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Obama Does Best When He Says Nothing
The American Thinker ^ | January 14, 2011 | Jack Cashill

Posted on 01/14/2011 2:40:48 AM PST by Scanian

In Tucson, on Wednesday evening, we saw President Barack Obama in his full Chauncey Gardiner mode. After the drubbing of November 2010, Obama's handlers have come to understand that Obama does best when, like Chauncey, he says nothing at all.

Chauncey Gardiner, the reader may recall, is the protagonist of Jerzy Kosinski's 1971 prescient satire, Being There, which was later made into a movie of the same name, co-scripted by Kosinski.

As the plot goes, Chance the Gardener, a sheltered simpleton, finds himself thrust into the world upon the death oh his wealthy protector, his name now misinterpreted as "Chauncey Gardiner."

Forced to interact with society, the supremely bland Chauncey so impresses politicos and the media with banal gardening clichés -- "It is the responsibility of the gardener to adjust to the bad seasons as well as enjoy the good ones" -- that they assume Chauncey means much more than he actually does.

Gardiner's amiable emptiness impresses the president and quickly thrusts him onto the national stage. As he becomes a valued economic advisor -- "In a garden, growth has its season" -- the president decides to review Chance's history. To his horror, he finds that history, much like Obama's, is entirely elusive.

"What do you mean, no background?" says the president. "That's impossible, he's a very well known man!" No matter. As book and movie end, Chance is being considered for the presidency of the United States.

In Being There, it was businessman Ben Rand who took Chauncey under his wing and molded him into a national figure. In Illinois it was David Axelrod who molded Barack Obama. Although Obama had a history, he reached the national stage because Axelrod suppressed it and the media chose not to know it or share it.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blame; chaunceygardiner; giffords; gobbledegook; tucson

1 posted on 01/14/2011 2:40:51 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

Like the freaking energizer bunny this marxist punk NEVER shuts the hell up.


2 posted on 01/14/2011 2:43:52 AM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO))
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To: Scanian

But but but all the talking heads on FNC thought the ‘speech’ was just wonderful. Even Hume piled on the praise.

Tells me all I want to know about the talking heads on FNC.


3 posted on 01/14/2011 2:44:00 AM PST by Carley (THE MEDIA UNDERSTANDS CREDENTIALS BUT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND PRINCIPLES)
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To: Scanian

Peter Sellers. Probably worth watching a second time.


4 posted on 01/14/2011 2:47:00 AM PST by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
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To: Scanian
These pols need to take a lesson from Lincoln regarding speeches. The Gettysburg Address was a total of 260 to 280 words and lasted about two minutes

Abraham Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history.
Wiki on Gettysburg Address

obama talked for over 30 minutes, way too long.
5 posted on 01/14/2011 2:56:37 AM PST by Fred (Suspend All Immigration Until Unemployment is Reduced to 5%)
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To: Scanian

but but but....it’s not about him


6 posted on 01/14/2011 3:11:42 AM PST by Doogle ((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: Carley

You know, the timing of the “change of attitude” among the more “conservative” members of the Fox team was a bit curious.

Over the weekend, a bunch of us here on FR complained to Roger Ailes about the snotty crap being served up about the right by Geraldo and Shep Smith.

On Monday, I believe, Ailes released a report to the media that he had spoken to his crew and had told them to “tone it down.”

It seems like the only ones who actually “toned down” anything were Hume & co. who toned down their conservatism considerably.


7 posted on 01/14/2011 3:50:47 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

I am boycotting FNC until I hear that they have gone back to fair, balanced, and unafraid.

It’s a wonder the entire broadcast team didn’t walk out in protest. Too feckless I guess.

Ailes has to know that we are not buying his new tone.

The truth doesn’t have a tone, Mr. Ailes. It needs to be spoken loudly and clearly and without fear.


8 posted on 01/14/2011 4:01:58 AM PST by Carley (THE MEDIA UNDERSTANDS CREDENTIALS BUT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND PRINCIPLES)
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To: Carley

roger.ailes@Foxnews.com

Let’s all let him know about it.


9 posted on 01/14/2011 4:15:48 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

About content: BO’s speeches are written by others - that’s all we need to know about content.

About delivery: He does not give ‘speeches’ he gives orders.

About diction: Note how any word that ends with the consonant ‘s’ ends with a hiss.

It is unbearable to watch and listen - so I don’t.


10 posted on 01/14/2011 4:19:26 AM PST by sodpoodle (Despair; man's surrender. Laughter; God 's redemption.)
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To: Carley

Tells me all I want to know about the talking heads on FNC.<<<

Beck and Covuto (sp?) that’s all for me


11 posted on 01/14/2011 4:20:32 AM PST by timetostand (Ya say ya wanna revolution -- OK!)
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To: Scanian

Every time I tried to listen to him I come away thinking he said absolutely nothing with a lot of words.I have known a few edicated idiots like that -liked none of them.


12 posted on 01/14/2011 4:20:32 AM PST by StonyBurk (ring)
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To: Scanian

Obama, a walking cliche machine that hides the details of his perpetual regurgitation. Barry and the mass media are just like any other totalitarians who blind the masses with the ‘cult of personality’ approach.


13 posted on 01/14/2011 4:34:32 AM PST by rollo tomasi (Working hard to pay for deadbeats and corrupt politicians)
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To: Scanian
Obama Does Best When He Says Nothing

AMEN

14 posted on 01/14/2011 5:08:52 AM PST by Hattie
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To: sodpoodle

His voice grates on me like nails on a chalkboard. Those s’s alone are enough to drive me from the room. I neither heard one word nor watched one minute of that whole charade. I did see a replay of MO all grabby and high-fiving the man next to her. How did the cameramen know she was going to do that at that particular moment? When I saw it, my first thought was “Totally staged.”


15 posted on 01/14/2011 5:11:01 AM PST by 1951Boomer
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To: timetostand

Cavuto talks over his guests, doesn’t let them finish a sentence and as my hearing is not the greatest anymore I just can’t watch or listen to him.

Sigh...........for the most part Beck has done an amazing job of educating us about the people surrounding this president. I pray for him and his family.
Yes, he’s a PITA with the lectures but the information is without parallel from anyone else on the air.


16 posted on 01/14/2011 5:17:31 AM PST by Carley (THE MEDIA UNDERSTANDS CREDENTIALS BUT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND PRINCIPLES)
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To: Carley
>> all the talking heads on FNC thought the ‘speech’ was just wonderful <<

They probably formulated their responses immediately after reading the printed text, before the Big Ø actually delivered it. And I've gotta say that as a written document, taken out of the immediate context, it was a decent -- even a pretty good -- speech.

(Note: Hours before any Presidential speech-making event, the POTUS's text is normally given to accredited journalists in written form, on an "embargoed" basis. So the reporters typically prepare at least the first drafts of their stories before they hear the words in oral form.)

But the written text that so mesmerized the Fox panelists simply isn't the complete story. And that's where the Fox panel appears to have fallen down on the job:

When one considers the actual real-time event, with Ø's raised chin, his condescending tone of voice, the awkward applause lines, the tasteless T-shirts and the general pep rally atmosphere, Ø's hypocrisy was glaring. In the printed version of the speech, he was basically sweetness and light, whereas in the real world he was as blatantly partisan and arrogant as ever.

But I'll cut the Fox panelists some slack on this one if they're like me, because I simply can't stand to watch the Big Ø on TV or even to listen to his dulcet tones over the radio. My TV was on the Weather Channel during the whole Tucson pep rally! So I can't blame the Fox people if they also didn't really watch the speech!

17 posted on 01/14/2011 6:34:56 AM PST by Hawthorn
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To: Hawthorn

Following on Ailes telling Russell Simmons.....Russell Simmons?????????........that he was going to have his people tone it down I am more than a little suspicious.

For sure I am glad that Beck told it like it was. A campaign rally.


18 posted on 01/14/2011 6:48:10 AM PST by Carley (THE MEDIA UNDERSTANDS CREDENTIALS BUT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND PRINCIPLES)
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To: Carley

>> Following on Ailes telling Russell Simmons <<

I’d say Ailes needs Brit Hume and Chuck K. more than either of them needs Ailes. Moreover, Hume is mostly retired, with no real need to keep his FNC job, while the Kraut has more-than-ample opportunities outside FNC. So the idea they would “tone it down” strikes me as most unlikely.

In the meantime, I see no evidence that Beck and BOR have decreased their rhetoric as a result of the Tucson affair — if anything, they’ve gone a bit in the opposite direction.


19 posted on 01/14/2011 7:26:50 AM PST by Hawthorn
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