merely concerned with the power or coercion needed to carry out his agenda. To openly question any of the Left's orthodoxy in a graduate program usually invites one to become seen as something of a pentecostal tent-preacher.
Jul '11
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
There was never anything remarkable about Obama, other than his unremarkability; never anything impressive about him, other than his unimpressiveness. He is a con man who bamboozled a mass of ignorant people who had never before paid much attention to politics. His temperament is ill suited for the nation's highest office and the historical anomaly of his election will be corrected in 2012.
May '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Obama's problem is his insincerity. He cannot say what he really believes.
Dec '10
Re: Obama: Inertia Behind the Podium
Some people prefer to talk about ideas, others about things, and the rest about people. Because of our historic first Islamic apostate president’s morbid narcissism, exacerbated by a hyper-sensitive aversion to criticism (e.g. Mo Dowd’s getting an earful episode), his feckless interest in other people, things, and ideas ceases to bore only when he panegyrically references he-his-him-himself—hence his I-my-me- mine-syndrome that would make Gilles de la Tourette’s head spin.