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It’s the timbre of his voice, his quasi-impersonation of Martin Luther King Jr. - whom we are taught/conditioned to revere, but this is because of the ideals King expressed. Obama is using a bit of trickery to conjure up those images of King and Kennedy to fool people into thinking he, too, has ideas of merit. Far better for people to read his speeches and judge them for their content.

It’s the timbre of his voice, his quasi-impersonation of Martin Luther King Jr. - whom we are taught/conditioned to revere, but this is because of the ideals King expressed.

Exactamundo!!! Like this: "You see, it's because I have B-E-E-E--EEEEN to the mountain top; and I have SE-E-E-E-EEEEN (shakes head) the promised land." And he sells his vacuous message by that very inflection. It's pretty amazing, actually.

It’s the timbre of his voice, his quasi-impersonation of Martin Luther King Jr. - whom we are taught/conditioned to revere, but this is because of the ideals King expressed. Obama is using a bit of trickery to conjure up those images of King and Kennedy to fool people into thinking he, too, has ideas of merit. Far better for people to read his speeches and judge them for their content.

Absolutely spot on. That's why I no longer dismiss him as an empty suit. IMHO, this illusion is no more a singular function of Obama's "charisma" than David Copperfield's feats are solely a product of talent. I'm less concerned about Obama's current stage crew than I am with the ones who conceived the illusion to begin with.

In April it will be 40 years since King was assassinated. In November it will be 45 years since Kennedy was assassinated. Millions of Americans are now old enough to run for President who were born after King's death. Close to half the electorate was either born after their deaths or were too young in the 1960s to be paying attention, so they know about both figures largely from the reverential treatment they receive in schools and in the media.

Both MLK and JFK were inspirational speakers. There's nothing wrong with that if they are trying to inspire people to do good things. With JFK that may be his main positive legacy, inspiring people--otherwise he was a mediocre President whose weak foreign policy created a lot of problems for the future.

Obama may do some good if he moves the country away from the hyperpartisanship of recent years, but I'm not sure he really wants to. Rather he wants to be seen to want to. He'd be happy to leave 30 or 40% of the nation in the outer darkness as long as he himself was perceived as inclusive and rising above hatred.

Obama may be a bit like JFK in eloquence, but he may also be like him in his potential for screwing up foreign policy problems.