Obama Oratory Overrated?
My opinions on our current President run the gamut from thinking he’s merely hopelessly unprepared for the task to believing he’s a dangerous force from which we’ll need decades to recover. (Okay, I’ll grant you, it’s a limited gamut.) But trying to put politics aside, I’m baffled by the widely-held notion he possesses great oratorical skills. Am I the only one who finds his cadence to be sing-songy, his delivery to be robotic, and his timbre to be downright irritating?
When he delivers a speech, I can’t help but picture myself in a room filled with several hundred bored undergraduates trying to stay awake by looking for something meaningful among the platitudes. Each time he tries to move one of his pet pieces of legislation along by delivering an address, it seems to cause the opposite result. His predictable and repetitive style has an almost hypnotic effect that renders his words virtually meaningless.
He’s the guy at the wedding reception who causes everyone to roll their eyes when he stands up to give a toast. He’s the assistant principal who puts everyone to sleep at the morning assemblies. He’s the minister at the funeral who can speak in vague, pleasant-sounding generalities about the deceased without every having met the poor soul.
Maybe his reputation has something to do with his predecessor’s limitations in the public speaking arena, though I would still argue that President Bush could occasionally sound more human (think Ground Zero in New York) than President Obama has ever sounded.
Whenever we elect a new Commander-in-Chief, one of the first things I think about is what it’s going to be like to hear that voice over and over for the next four or eight years. When Ronald Reagan was elected, the prospect seemed delightful; when George H.W. Bush took over, there was a dignity in his style that I could live with; when Bill Clinton came to power, there was, at least, a genuineness that seemed to be present; and in 2000, my main concern when the ballots in Florida were being fought over was that I might have to listen to Al Gore every night.
Then came Barack Obama, and I knew almost immediately that, oratorically speaking, we had a problem. Unfortunately, that may be the least of our difficulties.
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Jun '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
As an example, it's almost as if he believes, that if he can just remind people that a clean environment is better than a polluted environment, then free market conservatives will automatically buy into Cap-and-Trade and every other environmental policy he's selling. "They just forgot that clean is better." To me, he just sounds incredibly naive--frighteningly so.
Jun '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
Mr. Obama is vapid because liberalism is inherently shallow and anti-intellectual. Consider for a moment the pillars of American culture: Judeo-Christian ethics, Greco-Roman philosophy, and Anglo-Saxon law. Can anyone give me the liberal equivalent? If Obama were a Roman he would be known as Emperor Nebulous.
Jul '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
Obama's skill as an orator is yet another myth created by the oddly-named mainstream media. So sold are they on this fantasy I think it will be well into the third year of his term before you begin to hear mutterings about the sing-song voice and the tennis-game head swivel as he turns from one teleprompter screen to the other. Obama's grandiosity has reached the stage where no one in the inner circle could convince him his speaking style has become a drag on popularity even if any dared.
May '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
The reason I can't listen to him is the same as why I can't listen to any substanceless purveyor of pomposity.
People who take themselves too d@()#! seriously drive me to drink.
May '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
On a recent flight, I was seated next to a professional actor/impersonator who told me that Obama was incredibly easy to imitate, just find the note and hit it over and over.
He went on to say that no one was interested in paying for "Obama" to appear at their meeting or event. They were paying handsomely for "Ray Charles" and "Stevie Wonder", though.
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
I forwarded these comments along, and the President has actually deigned to respond:
May '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
I might be biased since I'm inching toward the "dangerous force" side of your Obama spectrum, but I'm in complete agreement. Even during the election, I was wondering what other people were seeing that I was missing.
The delivery has very little range in cadence, style, or tone. And when he gets to his podium, it's always interesting to watch him put on his stern, professor face. There just isn't enough contrast in his speaking style--it's all various shades of gray.
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
It is a fact that he's a great speaker. We have been told and therefore it is so. I love the assistant principal analogy. Hahaha. He is the Muzak of orators.
May '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
"We are the ones we've been waiting for." A bit of clarity slipped out the moment Obama said those words. The movement was always about the movement, and Obama was its figurehead.
The symbolism of the First Black President was the appeal that drew a fair number of Obama's supporters; for those people, Obama's work was done the day he was elected. No surprise they've lost interest in him; some are now actively hostile, because he must act, not merely be.
It was never about his ability to sway the crowds.
May '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
Pat -- I think you need to throw up a Website and sell "Assistant Principal Obama says..." t-shirts.
Jun '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
He has a nice baritone and he can properly pronounce words from a teleprompter: but that's all.
What drives me crazy, are the rhetorical tics he insists on putting into his speeches.
Two examples:
1. "Make no mistake, I will . . . " [This is a signal that he's going to tell you he plans to do something that he'll never really do].
2. "Some have said" followed by a position that no person (including everyone from Bernie Sanders to Ron Paul) has never said and never would. I call this his "straw man" alarm. When you hear it, a straw man immediately follows [and he never identifies who the "some" are].
I'm sure other Ricochet readers can identify many more.
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
James Poulos, Ed.
I forwarded these comments along, and the President has actually deigned to respond:
Jul 8 at 8:46am
James, while I dozed off in the middle of reading his response, I'm truly flattered he'd take the time to comment.
Jun '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
Sorry to weigh in again, but I thought that an example of great presidential oratory should be cited. On June 6, 1984, President Reagan gave his famous "Boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech on the cliffs above Omaha Beach, where forty years before Americans came ashore under heavy fire and Army Rangers scaled the cliffs to take out the German guns. My Dad landed on that beach on D-Day + 3.
It's a masterpiece of authenticity and brevity (13 minutes long). Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEIqdcHbc8I
Obama couldn't have given that speech because I don't think he gives a damn about the Boys of Pointe du Hoc.
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
Pat: excellent post! Obama's oratory is a classic example of the Emperor's New Clothes. If Obama were so inspirational and persuasive, then why has he failed so utterly to inspire and persuade American's to follow him?
The robotic style and halting delivery are mere symptoms. The basic problem is lack of authenticity. Obama gives the distinct impression of a man who doesn't really believe what he is saying, but is convinced that he can dazzle you with words.
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
Ted Smith: Sorry to weigh in again, but I thought that an example of great presidential oratory should be cited. On June 6, 1984, President Reagan gave his famous "Boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech on the cliffs above Omaha Beach, where forty years before Americans came ashore under heavy fire and Army Rangers scaled the cliffs to take out the German guns. My Dad landed on that beach on D-Day + 3.
It's a masterpiece of authenticity and brevity (13 minutes long). Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEIqdcHbc8I
Obama couldn't have given that speech because I don't think he gives a damn about the Boys of Pointe du Hoc. · Jul 8 at 10:00am
A wonderful speech, Ted. Given your close connection through your Dad, it must have been especially moving. Even at his most prosaic, Reagan was more compelling than Obama at his most "soaring."
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
You're right, Adam. But even when he speaks about things I think he truly believes, he comes off flat and unengaged. And I think he's getting worse. America's a tough community to organize, isn't it?
May '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
Glad to learn I'm not the only one who thinks BHO is not the veritable Demosthenes everyone around me thinks he is. Beyond the abysmal delivery style, there's precious little substance. Preaching to the choir, I know, but the widespread notion that oratory is his forte is astounding.
It's odd that W's oratory was so painful (like watching one's child on stage with a speech impediment), and yet by all accounts he is as articulate as one could wish in private. Yes, indeed, Reagan's speeches were almost always a delight.
Did anyone else have Clinton pegged as a BS Artist from the get-go, too? As soon as I saw him I recognized more than a few such fellows I came to know in high school. Eight years of perceptual confirmation ensued.
Great stuff, Pat.
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
Mrak...
I, too, saw a lot of my old, not-necessarily-to-be-trusted friends in Bill Clinton from the very start. But I've come to a kind of grudging fondness for the guy. It's a little like admitting that I enjoy listening to The Archies' Sugar, Sugar on my iPod.
Jun '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
When I was a young man, I did a European tour to round out my education. I can remember stopping in Naples which is without question Europe's most disorderly city. The sidewalks are so full of trash that the condition literally forces pedestrians to walk in the streets.
Anyway, one afternoon the kids in the hostel decide to go out for a picnic. We choose a spot in one of the parks. The American contingent begins to police up and dispose of the trash before we sit down to eat. One of the Europeans asks us what we are doing. "No one told you had to do that."
Our answer, I think, was indicative of our national character: "We're Americans. We do what needs doing. No one has to tell us."
You see, we don't need an organizer. That's a collectivist attitude. Americans organize themselves.
May '10
Re: Obama Oratory Overrated?
He doesn't give a damn about Navy corpse men, either.