Posted on 03/17/2009 5:23:47 AM PDT by IrishMike
If President Obama is just reading the script, who is behind the curtain directing the performance?
There is no question that President Obama is an accomplished orator. As a candidate for president he inspired millions, thrilled young ladies and even sent chills up the legs of seasoned pundits. He was compared to past great orators like Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. But are his oratory skills overblown?
Every year Hollywood gives Oscars to the most accomplished actors. These actors pretend to be someone else. A mild mannered actor may play the part of a vicious killer. The actors read a script and their actions are controlled by a director. The script may be the product of several writers and the director wants the actor to recite the script accurately to portray the character. No serious person equates the actor to the character.
Obama's oratory skills have often been compared with Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was noted for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. These debates would last for hours and Lincoln didn't have the benefit of speechwriters. Debaters back then depended upon their knowledge of the subject.
More than a hundred years after the Lincoln-Douglas debates technology provided the speechgiver a valuable aid. The modern teleprompter came into use in the 1980's. The teleprompter is the mostly transparent glass panel that you see on the left and right of lectern. The text of the speech is projected on the panels so the speechgiver can read the text while it appears that they are looking at the audience.
I don't recall if Ronald Reagan used a teleprompter or not. Since the technology was available I would expect that he did use it on some occasions. But Reagan was giving speeches in the early 1960's without a teleprompter, making radio commentary, and was writing most of his material before he ran for president. When he became president he did utilize speechwriters but he was deeply involved in the final product.
Bill Clinton also used a teleprompter but he was quite comfortable without one. In one prepared speech the teleprompter malfunctioned. After a brief pause Clinton continued without it and returned to the prepared text when the malfunction was corrected. So it was apparent that Clinton was well informed on many of the topics he addressed.
President Obama hasn't demonstrated any of these skills. Obama has difficulty speaking extemporaneously and appears totally dependent on the teleprompter. Without the teleprompter he appears to be less confident and at a loss for words. Even when he was making a very simple six-minute introduction of his Health and Human Services nominee he needed a teleprompter. A primary complaint is that he doesn't make eye contact with the camera, he reads from the left teleprompter, then the right, throughout the entire speech. He is constantly reading and never makes eye contact with the American people.
Throughout the country there are hundreds of radio talk show hosts. Each host talks live on the air for a couple of hours on a variety of topics without a script or teleprompter. None of these hosts have been identified as having superior intellect, but during the presidential campaign we were repeatedly told that Obama had superior intellect. The public has never been privy to Obama's academic transcripts or read anything he wrote as editor of the Harvard Law Review. Also, there has been considerable debate if Obama really wrote his two books or if they ghostwritten for him.
Obama has done little to dispel these questions. His dependence on a teleprompter and his poor performance when speaking without one makes you wonder if he is just reading a script like an academy award winning actor. So the question remains, is he as advertised or is he just reading a script? And if he is just reading the script, who is behind the curtain directing the performance?
Soros pulls the strings.
I'd have to disagree. In the past, the true thinkers (those the Left despises) who were orators wrote their own pieces, did their own thinking.
Obama is a good actor. And only good, because when someone trips up his game, he loses his cool and falls out of character. “I just want to eat my waffles.” “Listen, I just came down here to be friendly with you reporters. I can't be coming down here and having you guys asking me questions all the time.”
Notice the lack of press conferences? His last one was a harrangue of slogans and garbage. He cannot answer questions or speak without his handlers.
The Leno show will be just another campaign.
SCROOMED....
Soros and Clinton
“There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory.”
- Mark Twain
But now we know why he insisted he keep his Blackberry.
Lucifer.
Yeah, I said from the beginning of the blackberry dustup that he had to have it as his portable teleprompter.
Check out the ibd editorial cartoon (mods won’t let me post it):
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IMAGES/cartoons/toon031209.gif
“[looks left] I am not overly reliant
[looks right] on teleprompters
[looks left] pause and smile confidently”
He does have one skill, though - destroying the U.S. in the name of Allah. He's making Bin Ladin look like an amateur.
“...are his oratory skills overblown?”
Most definitely! And I’ve been saying this ever since I heard him speak.
Rush, yesterday, said that he would debate Obama’s Teleprompter since it is telling him what to say. Cut out the middleman.
The stock market waits with bated breath...
And what’s worse, all this has been apparent for many months, several months before the November vote. During his grand tour he held a sort of press conference from either Israel or Jordan, and it was embarrassing to even listen to he was so incoherent and scattered in his statements. That was one of his first departures from his teleprompter and his cotton candy, hope and change stump speech.
Obama was often called a lightweight here at FR, but a majority of America ignored what was slamming them in the face and decided to vote for a black guy.
Good stuff again this morning....
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, followed by... "very superstitious, the writing's on the wall" (at 3:36):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MBFLrNZs-Q&feature=related
(Stevie Wonder at the Obama White House)
The inability to speak extemporaneously is a sign of a lack of intelligence.
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