Obama Speech: Nonsense

Obama's speech in Europe on America's "arrogance" was a mea culpa couched in seemingly balanced tones.
It is typical of Obama to proclaim a new path while appearing to hedge and balance.
Using his ever-trusty teleprompter the President appears to self-edit as he virtually apologizes to the Europeans (and praises their ill-conceived "union") while pretending to seek a higher level of responsibility from them.
As a public speaker Obama is increasingly pedantic. The prompter forces him to look from side to side as he feigns a balancing act on subjects that he has crammed on. Many, many issues and subjects are tackled (all seemingly in some detail) but very little appears to have been thought through. Instead, Obama issues broad edicts and challenges while bobbing and weaving.
Most celebrity circuit speakers can get by on this as they move from one city to another giving luncheon or after-dinner speeches while they promote their latest book, TV appearance or whatever.
But the President of the United States? Not quite.
This is likely to wear thin real fast.
While our "rock star President" is busy hobnobbing with royalty and engaging in tedious rhetoric abroad, more people are out of work and things look bleaker by the moment at home.
While Americans are suffering, the President is across the pond and referring to his own countrymen as "arrogant, dismissive" and "derisive."
Meanwhile, back in the good 'ole USA, anxiety is building and the clock is ticking, Mr. President!

Your Thoughts Count

Yesterday's column ("TelePrompter 101") was the most-read piece on the Philadelphia Daily News opinion page and it generated lots of comment on the philly.com web site.
I appreciate all of the interest and comments -- both pro and con.
I always learn something from the readers.

Here are some of the comments, unedited:

Obama does not read everything from a teleprompter. Like the president before him, who fumbled words even with one, he uses it as a tool rather than hold papers, index card, etc. Amazing how, with the economy as it is and all the other problems, the biggest problem for some people is the use of a teleprompter.

This article is a perfect example of someone who does not like the president and is looking for a way to insult him. I do not care if the president uses a prompter or note cards. I care if the president's policies move the country forward. Clearly the author does not care about such niceties.

The dependence on the Teleprompter is very relevant because it puts the lie to the notion that Obama is an original thinker with important, innovative ideas to move this country forward. If he was and if he was confident in his convictions, the power of his arguments and his own intellect, confident in his actual ability to "think on his feet" and effectively articulate his ideas, he wouldn't depend so neurotically on the Teleprompter. He does so precisely because he knows what 47% of the voting public knew on November 4: he's in way over his head, inexperienced and in no way "ready for primetime." Many more Americans are quickly figuring this out --- almost as fast as Uhuhuhbama.

As if Bush never used a teleprompter - which made his mangling of the English language even more remarkable.

While I agree that there are more important things than whether or not the President uses a teleprompter, it cannot be denied that nearly all of his early credibility as "candidate Obama" was gained on our fascination with his abilities as a speaker. His speaking abilities were interpreted as a sign of extraordinary wisdom, intelligence, insight, and thoughtfulness. Rather than fairly exploring his competancies in these areas, we were compelled to accept these competancies as genuine based largely on his stylistic delivery of speeches. Few who supported him did not cheerfully welcome the broadening of merit provided their candidate as a result of this society's willingness to draw elaborate conclusions about the man.

When Sarah Palin made her speech at the convention, the dems cried out: "Oh, she read it from a teleprompter! She just read what somebody else wrote. She's too stupid to have written it herself." No now we get Nobama reading words that somebody else wrote on the teleprompter. But we're supposed to believe that he's smart and articulate. He just reads what somebody else wrote, because he's too stupid to have any original thoughts of his own. As usual, the Democrat double standard is at work here. And who writes his speeches? George Soros? Bill Ayers?

Obama's reliance on the teleprompter reminds me of the great Oz in the wizard of Oz. It only begs to ask, Who is behind the curtain? By the way, the last time Obama was off of the teleprompter, he gave us Joe the Plumber. He can not go off of the teleprompter because he is afraid he may reveal what his ultimate goal is... (destruction of capitalizm, redistribution of wealth (except his own), etc.)

Dear Mr. Cirucci, Your guy lost. Get over it. And if you really want me to take you seriously as someone who is an expert in communication, it would help if you came from somewhere other than one of the Penn State campuses. I've seen your graduates. I'm not impressed.
Republicans are such paethetic, petty and stupid people. Go away creeps! Obamma is a very good communicator. He didn't have a tele-prompter or notes during the debates and he outshone both the Republicans and other Democrats. He's giving lots of press conference and is discussing many complex issues. That's why he using the tele-prompter. Reagan had a great memory until he testified about the Iran-Contra scandal. Then he seemed to forget everything. The "art of memorization"? What's that? I spent 25 years in theatre and have no idea what you're talking about. Neither do you.

Don't they all use tele-prompters? Didn't Bush? What a bunch of stupid sh*t to point out.

In the past, they've all used teleprompters for major speeches, not for small, short announcements and introductions. The difference is, Barry and his handlers have sold him based largely on his eloquence and his Kennedyesque ability to speak. As it turns out, off the 'prompter he hems and haws ("uh...uh...uh...," "aaaaaaannnnd") and makes stupid social faux pas (Nancy Reagan seances, fat Jessica Simpson, Special Olympics bowling skills) worse than George W. Bush, whose fumbles were more often than not a function of his dyslexia. The social faux pas are especially telling because it reveals an apparently insecure man who, while possessing no real sense of self-deprecating humor, certainly has a mean streak for trying to get laughs at others' expense, even the handicapped.

Thanks, everybody!

Obama No Great Orator

What's one of the first things you think of when I say "Barack Obama"?
Gifted orator, right?
After all, it was his speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention that catapulted him to prominence in the first place. And ever since then, he's electrified the nation and the world with his oratorical prowess.
That's the quickie version of the Obama the Orator story. But what if I told you that the president actually isn't a very adept or versatile public speaker.
Would you believe me? Well, let me explain. . . .
To read the rest of my column from today's Philadelphia Daily News, click here.

Obama Special Olympics Gaffe

Now the blunder-plagued Obama Administration has suffered yet another gaffe and this time at the hands of Obama himself.
We warned the President not to disrespect the presidency by appearing with Leno on the Tonight Show but he seems to have felt this was a good way to get his message out. He was wrong.
Because now the Big Story from his appearance is that he not only dissed the presidency but he dissed the Special Olympics and all of its supporters and beloved participants.
Recent weeks have shown that Obama can't be coherent or even gracious without a teleprompter and sometimes he can't even be coherent WITH a teleprompter.
More and more the sense is growing that this guy may be a lightweight who really may have tackled way more than he can handle.
And, BTW: Obama's damned lucky that the vaulted Special Olympics are fully controlled by those old Democrat war horses, the Shrivers and the Kennedys. Damned lucky.
More from Jake Tapper at ABC News:
It began with the president joking about how bad a bowler he is.
Toward the end of his approximately 40-minute taping on the "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," Obama talked about how he'd gotten better at bowling and had been practicing in the White House bowling alley.
"I bowled a 129," he told Leno.
"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.
But then came the foot-in-mouth moment: "It's like the Special Olympics or something," the president said. . . .
The White House released a statement shortly after the gaffe Thursday night to clarify the president's comments and said Obama did not mean to offend.
"The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics. He thinks the Special Olympics is a wonderful program that gives an opportunity for people with disabilities from around the world," said White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton.
The Special Olympics wasn't the only controversy to dog Obama on his West Coast trip.
Despite being 3,000 miles away from the center of the AIG controversy, the president could not escape the heat coming from the furor over fat bonuses paid to executives of the bailed-out insurance giant. . . .
Before his Special Olympics crack, the president was criticized for being in California for an entertainment show and not minding the store.
"He flies off to Los Angeles to be on the 'Jay Leno' show. My suggestion is he come back, since he's taken the full responsibility" for the AIG controversy, "to get his people together and say, 'All right, I want to know exactly what happened and who did what when and how are we going to prevent this from ever happening the future,'" said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. . . .
The president tried to laugh off the criticism when he was with Leno.
President Barack Obama waves to the audience before an interview with host "The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno today.(Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank via AP)
"I do think in Washington it's a little bit like 'American Idol,' except everybody is Simon Cowell," Obama said.
Critics also took a swing at the president for filling out his NCAA picks on ESPN.
"The AIG bonuses make the president subject to the charge that he's living above the store but he's not minding it," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. "He's even found time to fill out his NCAA basketball brackets, which is a healthy thing to do in my opinion."

Obama Prompter Blunder

From Britain's Sky News:
A teleprompt blunder has led to Barack Obama thanking himself in a speech at the White House in a St Patrick's Day celebration.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address in Washington when he realised it all sounded a bit too familiar.
It was. He was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.
Mr Cowen stopped, turned to the president and said: "That's your speech."
A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally been switched and the US president ended up thanking himself for inviting everyone to the party.
Mr Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the "teleprompt president" over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech.