I know exactly where Sen. Jim DeMint is coming from, Obama speech to Congress ‘going to be hard for me to watch’:
“Frankly I am so tired of his speeches, it’s going to be hard for me to watch,” said DeMint on CNN’s State of the Union. “We need a plan in writing, he needs to send it to us and tell us what it is going to cost so not only Congress and the American people can read it, businesses can read it.”
Whenever Obama’s in political trouble, he gives a speech.
Whenever he’s in a lot of trouble, he gives a major speech.
When he’s on the verge of a political meltdown, he gives a historic speech.
And he is on the verge of a major political meltdown. A meltdown as bad as in March 2008 when his mainstream media allies could not keep the lid on the Jeremiah Wright story, so Obama gave a historic speech on race as cover for the fact that for two decades a race-baiter was his mentor. It was historic because the media lapped it up and refused to recognize the manipulation behind the effort.
In September 2009, when his health care plans were wilting under the heat of summer town halls, he gave what he hoped would be a historic address on health care to a Joint Session of Congress. It wasn’t historic.
Now his stimulus and leadership on economic issues are on the verge of pushing his reelection dreams off the precipice, …. so he demands another appearance before a Joint Session of Congress. My prediction is that there will be a collective “Stop it!” shouted in living rooms and bars across the nation, followed by a chant of “NFL, NFL, NFL!”
This presidency is like an episode of Jeopardy gone wild, with every question being answered in the form of a speech.
Update 9-5-2011 – Is this the fight Democrats really want to have?
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Well, I knew I was in trouble now
My hope of winning sank
Oh, ’cause I got the Daily Double now
And then my mind went blank
I took Potpourri for one hundred
And then my head started to spin
Well, I’m givin’ up Don Pardo
Just tell me now what I didn’t win, yeah, yeah
I lost on Jeopardy, baby (oooh)
I lost on Jeopardy, baby (oooh)
At least on jeopardy the contestants get the right answers 9questions), our Pres, is still fixated on all the wrong “answers” if his true aim is to help the economy and not destroy it.
One of the reasons the charlatan is such a dangerous personality type is that along with their sociopathic lack of remorse, they tend to be delusional about their own capabilities. Thus, the charlatan is very effective in his deceit because he has no perception of himself as a fraud. We see this over and over throughout history. There are countless accounts of investment advisors, Ponzi scheme authors and other criminals who are able to effectively convince others that they are people of pure intent although their actual intent is anything but.
Criminal trials are replete with the testimony of people recounting how the defendant seemed to be so sincere, nice, unassuming, etc. I have personally heard people say they picked up hitch hikers and other vagrants (who were actually lifetime criminals) because they seemed to be such nice people. Well, WAKE UP PEOPLE! There are in fact people out there who are extremely adept at portraying themselves as being completely other than what they are. For this reason, we must be somewhat suspect of those who are adept at making presentations. If you look close, you will see that many charlatans are very convincing actors who can easily and effortlessly cultivate good will.
Obama is clearly one of these people. When we look at his appointments, legislation, and actions, there is a very wide gap between what he says in speeches and what he actually does in reality. He even spins things to be entirely other then what they actually are.
At this point we have the good fortune of seeing that his speeches can no longer bridge the gap between his actions and his stated intentions. Why is anyone at this point even thinking that he is going to give a speech that is really about jobs? From our past experience, we should realize that Obama will make a very articulate presentation about jobs, however, it will be solely engineered to redeem himself in the eyes of the American people, who, by now, are in large measure coming to see him as the charlatan he is. He will spin, lie and misrepresent in an attempt to craft an image that coincides with his delusional notions of himself as a great world leader.
He is trying to create a sense of anticipation just like they do in the entertainment industry. This is why he wants to use a joint session of Congress for a speech that could just as easily (in fact much more easily) be given from the Oval Office. We see the set on the stage, the lighting is dramatic, the music is compelling, the announcer comes out and speaks with great enthusiasm…and then act begins. And “act” is indeed the operable term for what we are about to see.
I get fed up with three features of his speeches. 1) His need to lecture Republicans to stop playing political games — as if he is above the fray — when every single action he takes is first evaluated for its political ramifications. 2) His lambasting his opponents during his speeches when they can’t respond. He did it to the Supreme Court after Citizens United and he did it to Paul Ryan, among others. 3) The “false choice” strawman is his favorite rhetorical device which is also the most annoying.
I really can’t force myself to watch his speeches anymore. If he says something important and truly “historic”, then the leftsphere will erupt in joy and I learn about it the next day. If he says something stupid or banal, then the rightsphere will erupt in joy and I’ll read about it the next day.
Only if he announces his resignation or that he’s decided not to run for re-election will I regret that I didn’t watch it live. But those seem like pretty low probability events at this point, so I’ll roll the dice and just watch re-runs of I Love Lucy or something important like that.
Ditto
Ditto, and as my mind strains to hear something of substance, the esses get louder and louder…
I can’t watch him either. Besides the patent dishonesty spelled out so well in comments here, I can’t stand the sound and cadence of his voice.
“Democrats have criticized Obama on the speech scheduling flap. James Carville said he was “out of bounds.” Salon.com’s Cent Uygur sensed “the audacity of weakness.” It reminds me of a phrase describing a character in the 1980s TV series Dallas” — “blustering, opportunistic, craven and hopelessly ineffective all at once.” Michael Barone
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/obama-speech-fiasco-shows-audacity-weakness
“The days of spinning illusions in a Greek temple in a football stadium are done. The One is dancing on the edge of one term. The White House team is flailing — reacting, regrouping, retrenching. It’s repugnant….
Maybe Obama was not even the person he was waiting for.”
Maureen Dowd, New York Times
“The days of spinning illusions in a Greek temple in a football stadium are done.”
Just a spoonful of snark helps the bitterness go down … the bitterness go down … bitterness go dooooown …
Oh Maureen, some of us got the joke immediately. You’re a professional snarkster, yet 2.5 years into the dinner party, during a lull in the conversation, you suddenly get the joke and burst out laughing.
Seems forever ago when your earlobes were loudly throbbing with excitement back in that football stadium. You were swooning and spinning.
What do you think you’ll wear to the reunion?
Still fit into your old cheerleading outfit, girly gurl? Rah! Rah!
He seems to have the “leading from behind” skill mastered.
Time for him to take his game to the next level:
“Leading from irrelevance.”
LukeHandCool (who won’t blink an eye if some lefty pundit argues that the president’s shrinking viewing audience is due to racism).
[…] 1: Obama got the comeuppance he deserved (MUT Note – While it will be a challenge to listen, I will break my no-Obama rule and tune into a Tammy Bruce Mystery Science Theater broadcast of the […]
In studying history, I often wondered what it would have been like to be witness to an entire society descending into mass psychosis.
I didn’t think I’d actually get my wish.
Let’s just hope that we only get a mild case and that we jettison this fool and his fellow travelers a year from now.
We’ll have quite a mess to clean up but I think we can do it.
“When Hitler seized power in 1933, Goebbels was appointed Reichsminister for propaganda and national enlightenment. From then until his death, Goebbels used all media of education and communications to further Nazi propagandistic aims, instilling in the Germans the concept of their leader as a veritable god and of their destiny as the rulers of the world.”
There’s your answer.
http://www.psywarrior.com/Goebbels.html
Sure signs that the “Jobs Speech” failed:
1. Any use of the phrase “millionaires and billionaires”
2. Any reference to corporate jets
3. Any use of the phrase “pay their fair share”
4. References to people “putting politics before” something better
5. Calls for compromise
6. Announcing an intention to offer specific plans at a later date.
The second any of the above occur, you’ll be better off changing the channel.
If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d print up some Obama speech bingo cards. “Let me be perfectly clear” would be in the center square…
Proposal: Watch the speech, while noting the order and number of Fallacious Arguments made (CWCID: Don Lindsay’s site)
Score: 5 points per, with 1 point per Class Warfare reference (The Wealthy, Not paying fair share, Special Interests, Those Who…)
My bet is the speech hits 100 points in the first 10 minutes. Caution: Do NOT take a shot for each reference or you’ll wind up in the emergency room.
Well Professor, You have it the proverbial nail on the head here. I never thought of Obama’s penchant for giving speeches in this way. Makes complete sense to me.
The expression of a policy is a written plan in detail, something more substantial than a scribble on a cocktail napkin. The public has already lost when the discussion of legislation comes out of a back room “deal” or a press conference.
The amazing fact of recent budget and debt limit negotiations is that Obama presented a budget to the Democrat majority Senate, which was rejected by 97 – 0. He has presented no further written plan. Neither the Senate nor Obama has presented a budget in over two years.
The Republicans have presented and voted on a written budget and a written debt limit plan. The “Gang of Six” senators have proposed “cuts” from indefinite future spending levels, and not in writing. That is the old accounting trick of cutting half of a proposed 10% increase.
I hope people of all parties and positions could agree that written plans are fundamental. It is non-partisan to demand that the President and all politicians show the details and analysis behind their proposals. If there is no researched and detailed plan, then that is a horrible misuse of office and a betrayal of the public.
The government presents less planning and justification than a contractor does for a house renovation.
Where are the policy papers which explain and justify the giant experiments that our government is forcing on the people? Where are the measured results of government programs? These are things we can get if we merely ask, or demand, and shame them into a response. Our lives are at stake.
A Few Words About Policy
Anyone up for some bullsh– bingo?
[…] Likely To Wreck Trial OAU Peacekeepers Fire On Car In Somalia, Journalist Dies BLOGS & STUFF Legal Insurrection: Presidential Jeopardy Gone Wild Michael Barone: Speech Fiasco An “Audacity Of Weakness” Jim Geraghty: Palin In Iowa […]
[…] a one trick donkey, from William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection: Whenever Obama’s in political trouble, he gives a […]
When Obama now refers to the “failed policies of the past”, these are his failed policies and those of the previous congress.
I find him rather depressing. I don’t care about speeches. It is too late affect any change. He pushed Obamacare instead of the economy and jobs. The damage is done.
He’d basically have to campaign against himself if he was honest. Blaming Congress will only wash with the remaining true believers. A sincere and humble man would at least acknowledge his mistake(s), and ask for help in rectifying it.
He wont do that, because he’s incapable.
Plus, he has no business sending out emails saying he’s “frustrated”, when as President, via Executive Order, there many many things he can do without Congress.
[…] Quote of the Day, from Legal Insurrection. Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. from → Troglodysms ← On the other hand…yes she is running! No comments yet […]
[…] NOT A LOT OF EXCITEMENT about Obama’s pending jobs speech. […]
I simply can NOT understand why anybody would want to listen to another of his “tired” speeches. There will not be anything in writing; he will play the blame game; he will misrepresent more government spending as an investment..ad nauseum.
Obama is a LOSER! He simply does not understand the basics of Capitalism, Basic Business and Econ 101. He has NO IDEA of how we create wealth, and HE IS BORING.
You could not pay me to listen to his babbling on.
In case you hadn’t noticed, they are back to where they were at the beginning of the administration, just after taking office. Back then, when they wanted to try and get something done, the answer to any question was:”Let’s have Barack make a speech!” After a while people got tired of listening to him, so he tried to engage the public in various ways (the bus). That didn’t gain traction, because he is more wooden than Gore. Now they are basically back to square one, trying to get some dramatic effect. This isn’t going to work, either.
[…] what the reaction will be of those who watch the bloody thing, I think William Jacobson is right on target: Now his stimulus and leadership on economic issues are on the verge of pushing his reelection […]
[…] Who cares? I mean, honestly, does anyone care about what he says? No Comments […]