Is Obama really that good a speaker?

Bill Clinton's policy adviser William Galston is frustrated with Barack Obama.

He thinks Obama is losing the debate on the economy, allowing McCain's analysis - that lobbyists and Washington are the problem - to triumph because he doesn't offer an analysis of his own.

He provides a checklist of economic proposals for Obama to adopt.

But to me his most interesting comment is this:

Your stump speech is too long and discursive. It shouldn’t last more than fifteen minutes, it should focus on your agenda, not today’s news story, it should feature short, declarative sentences, and it should leave no doubt about what you care about the most.

Galston is raising a question I have wondered about, too. How good is Obama as a speaker?

Clearly he can be inspiring and his technique is superb, particularly his autocue technique. He is able to make truly brilliant speeches.

And compared to McCain he is Demosthenes. But, in the immortal words of Chris Dillow, that is like being a better violinist than Abu Hamza.

I find that too often he can be an empty, rather woolly speaker. Someone who likes the sound of his own voice a bit much. It is a danger he has to guard against.

It is interesting to note from Galston that in his stump speech he doesn't.

Comments

[JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO]

Obama is back up in the polls.

The bounce from the bouncy Ms Palin is over.

Just watch, the tired old man and his six-years-to-get-an-easy-bachelor's degree sidekick will leave a minority with any faith in their ability to handle America's problems.

It isn't just Obama's speaking, it's the obviousness of his superior intelligence and understanding.

In bad times, people want smart, not tired and superstitious.

[Gabriel]

The Mccain analysis is not that "lobbyists are to blame".

It is that the policy of encouraging lenders to lend the sub prime market though statute and GECs has caused this mess and that regulation necessary to mitigate this policy was not enforced because too many congressmen, usually but not exclusively Democrats, were taking bungs.

Fact: Bush tried to reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Fact: McCain tried to reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
Fact: both times Dems cried blue murder and said they were trying to keep the poor from getting easy credit.

[JBx]

In the US, Obama is known as "music with no words" and "an empty suit". He comes with no known background of substance protected by the media. Lynn Forester de Rothschild, an American who lives in London, just threw her family name and funding to John McCain for that very reason.

[Andy C]

I have to say I have just watched Mike Bloomberg on C-Span addressing a Georgetown University audience on the current financial crisis - it would not be a mistake at this late stage to drop Biden and draft Mike!

Seems to be the only politician with a national profile who truly understands the economy and how to fix it.

[Willo]

Always had my nagging doubts about his prowess too. He can be boring most of the time when he starts to sound like some university professor...which is how he does 75% of the time.

[Bubba]

Whenever Obama speaks without a teleprompter, he has trouble stringing together a coherent thought. Interesting that such a so-called "brilliant mind" has produced so little of a record. Has anyone ever seen a single written opinion by this "editor of the Harvard Law review"? Sounds like affirmative action to me.

[lawhite]

Uh, well no, uh, he isn't. And getting away from a teleprompter and written speeches (written by someone else) is almost always a disaster for him, as he sticks his foot in his mouth every time. We'll see what the debates bring.

[Carmelo]

Obama has a small bump in the polls. He should be like 10 points ahead attacking Bush. But the race is still tied. He got that bounce just for the economic crisis. McCain-Palin will eventually win. Remember those 18 millions PUMAs that are now in the shadows will come out 3 days before the elections giving McCain-Palin the eventual victory.
All these people attacking Palin and supporting Obama are the same people who voted for him in the primaries. Just watch after the debates how numbers change.

[Kevin Finnerty]

Obama is really outstanding at delivering a speech, and he has some of the best speech writers in the world on his staff. On the other hand, if he has to speak without a teleprompter off-the-cuff, he is terrible. That's why he does poorly in debates, that's why he has never held a hearing of the Senate committee he chairs, that's why as Editor of he HLRJ he did not write a single article. He is an empty suit being controlled by the Chicago democratic party machine.

[JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO]

Gee JBX, people are supposed to consider it a sign that of more 300,000,000, one, a certain Lynn Forester de Rothschild, is supporting McCain? I'm impressed.

Do you actually read what you post?

"He [Obama]comes with no known background of substance protected by the media."

I guess, according to you, being a distinguished Harvard grad, having taught law at the University of Chicago, and being a United States senator just doesn't cut it?

But being a person who took 6 years at 5 colleges and universities to get a lightweight-subject bachelor's degree, mayor of a town the size of Andy Griffith's Mayberry, and governor of a remote state whose entire population is about the same as the town of Charlotte, and being investigated for corruption - well, that clearly sums to remarkable qualifications.

Sorry, but that tired-looking old man is going to be sunk by his bouncy idiot Vp candidate once people get a good earful of her. Already the polls have moved substantually since the first silly hoola-hoop rage over Alaska Earth Mother.

Despite McCain's keeping her under wraps to an unprecedented extent, she is misspeaking almost every day somewhere. She is a walking timebomb.

[CB]

Obama is a good ALOUD reader - nothing more - just like Hitler.

Chuckman - worry about your own country - grab a clue as well as an analytical understandung of politics in MY country.

[Pat McGrane]

I'm a Brit living in Arizona and, while is agree that Obama is a better speaker than McCain, I don't think that this matters much. Americans are brought up on the sound bite and the 30 second advert. They are, essentially, a shallow bunch looking for simple, easy to grasp concepts, not oratory. They also believe that others are the cause of most of their problems so they like to hear that it's the lobbiests, the CEOs or whatever, who are the cause of their grief. McCain understands this and uses it. Obama still thinks he's a college lecturer teaching constitutional law to someone who gives a damn.

[David Leslie]

When Obama made his infamous comment about pigs and lipstick, this was one of the most laboured speeches I've seen anybody make. It appears that if it isn't scripted and rehearsed then he is out of his depth.

[John]

I Obama were smart, he would have picked Hillary as his running mate.

But maybe that would have challenged his, "cult of personality".

[Daphne Kenward]

Put it this way he sounds better than. Mrs Palin, high pitched shreeks. Karl Rove does show us all that she has no mind of her own by his daming speech writing.

Palin is nothing but a Circus act, producing a side show that is getting boring. McCain looks like the dwarf who aspire to be the pickpocket while she distract the audience.

I think Rove would do best to stick with his original gang of crooks. Bush Cheney, Kissenger, Bush Senior.

[conniesz]

I agree that Obama is only a good speaker when compared to abysmal speakers like McCain. I sure hope he takes Galston's advice - the Clinton team knows how to win. Obama should be 20 points ahead at this point. The fact that he's only five points ahead cannot all be attributed to racism - at least I hope not, because that's almost as frightening as McCain becoming our next president.

[Jimbob]

Thanks Daniel,

It is refreshing to read someone else realises his speeches, whilst lyrical, are totally ambiguous and empty.

When one hears the same cadence and mantra, it's a case of 'yawn, yeah right'

[ccm]

"music with no words?" "an empty suit"? I live in America and have never heard these references. The beauty of political statements is that they are all true - the question is whether so for two, two hundred, or two hundred million people. I am sure that I could find two people at least (de Rothschild being one of them) for whom this statement is true.

[wilma]

We have an empty vessle in Australia he's called Rudd. Same modus operandi and political leanings too.

All American medias and American people passionately supported when US had started the war. I thought it was a wrong decision. Now all American medias passionately support Obama. They never say even one friendly word to MacCain. Ishould say it is wrong. I supported Hillary first and now MacCain because of exactly the same reason as Mrs..Rothschild. America's mistake was caused by extreme right wing. Now Obama is the same extremist although he is on the right wing.
Hillary and MacCain are moderate.
Extremists are wrong in any cases.Dangerous!

[Brett]

JBX...is that the same Rothschild lady who described the backbone of the Republican base (midwesterners and southerners) as "rednecks" the other day? I'd hardly quote her as any credible source. She really represents MOST Americans? Filthy rich, and married into nobility? You're having a laugh! And please don't say you speak for America. As an American, I've not met very many people that think McCain or Palin deliver as confident a speech, especially off the cuff, as Barack Obama does. Besides, Obama has a wonderful quality when he speaks: He doesn't sneer, smile, smirk or glance about in shifty-eyed ways when speaking on grave issues. McCain does. Body language and demeanor explain a lot about one's confidence. I want the person who's going to look me in the eye and confidently tell me what he/she plans to do, not the person who's shifty-eyed and defensive at the podium. That's been a major problem over the last 8 years. Weasly, reactive, and defensive speeches from our incompetent chief executive.

[Lorenzo, San Diego]

I've listened to most of Obama's speeches over the last year, and I have to agree, they're too long. Most of them are high on rhetorical flourishes, but short on substance, but that's the nature of politics leading up to a general election.

A great speaker can speak off the cuff, but Obama stumbles without a script. Obama has a good delivery of written material, but I don't think that justifies his apparent reputation.

[Nonpartisan Nora]

Now, now, Mr. Chuckman! No need to poke fun at Governor Palin's education -- to be fair, she transferred multiple times, and that does set one back from graduating on time. Furthermore, a degree in journalism isn't so lowly ... for example, many law advisors say it's the best possible bachelor's degree to obtain if one is interested in attending law school.

But, the other two of you are also not exactly defensible in your claims, either.

Gabriel, I could find no evidence to support your claims in any newspaper archives, other than attempts by Republicans to further de-regulate the mortgage industry (a terrible idea, considering lax regulations is what left creditors and dealers to engage in unethical practices in the first place).

And JBX, even as an Independent, I find it appalling that a woman like Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a self-proclaimed supporter of Hillary Clinton, would switch parties for as vacuous a reason as she perceives Senator Obama to be "elitist." This is a term borne of GOP ploys to discredit a popular politician -- trying to paint his education and eloquence as some sort of fault. Clearly Rothschild's support of Senator Clinton was never substantive, for how could she abandon everything she pretended to champion in Clinton, for the very opposite in the McCain/Palin ticket?

It makes no sense, and her explanation was silly and frivolous.

[Patrick]

Obama is a great speaker. But there are different kinds of "great."

He is the opposite of Clinton, who was at his best when he was in the clutch, in trouble. That's when Obama is at his worst. Obama is a great speaker when he has an audience that loves him.

For one example, go find that clip when Obama responded to the heckler up on the top row of the bleachers. Find the extended version that MSNBC didn't show (but CNN did) because it made Obama look bad. He said "Uh" and "You know" about 40 times. Then compare it to Clinton dealing with loudmouth hecklers.

I don't know yet what this means for the election or the debates, but we'll see. I just hope it isn't like when Cheney destroyed Edwards. That was ugly.

[Jim]

Obama bores me. I think his speaking is overhyped by the media and everyone else looking for the next mlkjr. He always says the same things. Its the same speech he debuted with 4 years ago at the democratic convension. Hope, change, blah, blah, blah, is there anything else to it? Obama's supporters were complaining that Palin had a teleprompter. Do they not notice how scripted their candidates speeches are? Obama refuses to debate McCain at the town hall meetings across the USA. Oh but he'll debate him at the tv debates where the questions are given to him beforehand and his advisors tell him what to say and preachers tell him how to deliver it. Obama is a lot like Bush in those regards. They are so protected I have no idea if they are puppets taking orders or their own people. People think Bush and Obama are smart because they went to Harvard and Yale. This means nothing. They both got in because of who their dadddy was. Obama because his daddy happened to be black and Bush because his daddy happened to be rich. Do we really want another president who instead of earning things the hard way got everything handed to them?

[Leon A Davis]

Obama is a great speaker, when he has his teleprompters. Without them he's lost. His sentences are choppy, he reverts to street dialect, and he has trouble putting two cogent thoughts end to end. So now his handlers are making him take his teleprompters everywhere. A few days ago he used them in a rodeo arena, of all places. Keep in mind that a campaigning politician repeats the same speech, with minor variations, six or eight times a day. Obama can't even do that without technical help. Bill Clinton, like any good politician, just stands on the bed of a truck and speaks from the heart. Bubba is one of the very best. Political campaigning is a kind of courtship. How sincere would a man sound if he read a proposal of marriage to his girlfriend from an index card? Right now, that's Obama's problem.

[tiddle]

Well said.

I have never found much substance in Obama's speeches. They are pretty much the same - empty words that allow him to go on and on. As the article has rightly pointed out, the narcissistic Obama probably loves to hear his own voice too much to stop yapping.

[Pat from Texas]

Obama is not a good speaker. He may read what is considered a good speech from a prompter - but have you heard him with no preparation? He can't finish a sentence - uh is his favorite word.
He talks in hokey platitudes "I am the one the world has been waiting for!" Ugh! Please! Hail the Messiah!

Listen to Palin - no "uh's" direct full answers, no baloney.

She may not be experienced in foreign affairs yet, but she is sharp - has more good sense than "other world Obama" and with some time in the Cabinet world - she'll be much sharper than Obama who has to be told by his money bags from Chicago that he MUST vote no on the Iraqi War - he wasn't sure if he should" - True.

[Aspiringly Honorable T. C. Lowery]

Rhetorically speaking, the very Honorable Sen. B. H. Obama seems, respectfully, to spend between one-third and one-half of his 'speech', publically and otherwise, playing the blame game while his opponent remains a cut above this jive. This wasting of campaign donors time and money could translate into the perception that, as a President, this man would shoulder no real responsiblilty for any mistakes that he might, or more probably would, make and, that he would continue the buck passing trend of pointing his often waved finger to anybody else but himself. The thing that makes him seem the most 'too good to be true' is the huge void of admitting that he's ever wrong about anything. He's always right, according to him, and nobody's that right. He needs to admit it when he's wrong and be real about it, not just on little stuff that does't really matter, but on the issues, and when they count, like most everyone else, including especially, his opponent, the also very Honorable Sen. J. S. McCain. A real man can admit it when they're wrong. Admit it, Senator Obama, I challenge you. Just once, when it counts, I'd like to see you sincerely admit it when you're wrong. You do a lot of finger pointing, but how about showing us how a President, or candidate, should act when it is his turn to admit his own shortcomings, and don't act like we all don't have them. Will you live up to this challange Senator, or will you disregard it as just another thing you've been 'right' about?

[Tony Francis]

Obama speaks in general, lofty terms. He can't get specific because he is a neo-Marxist. He has proposed $1 trillion in new start up programs, while claiming he will cut taxes for 95% of the people. Where's he going to get the money? Too bad, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke just spent his trillion dollars propping up the system. They spent it in just a few hours. So where's he going to get the money? If Obama wins, we shall have a new social experiment: can Marxism provide all the goods and services demanded by a spoiled US populace? It has never worked before. But maybe it will this time. We shall see.

[Pamela]

I no longer can listen to Obama speak. He always has the same tonal voice quality and goes on and on and on and on with lots of "um..." "uh..." and now, it just all sounds the same and contains lots of empty promises. He seems too in love with himself, too, when he talks, making lots of faces of self-adoration. So, basically, I just no longer listen to him. He is grating on my nerves.

[Patrick]

I agree with the author - I also find Obama to be an empty speaker - someone who likes the sound of his own voice too much. After more than a few minutes he's nauseating, elitist, arrogant. Other than mocking his more experienced, more accomplished opponent and praising himself, he hasn't presented anything impressive or particularly intelligent. In fact, his suggestion that McCain is dishonorable smacks of desperation. Except for Obama, all of McCain's adversaries consider him honorable.

[Patrick]

I think we all should sit up and take note of why Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a huge Democratic supporter for most of her life, is now backing John McCain. That is news worth exploring further.

[Mary]

BHO is an empty suit. He cannot exist w/o a teleprompter. Um, ah, well, um, ah...Also his gaffes are unbelievable-57 states in union,not knowing that Russia has a veto at UN, not knowing capital of Israel and you call that intelligent!!! I guess the level of ed in the great white north has gone way down!Good for de Roth.

[bjonsson]

JBX... of COURSE a person with the surname "Rothschild" would throw their support behind the Republicans.

[Dave B]

Jonah Goldberg makes the point that while Mr Obama is good at talking to people who already support him, he has demonstated no ability/success at talking to people who do not already support him.

http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14481

[Dominic]

Obama is of the Al Pacino school of soliloquies. He puts on a profound face, makes declarations in a shouty voice, and essentially speaks in self-important monotone. And, as with Pacino, Hollywood hails him a genius for it.

[sl]

who cares if he delivers?

[clif judy]

Obama is "half this , half that"..."you know?", I mean "you know?" He is a sign of politically correct times, no more and with little to add of any substantial meaning. The people who will vote on his effort will tell the eventual tale of Obama..."you know?"

[henry monono]

If Obama was a WASP there would have been no contest.Obamas problem as every human being with an average IQ knows is the race problem or more particularly the Bradley effect.His acceptance or not by the American voter would be the litmus test of America's racial bent.The world is watching . Would America pay its debt to the black race?To be or not to be that is the question.

[Katie]

Obama is a poor speaker. This is a symptom of a far more serious underlying problem. His speaking style reflects his background as an adjunct college professor and points to his lack of executive experience.

Obama doesn't feel a need to keep his message short (students have to listen, there will be a test); he doesn't feel the need to keep his message clear (he's speaking to graduate students, not ordinary people); he doesn't feel the need to set forth a clear plan of action (college professors are not expected to set goals or lead a team to achieve the goals they have set).

Obama's speaking style is a symptom of his lack of executive experience - in other words, the fact that he's never acted as a leader and doesn't have the right instincts to handle a leadereship role.

[Felix]

To JBX: I would rather hear music with no words than listen to a broken record (more of the same). we need change

[Cinnamon]

Being a good speaker is far more related to being a good actor than being a great politician -- none of those people write their own speeches anyway and with this the original idea -- to hear the politician speak about his ideas in order to convince you to vote for them -- is already dead in it's tracks because you hear an actor recite someone else's ideas in a speech written by a professional wordsmith.

All you get to vote for is a glorified parrot that is fronting a party machine that is focused solely on winning power at any price -- whether you vote for Obama, against Brown, or whoever else.

But the real issues? No party, no politician dares or cares to go near them...

[Scott]

He's good with prepared practiced speeches. He needs work to not stumble when speaking extemporaneously.

[John Skookum]

Mr. Obama is very good with the teleprompter, which I assume is what you refer to as an "autocue".

However, his debating skills are poor to middling. He is not a good off-the-cuff speaker.

McCain, on the other hand, gives wooden speeches from the teleprompter, but in unscripted settings like a debate, he is much better than Obama.

The debates also favor McCain for another reason-- they are his best chance to get his message to the people without the filter of the mainstream media. The media, at least here in the US, have been outrageously biased against McCain/Palin and in favor of Obama. In the past three weeks, they have expended oceans of ink on Mrs. Palin's personal appearance, family problems, and quarrels with her sadistic cop ex-brother-in-law. Yet of Mr. Obama's long association with radical hard-Left agitators and bomb-tossers, or the story of where the $150 million from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was spent, hardly a word.

McCain, if he is smart, will get these concerns front and center in the national consciousness during the debate.

[Nona]

Take away Obama's teleprompter and he is lost. His sentences wind around and around; the ending has no relationship to the start. But this passes for intelligence in a country that watches soap operas.

[Dennis Eagan]

Obama's speeches are only as good as their authors can make them. The man himself is an embarrassment in the absence of a teleprompter.

[Damien]

Obama does not speak, he shouts.....

[Mike Rogers]

So, apart from the Canadian, who thankfully will not be voting, people are mostly seeing through Obama. His planned speeches are great speeches - not much substance, but great delivery.
His unplanned speaking is very different and does not come easily - what you'd expect from a man who does not want to be too transparent about his intentions. Conversely, McCain does not deliver great oratory, but speaks with conviction and does not need to pause before answering. Palin will be similar once she gets a little more accustomed to the spotlight.
Finally if "superior" intelligence was sufficient to get elected, whatevery happened to presidents Dukakis and Kerry, and why was Carter so bad? Could it be that elitists don't understand the difference between telling us they are superior and actually doing a better job?

[Bill]

If you are a black man and can speak standard English, you are by defaut an "articulate" speaker. Hence the praise lavished on Obama's rhetorical style.

[Bruce in Kentucky]

John in Toronto: The "obviousness" of your intellectually self-assured superior analysis is obscured by careless proofreading and poor grammar. Like Obama off his teleprompter, you leave me unimpressed.

[Germaine Botterel]

If Obama wins, there will be entertainment for those not counting on his promises to come true.

For those investing their precious hope in his promises, it will be most crushing.

For everyone, an Obama win will have the benefit of 4 years of re-directed patronage --got to switch this around every now and then for the health of the system.

The negative is, Obama and his forces will further the dominance of leftist ideology in fabric of society.

There's some truly awful aspects of the Bush Admin.

But an Obama presidency will, in sum, be destructive to the Western project.

[Dan Schwartz]

"I find that too often he can be an empty, rather woolly speaker. Someone who likes the sound of his own voice a bit much. It is a danger he has to guard against."

Gee, I thought that paragraph was about Joe Biden!

Here's an old saying that's worth repeating: "There hath no stronger love affair than that between Joe Biden and the sound of his voice"

[Omar Sharrif]

Obama's advantage has largely disappeared. Red states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Missouri, which once seemed in play for Obama, now seem less so. Wisconsin now looks like a tossup again, and the old-fashioned battlegrounds of Ohio and Pennsylvania are dead even. Again.

[edoardo chioni]

OOOOOOHHH YEAH !!!

[Nick in Virginia]

"He is able to make truly brilliant speeches."

This should read "he is able to deliver truly brilliant prepared speaches".

When he speak extemporaneously, he stumbles and stammers continuously, indicating he is trying to think of how to answer the question without making it look like he has to stop and think about it. He sounds more and more like Chris Rock without the dirty words. "I want you to go out there and get in their face" -- wow, that's really Presidential!!

And when he was confronted about using Jim Johnson to head up his VP search team, it was "looky here, looky here".

His instincts are poor - his response to the Russian invasion was to call for both sides to "show restraint". Now think about that - you are being attacked by the Russian military, bombers blasting your military outposts, on the receiving end of heavy artillery barrages, tanks rolling through your city streets, Russian soldiers shooting up your people, raping the women, destroying everyone's property, and 0bambi says "keep cool, bro. Ain't no big thing".

And he really blew it this week on the financial meltdown and the Fed/Treasury bailout plan. Like I said, his instincts are just wrong, he is not a trustworthy decision maker.

The more I hear from 0bama, the more I realize what a con job he has pulled on the American public.

[Nick in Virginia]

To JBX:

Actually, we Yanks tend to say "all sizzle and no steak". "Empty suit" is spot on, though.

[Chuck the Czech]

After reading this piece, and one from Canadian commentator R. Murphy, it seems to me that 0bama's speaking style is unique and mesmerizing. When he speaks, he sends "believers" into a trance. I've said before, and I'll say again: 0bama can read the ingredients to a Big Mac, or cigarette package warnings to his audiences, and they will cheer wildly. So, the question isn't whether 0bama is a good speaker. He is. The question is: Are 0bama-supporting, Kool-aid drinking American voters good listeners? The answer is: NO!

[david wayne osedach]

It is one thing to master the technique of giving a perfect speech.

Another to lead this country out ofa dead certain recession/depression. At this Obama will flail and fail badly. Palin will beat him in 2012.

[Dave McIntosh, UK]

Where on earth did Finkelstein get Galston's advice to Obama from? Very interesting - and I too have wondered how much substance there really was in Obama speeches - but - his own policy advisor made his criticisms public?!

[Sushant Pandit]

The world wishes to have an American president who is more than just mere words. We need someone who has seen war, death, felt pain, who can have emphathy with the dispossesed. I don't see that in anyone among the running canditates, though McCain comes close. McCain, though he might not be a great speaker, has gone though various phases of life to have a different world view which is not wooly or mere words. The 20th century belonged to the USA, nobody is sure whether USA will be so dominant in this century. The Neo-cons (such as Chenney) and the ultra-leftists (such as Obama) are no-good for the world. The Democrats could have chosen someone else. But alas!

[Dave]

Obama is the darling of the media, and the darling of the radical left. He is the product of political correctness which in most cases is a form of censorship. You can’t make any honest comment about him without the fear of being labeled racist. But since many people will cast their votes without being subjected to such fear, Obama is doomed.

[Kerry]

Obama is not a great speaker, he is just another empty demagoue. We have seen many through history.

[NostraDemus]

Senator Obama's fanciful flights of rhetorical excess bespeak a lack of substantive gravitas. The closest comparison might be the flash and light which accompanied the floating head of the "The Wizard of Oz." But American voters beware! Behind the Wizard's screen lurks the Cabal that is the Chicago Democratic machine. As corrupt as it is coarse. Let us hope that come November 4th, the Electoral College provides an impregnable conservative firewall against Obama's rhetorical excesses of misguided populist demagoguery.

NostraDemus

[CARP]

It mystifies me as to why Obama is continually called "eloquent." BS blather/worn-out platitudes (which he can deliver ONLY with the aid of a teleprompter) is not eloguence, it is simply BS. It is worth noting that the much-derided Sarah Palin had her teleprompter break down early into her acceptance speech and it didn't faze her one bit. She simply went right on while adding some her own remarks, including the famous "lipstick" line, to the prepared speech without missing a beat. Does pretty well under fire for someone so "unprepared," doesn't she? You go, girl!

CARP
Tulsa, Oklahoma

[bfreeman]

Dear Chuckman from Toronto. We don't care what you think. Canada is no world leader in anything but hockey rinks and near bankrupt national healthcare system. Just think how your country would be doing if you had to pay anything for National Defense. Our budget for Stealth airplanes is larger than your entire defense budget..why is that? Diss America all you want, until you need our help, isn't that "World Policy"

[Sherry]

As long as he's got a Teleprompter in front of him, Obama speaks very well, but he only stutters and stammers without one - he's like a programmed robot.

[Karen]

Am in agreement with JBX & Gabriel. Sen. Obama is fairly good with a teleprompter, but very poor in unscripted settings. Criticism of gaffes like his stump comment about campaigning in all but 2 of the "57 states" has him now breaking out the teleprompter on the stump, even at a rodeo. (Obama was photographed in a cowboy hat). Yeehaw! As they say in Texas Obama is all hat and no cattle. In other words, an empty suit. At least I think he's stopped the faith healing water bottle toss and call to "give her room, she'll be all right!" when someone in the crowd faints. That got old.

[Didi]

Obama takes a long time to say nothing. It gets old after a while.

[An muc gorm]

How can people like de Rothschild claim Obama is elitist and out of touch? Compared to WHOM? How more elitist can you get than living abroad with a filthy rich aristocrat?

[Pat]

Those of us that understand communication, oratory, and rhetoric all know that Obama is NOT the great communicator. He is crowd-pleaser and an inciter that has not changed his "schpeel" in a year. I can now recite his speeches better than he can.

[Bob Evans]

Oh, Obama is a great speaker--but only as long as he has a teleprompter in front of him. But without someone's written words, he is floundering on the rocks. Having said that, never underestimate the power of charisma on stupid people.

[SP Phil]

For UK readers: The true "empty suit" is Lynn Forester de Rothschild. She told CNN that she was voting for McCain because "frankly I don't like [Obama]. I feel like he is an elitist." This has drawn hoots from US readers who note, as in the following commentary from the LA Times spells out, that she is fabulously wealthy and divides her time between New York City and England:

"Lady Rothschild thinks Obama is elitist--

Insanely rich Lynn Forester de Rothschild, an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter who has endorsed John McCain and Sarah Palin, could have spared herself the ridicule coming her way today if she hadn't said she thinks Barack Obama is "an elitist." The differences between the Republican and Democratic candidates are significant, and she could have singled out any number of meaningful positions to explain her move to McCain's side. But elitist?

Very, very few people occupy that truly elite niche of wealth, power and privilege that enfolds the family Rothschild. And giving Lady Rothschild her due, she was a fabulously wealthy lawyer and entrepreneur who made $100 million on her own before she married her fabulously wealthy husband (and honeymooned at the White House with Hillary and Bill)."

[Rick - Denver, CO]

Mr. Chuckman: It's exactly this kind of elitist, condescending approach to the American citizen-voter that has cost the Democrats the White House for two elections now. I predict they will continue to impress themselves with their own erudition, yet leave the voter with too many doubts to pull the lever in their favor.

[Commonsense]

JBX & Gabriel
More Republican talking points! The banking system has been regulated since, and because of, the great depression. Only this hopeless regime under Bush would have screwed around with it but they did and the fact is is that John McCain gave his full endorsement to such a ridiculous idea. Once again this shows McCain's poor idealistic judgement. These guys messed up the economy and the military. It's time for them to go and let someone new with better ideas lead the government.

[David Chorley]

The Obama plan is to turn the US into a European-style social democracy. He will promote high taxes, expensive energy and a nanny state. Much of the european and US left-leaning press is salivating over this prospect. The average American worker is not. Even my traditionally Democrat voting relatives in NJ are deeply suspicious of Obama. Biden is just a bad joke>

[T]

No Obama is not a good speaker. When being interviewed face to face hear him stutter . Americans want McCain and Palin. Not Obama and Biden. Watch and see.

[Warner Todd Huston]

Answer: No. Without a prepared, telepromptered speech... he can't string more than two words together at a time without 40 ums and ahs.

[MCD]

Um, uh, you know, um, no, he's NOT a good speaker. He waffles when asked questions and has zero ability to be concise. He's a Lawyer and does what Lawyers love to do; bloviate.

He has absolutely no record of going against his party, no matter how corrupt and incompetent they are (see Illinois).

He's an empty suit, created by the corrupt Democratic Chicago Machine. He'll go down in flames.

[Dave]

"six-years-to-get-an-easy-bachelor's degree sidekick"

More voters in the U.S.A. appreciate a six year BA degree and a governorship than a snooty Harvard affirmative action gimme, a token job in a law firm and pounding the streets in Chicago.

[MCD]

"Above my pay-grade." CLASSIC response from Obama when asked a difficult question. HILARIOUS!

[MCD]

Of course Chuckman, who ran off to Canada to avoid the draft, isn't going to have any thing good to say about McCain, who endured torture from the very people Chuckman ran from.

[Dan R]

Obama, when asked a non-scripted question: "uh uh uh uh ah ah well a a a a a uh uh uh ..." followed by a grouping of sentence fragments and half completed points. Highly intelligent? I think not.

[delia]

He is full of empty,said an american living in Paris describing Barack obama... I agree! One thing I hate about Obama is the finger pointing. I daresay it's a cultural thing and I don't vote in the U.S. so...

[Arby Smith]

Remember Slick Willy?? Obama is the new Bill Clinton- slick, verbally skilled and completely untrustworthy. His speeches ring hollow, he is the quintessential smoke and mirrors man.. The U.S will be have been badly deceived if he is elected.

[Dana]

Yes, well, your precious (and I assume you mean intelligent as well) Lynn Forester de Rothschild, this week called middle class Americans "red necks"--a term that confirms much about her allegiance to McCain. Seems that only the very rich, the very religious, and the very idiotic are the ones backing McCain. And as an American, I'm ashamed to admit that just might be enough to win him the election.

[john]

what answer could one expect if he were to ask an obama supporter if he would vote for a man possessing his skeletal resume if he were white?

[Miles]

No without his teleprompter he's umm...ahhh...ummm a horrid speaker. How he passed his oral exams is just another unsolved mystery. I do wish he would release his college grades.

[Evan in Colorado]

Obama an empty suit? Read his books and try to say that then. McCain can barely even think straight anymore. Obama is a great speaker, but those who really understand public communication know that Bill Clinton is the best of our times. Of course, about half of America is so dumb and anti-intellectual that good speaking and intelligence are a detriment to a candidate (Bush elected twice, need I say more). No one quite realizes the movement Obama has created though. Historically roughly 40-50% of Americans eligible to vote do not. Obama has targeted these folks and has literally created millions of new voters, all while McCain scrambles to piece together the voters Bush got (which is doubtful, even with Palin who will bring in the religious nuts, but will turn off many moderates who used to like McCain). Prediction: Obama wins Ohio and wins the election.

[Solitude]

Obama is a slow thinker, who can not debate on his feet.

Look for him to hover desperately close to his teleprompter for the remainder of the campaign. If he is asked any more questions for which his staff doesn't have a pre-scripted answer, look for him to throw another hissyfit like he did after the Saddleback forum.

Not that I want McCain much either.

[Mike]

He might well be a good orator like Blair but he definitely shares Blairs B*** S*** traits, all rhetoric and no substance. Many months into this campaign and people still know very little about Obama either personally or what he has done politically. Of even more concern is what he might want to do as President and that more than anything frightens people.

[TP]

Obama avoids unscripted & unTelePrompted speech for one simple reason: after several minutes, one realizes that there is no "there" there--he is an empty suit, a narcissist and sixth-rate fabulist carefully packaged by the left-wing news media, nothing more. What most Europeans seem not to understand is that their genius has run an entire campaign in which, until the last couple of weeks, he has been hermetically sealed from any contact with any reporter who is not known to be in the tank for him. He took a chance, and appeared in an interview with Fox's Bill O'Reilly, a pompous conservative: it should have been easy for him to look good. O'Reilly was nice, though, and tossed him mostly softballs; even with those, Obama hemmed, hawed, stuttered, and stammered. He looked terrible; even his supporters admitted it. In the upcoming debates, rest assured that his campaign will be given the questions ahead of time so that they can make sure that he won't have to think on his feet. Obama, the great lawyer and "college professor" has rejected any idea of a real unmoderated debate with McCain. Why? He knows that he would look like an idiot. How sad is this? McCain himself is far away from being even an average debater.

You folks over there need to understand that there is no Obama program and that he himself would play no substantive role in his own administration's policy. The shots would be called by George Soros and the other malign Democratic billionaire Leninists who purchased the party during the Clinton grandeur.

[David Watson]

Obama is the first orator in the USA of any talent at the National level since John Kennedy. Republicans claim that Reagan was "IT" for wowing a crowd. Reagan put me to sleep. The current occupant of the White House is such a horrible butcher of the English Language that anyone who follows him in the office will be a huge improvement in both Policy and talk. As for this de Rothschild... who cares what she believes.

[mefm247]

JBX, I think you omitted the fact that Lady Rothschild supports McCain because she believes Obama (who was raised by a single mother on food stamps) is an elitist... I'm sure it's not related to the fact that under McCain her very rich family would pay less taxes, compared to her taxes increasing under Obama. You should probably mention that she said this during the primaries: "What is in the interest of all Americans? I think if history is our guide, we've had stronger economies, more wealth creation under Democratic presidents than Republican presidents. So I don't understand why all my capitalist friends aren't Democrats."

[Louise]

McCain did try to reform fannie and Freddie 2 years ago. Obama is the 2nd highest reciever of funds from fannie and Freddie. Obama just shouldnt have gone there iwth Mccain as im sure things like this will come up in the election when the whole world is watching.

Obama is a very average man without his telepromter in front of him. Reason why his 'promter is with him nearly all the time he's speaking in front of the media. I am very interested to see how he does in the debates because mccain is able to rattle of his policies and views quite easily and has done really well lately being interviewed.

[Sunil Panchal]

Never just a book by its cover. The real question is, if elected, will he make a great president?

[Thomas]

Obama is the iPhone of political leaders: a good product overall but vastly overhyped and with major flaws.

Flaw #1: his rhetorical flourishes verge into BS territory with disturbing regularity-- cf his absurd statement in Berlin that "a united world defeated communism."

Flaw #2: his tiresome and smarmy invocation of his most amazing lifestory as evidence of his bona fides. Since when do great orators begin major addresses by talking about their painful childhood?

Flaw #3: most damagingly, the man's surprising inability to speak sensibly, clearly and concisely without the Teleprompter. He routinely fumbles, fudges, ums and ahs and then utters embarrassing statements that he or his advisors are forced to retract the next day (re Putin's invasion of Georgia, status of Jerusalem, etc).

Flaw #4: his inability to master complex fact or data sets, crystallize issues and relate them to his audience's top concerns. Compare Obama with Bill Clinton, who could easily talk intelligently and powerfully about nearly any complex policy matter, be it international trade or fiscal policy or abortion or health care. Obama clearly comes across as one who's winging it.

Add these up and you get the impression of a man who, for all his talents, is clearly running before he's ready to be president. It may well be that his opponent's time has passed, but Obama's time has not yet arrived. If he loses this race, he will have only himself to blame.

[rashan]

He is!
Just he needs to be more focused!

[chad]

McCain is the obvious choice here. If the media would report on Obama's corrupt dealings and Joe Biden's measley $3,000 to charity while griping that Americans should be more patriotic and pay more taxes. Give me a break! This should be a no contest in favor of McCain. Pay attenton! If you Obama supporters keep having that 'my guy right or wrong' attitude, the whole country will pay including yourselves. Bush and McCain wanted to solve the problem, the dems, once again, used fear tactics. Its so old, but theres always a new generation of suckers.

[Tonia - Houston, TX]

I went to the Library of Congress online and then to different news organization research tools to research McCain's record on deregulation because I wanted to know the facts. For some reason the MSM is not doing this. I was really surprise at how strong his history is on deregulation. He has been a strong opponent for deregulation for almost 30 years, how can he possible come out and tell us that he is for regulation now? In 1999, McCain Supported Phil Gramm’s (one of his former top advisors, until very recently) Banking Deregulation Bill that eliminated barriers erected by the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act and other laws that impede affiliations between banking, securities, insurance and other firms. This is one of the many deregulation bills that McCain supported and one of the main reasons that we are in this situation now. I also read the Congressional Record in reference to the Keating Five Investigation. I was very young when this occurred and did not know anything about it until recently. I am shocked. I don’t trust this man’s character. I do believe that we should honor and respect his sacrifice as a POW but I feel that it should stop there. He has been dishonorable in his campaign tactics and I do not appreciate him lying (or spinning the truth to his favor) to me and the rest of the American public. He is now lying about his stance on the privatization of social security. I saw a clip on C-Span where he clearly stated that he was for privatization. He then stated in March, ‘I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts…along the lines that President Bush proposed.’ Can you imagine where people like my grandmother would be if her social security benefits were at risk? This is extremely important. This man’s judgment could send our country into ruin. I feel let down and I feel disappointed and I want to know why the media is not holding both candidates accountable for what they are saying and doing.