[Greg F]

Barack Obama's biggest draw is not his eloquence. When you watch an Obama speech, you lean forward and listen and think, That's good. He's compelling, I like the way he speaks. And afterward all the commentators call him "impossibly eloquent" and say "he gave me thrills and chills." But, in fact, when you go on the Internet and get a transcript of the speech and print it out and read it--that is, when you remove Mr. Obama from the words and take them on their own--you see the speech wasn't all that interesting, and was in fact high-class boilerplate

This is true! There was a 1950's comedian/variety show guy that used to give deadpan readings of rock-and-roll lyrics. It was hilarious. Could be funny Doug to get someone with good deadpan humor to flatly read an Obama speech on youtube.

[Greg F]

Had someone point out that the comedian was Steve Allen.

[Argus]

There was a 1950's comedian/variety show guy that used to give deadpan readings of rock-and-roll lyrics.

Steve Allen. He had another hilarious bit where he'd read angry letters to the NY Daily News while whipping himself into a frenzy, chewing on his hat, etc.

[SueRae]

That would be interesting....