Posted on 09/11/2009 6:16:47 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Everyone marvels at Barack Obama's rhetorical prowess. But don't be overly bedazzled. With these 13 easy steps, you, too, can give a Barack Obama speech.
1) Create a false center. In his speech to a joint session of Congress, Obama positioned himself between the Left's calling for a single-payer system and the Right's agitating to end employer-based health insurance. Presto - he's the very definition of a centrist. Anyone advocating almost any position can benefit from the same insta-centrism.
2) Scorn ideology. Obama warned against "the usual Washington ideological battles." Message: He has no philosophical commitments himself. He's pushing a Great Society redux only as a matter of practicality. Superficial pragmatism is the ideologue's best friend.
3) Talk about your openness to ideas from opponents. The more you do this, the less you have to adopt any of their ideas. "I will continue to seek common ground," Obama said. "I will be there to listen. My door is always open." While he does all this common-ground seeking, he will be whipping up the Democratic votes to pass a massive, liberal reordering of the health-care system. But he'll be listening!
4) Embrace empty symbolic measures as a show of reasonableness. The centrist, nonideological, open-minded leader needs something tangible to demonstrate all these qualities, lest anyone suspect it's a rhetorical put-on. This is why God, in his goodness, created the demonstration project. In a bow to Republicans, Obama blessed medical-malpractice experiments in the states. Thus, he takes the most tentative step toward a GOP idea while marching his Democrats toward an overhaul of one-sixth of the economy by Thanksgiving.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Great article! I enjoyed it.
Condensed version = Speak BS. There, one easy step.
bookmark
14. Bush-bash.
Excellent analysis!
TALK ABOUT YOUR OPENNESS:
“But I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”
Bo
If there is so much waste fraud and abuse in Medicare, why haven’t they gone after those who have committed Medicare fraud? They can do that independently of whatever bills come out of Congress on this health care “reform”. If anyone is committing fraud or authorizing wasteful spending, these are already infractions against the law.
If the Obama administration did something as practical as this, they would not be able to justify their communist style takeover of the current American medical system.
Clean up … not an option when your main purpose is to take over and dominate. You must alienate the current free enterprise system in the eyes of the American people. Then you can introduce your “world saving” alternative. Mao was an expert at this, he just got impatient.
Oh my, I guess I'm not even part of "everyone".
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