Ed Morissey is pushing a video of Obama stumbling over words for a second, and apparently it was not exciting enough as is that they had to loop it several times to make it feel more awkward. At any rate, this is all part of a delightful little push by the right the last few weeks to inform us that Obama can’t communicate very well.
The first I remember of this nonsense is with Dean Barnett during the campaign (with a willing assist from serious reporter Jake Tapper), but in the past few weeks I have seen a concerted push. There was this piece by Alex Conant in the Politico about the myths of Obama:
2. Obama is a great communicator. Cut away the soaring rhetoric in his speeches, and the resulting policy statements are often vague, lawyerly and confusing. He is not plain-spoken: He parses his language so much that a casual listener will miss important caveats. That’s in part why he uses teleprompters for routine policy statements: He chooses his words carefully, relying heavily on ill-defined terms like “deficit reduction” (which means tax increases, rather than actual “savings”) and “combat troops” (as opposed to “all troops in harm’s way”).
Who is Alex Conant? Why, he is “a communications consultant who served as the Republican National Committee’s national press secretary during the 2008 presidential campaign.” An impartial source, no doubt.
Always eager to help a meme, the folks at the Politico chimed in again (remember the #1 rule for the schoolgirls at the Politico– will this get linked a lot?):
Of all the pitfalls Barack Obama might face in the presidency, here is one not many people predicted: He is struggling as a public communicator.
You can do your own search for Obama + teleprompter, but you shouldn’t be surprised. This is little more than the Rove strategy of attacking the strength of your opponent. One of Obama’s great skills is that he is a good communicator, so much so that the Republicans spent the previous year running around saying things like “just words” and trying to paint him as a celebrity.
So just realize what they are doing. And then get a laugh that the party who gave us eight years of a stammering George Bush and then followed it up with the rambling idiocy of Sarah Palin is seriously trying to pretend that Obama is a bad communicator. And if all else fails, watch this:
That, my friends, is a failure to communicate.
*** Update ***
I had forgotten how much fun that video was. I love that it starts with his ode to Hillary, in which he laments the media was too hard on her, as that was at the time part of their coordinated (and laughable) effort to woo the PUMA crowd. Also, at about 5 minutes in, the crowd “erupts” into a cheer and they give a crowd shot of about 20 people shouting “Go John McCain!” and waving one pathetic hand made sign that said “Mac Attack.” Good times. Also, this Toobin reaction was priceless:
Heh.
Mwangangi
that was awesome; I need to laugh as my team seems intent on making this a game…
Deborah
I’d noticed the meme about the teleprompter, but I am tickled pink that someone in terms of crafting and communicating the Republicans’ message in the 2008 campaign is being called in to attempt to expand it.
I suppose I’ll be the 8371st person to observe that the Republicans are showing themselves to be hopelessly confused about message versus medium….the only thing that would be better would be if Conant had twittered his thoughts.
Can anyone explain why the Republicans think "Obama is not really a good communicator, after all" is a winning strategy for them? The only "great communicator" I associate with the Republicans is the one whose zombified corpse–as far as I know–still remains inanimate. Have they been engaged in secret stem cell research?
ed
Yeah. The attempt to create a "The One needs a teleprompter" meme may be the lamest thing that ever happened. Pathetic it is.
Ash
Do you still not KNOW, for certain, that we’d be doubly fucked if McCain was in the Oval right now? Or was that just a temporary psychotic break? Hopefully repaired by watching Twilight.
El Cid
I have heard this line of bullshit from conservative-leaning friends and I just gawked at them when they expected me to somehow be in agreement, or ‘have to admit’ that Obama ‘can’t talk without a teleprompter’.
After 8 years of Bush Jr. and watching them starburst all over the couch for Sarah Palin, I give them credit at least for going bold on 100% private language wacko.
Deborah
…that should say "in charge of crafting" but it won’t let me edit. It is bitter and clinging to my typo.
Redhand
I dunno John, ya just gotta love McCain’s Living Death’s Head grin here.
As for Special Ed, he really has sunk unbelievably from his "thoughtful conservative" days over at "Captain’s Quarters." Now he’s nothing more than a conservative meme mouthing asslick.
smiley
Malkin headline after the "Special Olympics gaffe": The teleprompter made him say it (or something very close to that). You’re right, this has been going on for a while. BJ’s own Brick Oven Bob was reciting it recently. I don’t think it will work, ultimately, because, like me, too many people have and can see that he communicates just fine. It should fade away fairly quickly (I hope).
different church-lady
It’s a little weird how the entire wingnut attitude now is 50% payback and 50% projection: take every one of Bush’s faults, do a search-and-replace with "Obama" and post.
MattF
Off Topic.
smiley
@MattF: Poor thing. I couldn’t have let it go on that long. OTOH, he looked pretty pleased with himself at the end so maybe it was fun.
Polish the Guillotines
Once again, the GOP whines "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"
I caught the tail end of Obama’s town-hall in the OC. This was not one of those George W. Bush "Sorry, you’re not on the guest list", all questions submitted for prior approval "town hall meetings." The guy can handle himself damn well, and that makes the wingnuts jealous beyond comprehension.
It’s a shame Politico and a lot of the other mainstream press feels duty-bound to indulge the GOP’s staggering collective inferiority complex.
Cerberus
It’s a dog whistle, duh.
It’s a way to try and downplay there being an intelligent black man running America right now by saying that he isn’t really intelligent, smarter white people are just telling him how to hide his secret ebonics and inherent brown-skinned stupidity.
It’s a last ditch attempt to justify the white on top racism of the more stupid southern voters.
Of course, I’m thoroughly enjoying the cloistered stupidity that makes the Republicans turn this into a national strategy, because like the socialist attack it doesn’t make fundamental sense outside of their base and only serves to make them look like the out-of-touch curmudgeons they are.
scruncher
The teleprompter criticism is BS as is much of the other complaints. But, I’m afraid there is a tiny grain of truth lately. Obama is not communicating the ins and outs of this financial mess and what the administration’s overarching plan is very well. The other night on Leno he gave an explanation of the AIG mess using industry jargon. I’m not saying he has to talk down to us, but he should be able to explain the problems in the financial industry without resorting to jargon. That doesn’t convey knowledge and smarts; it conveys, rightly or wrongly, that he can’t explain it otherwise.
Deborah
@Smiley,
Moreso, it’s totally weird that they think this is a concern around which they can rally a nation. It’s like they’ve gone with
1) AIG is goodbadgoodbad….
2) Anything Democrats suggest is Marxist and Socialist.
3) Now on to our major issue with the president, which is his teleprompter….
They can’t build a single successful meme about anything economic. ("AIG execs should not have bonuses" would have worked except Dems cruelly stole it away, leaving them with "WELL. How dare the government interfere with the workings of a capitalist contract system, bailout money what bailout money?")
Perfectly serious question: Where’s Romney? If the evangelicals hadn’t voted against the devil worshipper the economic crisis could have caught the Rs with an actual finance guy able to talk about economics without putting himself to sleep. But I don’t hear anything about "the Romney plan" despite the number of times independents ask what the hell ideas Republicans do have about what to do next.
Miriam
The problem with this particular meme is that it is so demonstrateably false. I can’t imagine that this one will last very long but really, its about the least destructive obsession they’ve had for awhile so I’m all for it.
Comrade Stuck
It’s not just the meme on attacking Obama on his communication skills. It’s every mundane and petty criticism they can dream up with their tiny lizard brains. One day it will be one thing, the next he does what they say he should have done and it’s all wrong too. It’s comical, but also alarming in it’s veracity to point out anything, ANYTHING, that can be spun as fail, no matter how trivial and irrelevant.
Opposition of this kind can only be characterized as anti-Americanism. OOOh! golly jee willickers, did I just accuse wingnut’s of being anti-American, that’s so illiberal of me.
kay
It’s pretty amazing to witness the pile-on. Every word is parsed. Every gesture and intonation is discussed.
I’m convinced they concentrate on the superficial because they can’t intelligently discuss or debate the policy. So, we end up with 90% of commentary on "optics".
This guy can’t discuss the relative merits of Obama’s withdrawal plan from Iraq, so he’ll write a paragraph on the difference between reciting "combat troops" as opposed to "troops in harm’s way".
Forget the financial crisis. They can’t go near the substance there. That’s why we get endless commentary on Tim Geithner’s presentation.
Look, Rumsfeld was a huge media hit. They freaking adored him. He was on the cover of magazines, and it wasn’t based on his brilliant strategic decisions. Greenspan had only to recite some bullshit in stern, serious tones and markets rejoiced. Has this approach served us well, when looking for talent?
John Cole
I’m just curious about the whiplash. Don’t they ever get it? I mean, months of “He is just a smooth talker” and “sure he gives a great speech” and then throw it in complete reverse and run with “he is a lousy communicator” and “he can’t talk without a teleprompter.”
If they were a car, the transmission would in the middle of the road smoldering and the vehicle would be in a ditch.
David
What’s next; the revelation that shoelaces are involved when Obama ties his shoes?
GuyFromOhio
Knee-jerk Rovian response – attack the strengths.
The old "GFH Republican Rules To Rule By" still hold: contort the institutions (DOJ, GSA, FEC and Christianity) to serve the Party, what cannot be made to serve the Party should be broken so no others can use it (SEC, FCC, FEMA), and attack, attack, attack.
The current Executive makes the previous Executive look even worse by range of ability, so come forth the flying monkeys.
The payback/project assertion is spot on. Since the poor rubes can’t muster enough political Viagra to bend or break any more institutions, all that is left is attack, attack, attack. There should be no question as to why the current Executive maintains "campaign" posture, it serves as one of few bulwarks against the tide of shit.
El Cid
A concern with what is and is not demonstrably true or false means that you’re not one of the cult insiders they’re addressing.
I want them to keep going like this and the "Republican Party" eventually will consist of a roomful of a few dozen screaming loonies in some Mississippi strip mall building converted into a church / militia headquarters.
Tom
I watched Obama on Leno, as well as the town hall meetings, talking about the AIG situation along with my family, school kids and all. They completely understood it. Only someone dumber than a box of rocks wouldn’t understand his explanation. You know, like a Republican.
JackieBinAZ
I’m sure that there are some Americans who distrust Obama because they find him too intellectually challenging to follow, but not as many as the Republicans seem to believe.
Comrade Stuck
@John Cole:
They’re Ok! Obama reached out with stimulus tricycles>
sgwhiteinfla
Of course the wingnuts never want to talk about President Obama’s substantive answers to hard questions with no teleprompter. Nah when he actually answers a question they say he is boring or too wonkish. As much as they claim to hate celebrity they don’t want a smart and serious president, they want a walking sound bite. Well "bring it on" didn’t work out to well did it nor did "axis of evil". Its the height of irony that the party of sloganeering claims to hate just that, but then will criticize President Obama for not doing more of it. I say FUCK THEM. Lets stop giving them so much of our attention except for the times when they are pushing substantive smears. Saying that President Obama can’t communicate has about as much chance of catching on with the mainstream of America as Ann Coulter marrying Al Sharpton. No need to fret over stupid people saying stupid shit that makes them look even stupider.
MikeJ
If you think this is bad you should have read the freeper thread about the White House vegetable garden. I don’t think it took past the second or third response for the word "watermelon" to appear.
Ripley
I can’t figure out what they hope to accomplish with this bit or why they’re running so long with it. Do they seriously think this is going to pull in voters?
I gave this meme a (perhaps less elegant) haircut the other day, as well: We can’t get fooled again. Also. (Yes, I’m a whore. A brazen whore!)
I suppose the obvious answer is that Limbaugh proclaimed this the Meme of the Month, and we all know that nobody goes against the Limbaugh.
SGEW
In my opinion, this entirely explains the Republican’s attack on Obama’s speech patterns, their idolization of Rush Limbaugh, the authorial style of the New York Post, and Bobby Jindal’s choice of intonation for his televised response.
The modern Republican party’s "base" are third graders. There is no other explanation.
smiley
@John Cole:
I’m not sure those are necessarily contradictory. The "sure he gives a great speech" part, especially, implies the teleprompter. Back in the campaign, they criticized him for all the um’s and ah’s and pauses when he spoke without a teleprompter. This latest is just an extension of that complaint.
TheFountainHead
Next up: OMG! He’s speaking Black!
(That is what came next, right?)
kay
@Comrade Stuck:
I want him to ignore them, because he really, really does have work to do, and he can’t pay attention to this huge mob of ambitious insane pundits who are looking for the Next Stupid Meme. They have to churn out product, and then there’s the ideological axes to grind, but he has to do all of this stuff despite their nattering, every….single…day.
I watched part of the Q and A in California. That was his task, that day, talking to the assembled. The people asking the questions understood him, and he wasn’t working off a teleprompter. Done, and on to the next task, right?
Taking any of this to heart would be paralyzing. Imagine: he can’t be too smooth, or he’s "glib". He can’t use a two syllable word or he’s "lawyerly". Jokes are out, but so is "gloom". I guess he just goes on.
Laura W
I got an email last week from an old online friend (Bush loving Baylor grad disabilities lawyer who so hoped he’d go to DC with Bush). Such a nice nice man. Twin daughters born less than a week ago. This is in every email, under his signature. Sigh…
“Barack Obama is a great pretender. He constantly says he’s doing things that he isn’t, and he relies on his powerful rhetoric to obscure the difference. He has made "responsibility" a personal theme, and the budget’s cover line is "A New Era of Responsibility." He claims that the budget begins "making the tough choices necessary to restore fiscal discipline." It doesn’t." Newsweek, 3/7/2009
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
That teleprompter nonsense is all over wingnuttia, even foreign wingnuttia. I heard someone call into Toronto talk radio the other day pushing the same line re the Special Olympics flap: "He can’t talk without a teleprompter … 57 states … blah blah blah".
Really, are people not paying attention to his debates and town halls? Although, as a former Toastmaster (yeah, I know, but I teach for a living and had to get rid of some annoying verbal habits), I can see how the "umms" can grate on some people. But if he were to try to change that now, he Would Be Doing Too Much. Trapped by competing memes!
Polish the Guillotines
@John Cole:
If you’re looking for rational behavior, forget it. Consistency doesn’t matter to them, just tribalism. It’s not frontal cortex stuff, it’s pure lizard brain.
This is what truly disturbs me about the rump GOP: They’re psychologically incapable of following rules which poses a major problem in rational exercises like debate, policy-making, and law enforcement.
I’ve asked this before, and I’ll keep asking… How do you deal with people that simply don’t acknowledge there are rules that apply to them too?
Dan
BOOOOOOOOOOO!
kay
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:
I think it’s an old game. They’re trying to define him, and they have had some difficulty with that. He was a Marxist pretending to be a moderate just weeks ago, and now he’s a willing tool of our corporate overlords, pretending to be a Marxist? I’m getting really confused. He’s soft on terror, or he’s just like Bush on terror, but is cleverly pretending to be soft on terror. The beauty of this strategy is it pisses off both left and right. Liberals can be mad because he’s tricking them, and so can conservatives.
If they can’t define him, that must mean he’s a master of deception, so that will be the definition.
sgwhiteinfla
Just to remind everyone, remember that greater wingnuttia led by Malkin and Limbaugh claimed that Bobby Jindal came off like a wooden stooge in his response to President Obama’s NTSOTU speech because….wait for it……wait for it…. he was reading off a teleprompter.
Some should tell them to make up their minds. Does a teleprompter give you magical powers to make the whole world smile, or does it totally destroy every brain cell you own making you sound like a character on 30 Rock?
Dan
This?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEeERDpSct0
GSD
I hope the GOP and the ragged fragments of the conservative base continue on with their paranoid fantasies and efforts at telling the world that the clouds are made of marshmallows and that President Obama is a moron.
It is a great waste of effort and energy on their part and it continues to shine the light on the fact that THEY HAVE NO CONCEPT OF REALITY.
The fundamentals of the economy are strong, Saddam Hussein was poised to invade America , George W. Bush was a brilliant man of letters and a voracious reader and President Barack Obama is an uncommunicative moron.
Keep up the good work GOP-ers, I’m looking forward to the day when the South rises again under the steady stewardship of Mitch McConnell, Newt Gingrich and David Vitter.
-GSD
scruncher
@Tom: I disagree. And your kids know what a hedge fund does? They know what counterparties are?
Obama has a problem right now. People want blood and he’s not explaining why he’s not giving them blood.
Tom
@scruncher:
Don’t be disingenuous. Obama clearly explained to any sentient being the essentials of the financial crisis and how we got here. That doesn’t require understanding the subtleties of the various instruments at issue. Indeed, detailed explanations of that sort are distractions and can be found easily for interested parties by googling.
As I said, dumber than a box of rocks. Intentionally obtuse. Republican.
Paul
I don’t get the point of this playground taunting, either. During the election, it seemed like a ploy to draw attention away from the rambling incoherence of off-the-cuff Sarah Palinisms (they don’t flag, you know, the molecules of fungible commodities) but it’s perfectly meaningless now.
guest
the anti-teleprompter brigade is sure to win 2012.
scruncher
@Tom: Feel free to disagree with me, but do not call me obtuse or dumb as rocks.
I said the Republican meme is BS. Yes, Obama is a great communicator. But, I am not alone in thinking he’s having a slight communications problem right now.
Rick Taylor
Wow. Just wow.
I went to watch the video, assuming that they’d at least caught Obama in a badly embarrassing stumble, and was a few flubbed words you wouldn’t even have noticed if you weren’t going through everything he said with a fine toothed comb to validate your point. People had sold books full of nothing but our last President’s gaffes, any one of which is more impressive than what they had on tape there.
JL
@scruncher:
The Rove playbook has a chapter that says go after the opponents strength. That is why they are going after the President’s ability to communicate. Gregory today on Meet The Press mentioned that Obama seemed angry. I did not see the entire thing but I guess it was in reference to his interview on 60 Minutes. MSM has already been delivered the memo about Obama/angry/not presidential. The MSM and 24/7 news are "dumbing us down". It’s up to us to listen to the President and make our own judgments.
Tom
@scruncher:
Well, my sixth grader totally understood it. And his mind’s more on basketball and that Ipod Touch that he wishes he had than economic catastrophe. So it seems like, if he can get it, and you don’t, then _someone_ has a problem in comprehension. Whether that is willful obtuseness or just plain dim, I don’t know. That’s why I threw out the two possibilities.
TheHatOnMyCat
Every once in a while, sitting in the gale of shit that flies out of the tv set and off the blogosphere, a voice comes along that speaks clearly, intelligently, and insightfully and shows a new way to look at the realities behind the shitstorm.
So today I heard one of those occasional voices.
Here it is, Mike Davis of UC Riverside, on Moyers.
Watch the whole video. It’s refreshing to me to listen to somebody who knows what he is talking about. I hope you find it refreshing too.
It’s pretty hard to agree with everything that this reasonable and rational soci-alist (yes, a real one) has to say. But it’s harder to figure that he isn’t mostly right about the fix we are in.
What do you think?
JenJen
I’ll never forget the Night of the Green Screen; it was almost more memorable than Senator Obama clinching the nomination.
It looked like McCain was giving the speech in the middle of a damned Shoney’s. And although even the d-bags over at Fox were cringing, Harold Ford dutifully stepped up over at MSNBC to praise McCain’s lofty rhetoric.
I was hoping we’d gotten past the Bizarro Days of the election, but it appears it gets more bizarre every new turn we take.
scruncher
@JL: I know the Rove playbook and I know exactly what they’re up to. And I still think Obama has a communications problem when it comes to the financial industry.
He and Geithner have plenty of friendly critics who think they’re doing the wrong thing when it comes to the AIG and its toxic assets. And Obama and Geithner need to explain why they’re right and Krugman, Simon, et al, aren’t. Maybe they’ll do that this week, but they haven’t done it yet.
guest
@JL:
The Rove playbook has a chapter that says go after the opponents strength.
he stole that concept from saul alinsky.
El Cid
I don’t think he has a communications problem. I think he has a policy problem, in that there really are inherent contradictions within various policy thrusts, and the PR task is to promote these contradictory policies nonetheless as though they were more defensible and consistent than they are.
scruncher
@Tom: Well, glad your sixth grader understands it all. Maybe he can explain to me why we’re paying off Goldman Sachs for losses they haven’t even incurred.
Rosali
I loved how this green screen speech was followed by the RNC convention speech that featured the lush green lawn of Walter Reed as the background. That would be Walter Reed Middle School, not the medical center for veterans.
guest
@scruncher:
He and Geithner have plenty of friendly critics who think they’re doing the wrong thing when it comes to the AIG and its toxic assets. And Obama and Geithner need to explain why they’re right and Krugman, Simon, et al, aren’t.
yes, let’s cripple geithner right before the obama tries to pass his buget in congress. i can see it now: republicans pulling quotes from krugman and et al to suggest obama’s econ team doesn’t know what they’re talking about, using that as a cudgel to try to kill the bill.
JL
@scruncher: He has explained but MSM feels his bowling comment was more important. On Leno he spoke at length about AIG. Personally, I would rather he say last fall, there was a day where your money market accounts were at risk. How many folks realize that most money market accounts are not insured? Without the bailout your stock and bond portfolio would not have suffered 30% losses but 70% losses. Sure I would like him to say that. I would like him to mention that he is not just bailing out the banks and investment companies but he is bailing out the American public who put their faith into those companies. I would like him to explain why these companies are to big to fail.
He has actually touched upon all those things but MSM has decided that he’s not a communicator and he made a gaffe about bowling.
Tom
@scruncher:
Here’s what you apparently refuse to understand. It isn’t Obama’s job to go on television and explain to people exactly why "we’re paying off Goldman Sachs for losses they haven’t even incurred." Okay? It’s his job to talk about policy and leadership. You should be able to find out about Goldman Sachs in a newspaper, if they weren’t all focused on teleprompters. Or read Hilzoy and TPM maybe.
Your demand that he talk about that kind of detail is silly.
guest
@Rosali:
remember that weird event in florida during the primaries? mccain fielded questions but for some reason didn’t have any answers in response? nothing but crickets. i think he forgot his ear piece and couldn’t hear the questions.
scruncher
@JL: Sounds like you agree with me. You want to hear these things from Obama and you haven’t. No one needs to listen through the MSM filter when Obama is on the record. He hasn’t answered those questions for you. It has nothing to do with what the MSM chooses to cover.
TheHatOnMyCat
George Bush had a communication problem. In a nutshell, it was that nobody listened to him.
People are listening to Obama right now. When that stops happening, then he will have a communication problem.
The people with the communication problem are the Republicans, and the pundits. Nobody is listening to them.
Do you see anything changing this dynamic in the next six months? I don’t.
scruncher
@Tom: Why is it silly? Don’t you want to know why we’re paying Goldman Sachs for losses the firm hasn’t suffered? I sure as hell do. And the answer isn’t in the newspaper. Or at TPM. It’s with the administration. Or do you think the Obama administration is above reproach?
Bruce Baugh
You really, truly can’t go wrong by starting with projection and then seeing what’s left over, if anything. Over and over, what they’re ranting about is stuff they’re doing.
"We must protect the sanctity of marriage" means "I’ve got a new mistress" or "I’m picking up boys in public places again".
"We must not coddle welfare bums anymore" means "I only got seven figures’ worth of graft and fraud this year, and dammit, I want nine".
"Stop this class warfare" means "I’m entirely willing to make the whole nation and world poorer if I can get a bigger slice of what’s left, and your duty is to give it to me".
"He’s an unprincipled flip-flopper" means "I no longer recall what it felt like to genuinely care about the truth of anything as opposed to its utility for my current whims".
"Let the marketplace decide, not regulators and politicians" means "I owe my position entirely to favoritism and exploiting loopholes or just flat-out disregarding the law, and honest record-keeping would destroy my business".
Any sin or failing they denounce, it’s guaranteed to be one they’re practicing.
guest
@scruncher:
at one of the townhalls, obama compared AIG to a suicide bomber. that’s pretty explanatory, i thought.
smiley
Wow. So out of boredom I went over to Hot Air to see what it was that John linked to. We really do live in separate parallel universes. They say about us what we say about them.
As someone who speaks in public all the time, I hope no one starts posting smileyteurisms. That would be so embarrassing. We’re not permitted an occasional slip of the tongue.
guest
@Bruce Baugh:
2 other favorites:
republicans calling the left defeatocrats, when they’re the ones driving the country to ruin.
republicans calling the left commies, whilst endorsing soviet tactics of torture.
JL
@scruncher:
You missed this part of the sentence.
Marshall
My, my. I am old enough to remember Ronald Reagan. He was an actor, for frack’s sake. He used a teleprompter for just about everything.
I will admit that he could come off with some good one-liners, but when he had to speak without lines, it mostly came off as embarrassing. And, as time went on, that turned into cringe-worthy embarrassing. I also seem to vaguely recall that one time the teleprompter pages were in the wrong order, and he read them that way, causing puzzlement in the audience.
Of course, one essential aspect of Rove’s style is to attack precisely at the points his side is weak on.
Tom
@scruncher:
It is silly to expect the President of the United States (herein: POTUS) to sit down, hold your hand and explain Goldman Sachs to you. That’s childish, and you have a responsibility to inform yourself. Now you are changing the game here. You originally said:
I pointed out that he _had_ explained the problems in the financial industry quite well, and well enough that my sixth grader "got it."
Now if you want to talk about the White House Press Office and what they should be doing better, fine, that’s a different debate.
Lola
@ EL Cid
I don’t think he has a communications problem. I think he has a policy problem, in that there really are inherent contradictions within various policy thrusts, and the PR task is to promote these contradictory policies nonetheless as though they were more defensible and consistent than they are.
I totally agree with you. Obama’s problem is not communication but his policy or lack thereof. Nobody really understands what’s going on and I am not sure Obama’s economic advisers do either. That is scary. Nothing Obama says can get change that until he gets more specific and proposes sound policies.
Tom
@Smiley:
After TBogg,
Obamateurism of the Day, my ass.
Marshall
Actually, thinking back on it, I think that Reagan didn’t always use teleprompters, but index cards or other lower-tech solutions. He was pretty much always scripted, though. And you could tell when he wasn’t.
I don’t know what’s worse, not being able to think, but being able to stay on script, or not being able to think or read a script. Come to think of it, given the last 8 years, I do.
Has anyone else heard that W is going to write a book ? I can hardly wait.
Mrs. Peel
Oh? Like when the wingnutz keep saying "tax cuts" and conveniently leave out "just for me, not for you". They can’t dazzle the crowd with their brilliance to they baffle them with their bullshit.
guest
@smiley:
an amateur that kicked their booty. what does that make them?
Bruce Baugh
@guest: Oh, yeah, good points. In fact that should be part of the basic test. The more vile and/or just plain weird the charge is, the more likely it is to be common Republican practice or enthusiasm.
scruncher
@Tom: Look, I’m happy your sixth grader understands hedge funds and subprime mortgages and derivatives, all words Obama used on Leno. I sort of understand them because I’ve spent a lot of time reading about them. So bully for you and your son if he understands them while his mind is really on basketball.
But first you tell me I’m too simple minded to understand something a sixth grader can grasp and now you’re telling me I’m asking too tough a question of Obama.
It’s simple: the Obama administration has a plan. Lots of knowledgeable people disagree with that plan. Who’s to say who is right. We may not know for years. But as the stakes are enormous, the Obama administration owes it to us to justify their approach, explain it, answer questions from legitimate critics like Simon Johnson. To date, they have not done that.
I am not asking for Obama to have solved all this already. I am not asking for Geithner’s head. I am not even asking for the damn bonuses back. But real questions have arisen, they are already in the public sphere. They need answers.
If Obama answers them on 60 Minutes tonight, or in his press conference this week, or Geithner explains it when he announces his plan, no one will be happier than me.
Svensker
On a work chat board I frequent, there’s been a constant meme from the wingers that Obama is a complete moron and that his admittedly great speeches were simply the result of a good writer (not himself, naturally) and ability to read a teleprompter well.
One of them has a post up now entitled "Zero’s Latest Gaffe" talking about the Special Olympics thing, saying "Great oratorical skills indeed. Where’s that teleprompter when you need it ?" This from a person who thinks Palin is a great speaker.
But I guess if you think that Palin is smart and a good speaker, you have no ability to recognize intelligence when you see or hear it.
Maybe it’s the black thing, subconsciously? I just don’t get it. I mean, I loathe Charles Krauthammer, but he’s obviously intelligent and argues well for his disgusting viewpoints. Jonah Goldberg, not so much. You don’t have to agree with someone to recognize their intelligence. Or do you, if you’re a Repub these days?
SGEW
This is all blowback from the ridicule Stewart, Colbert, Letterman et. al. heaped upon George W. Bush’s buffoonish mannerisms (the man made silly faces in front of cameras, fer cryin’ out loud) and shocking gaffes (a "gaffe" meaning you accidentally reveal something you shouldn’t, or expose the irony of the moment – like Biden. Biden gaffes.).
The Republicans are naturally going to want the same "luxury" of lampooning the sitting president – their version of the "fairness doctrine," if you will – not realizing the difference between the quantity and quality of George "Is Our Children Learning" Bush’s public malapropisms and revealing asides ("god damned piece of paper" indeed), and Barack "Uh Um Look" Obama’s nerdish demeanor and tone-deaf jokes (Special Olympics?!). Obama has had flaws in his delivery, after all, and, really, can’t tell jokes very well (nerd!), but is still incomparably better than the miserable failure that was George "Most Mocked President Ever" Bush’s public persona. This is an unacceptable notion for the dead-enders, who (it must be noted) loved W. with an embarrassing fervor.
More importantly, they cannot understand the notable difference between Obama the Orator (who reads a very carefully written political speech, filled with both rhetoric and nuance, off of a teleprompter (like every other politician)) and Obama the Debater (who is both professorial and sly, and is extremely cautious in his choice of words). During the campaign, Obama would wow you with a stirring speech when needed, and would bore the pants off of you talking about tax policy the next day. This was intentional. The man has walked a very, very fine line his whole public life, and his balancing act has paid off (so far). There’s the guy who makes millions literally weep with joy at his words, and there’s the guy who wonks out at you when talking about entitlement reform without actually saying anything definitive about policy. It is a chimera that the right wing cannot comprehend, and they will continue to blindly attack everything that confuses them.
guest
@Lola:
brad delong takes issue with how media is reporting the plan:
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/03/the-geithner-plan-faq.html
Tom
@scruncher:
There you go again!
Please point out where I said you were "asking too tough a question of Obama."
Please point out where I denied that "real questions have arisen" and that people "need answers."
You said that you couldn’t understand Obama’s explanations on Leno because he used too much "jargon" then you demanded that Obama sit down with you and explain hedge funds and why "we’re paying Goldman Sachs for losses the firm hasn’t suffered." Now you say:
which I don’t disagree with at all. I would just note that explaining this is exactly his purpose with the town halls, the Leno appearance, and the 60 minute interview this week. Sheesh!
guest
@SGEW:
nice, sgew, where’s your blog?
i also think it stems from jealousy. here’s obama: graduated harvard law, magna cum laude. weary from campaigning, stumbles about having visited 57 states. suddenly guys who barely got their GED jump all over it with glee and feel better about themselves.
guest
you know what pisses me off about geithner being made the scapegoat? he’s had to trot down to congress at least 3 or 4 times in hearings just to endure their grilling. then the whole bonus-gate erupts and congress is demanding why geithner didn’t know or didn’t do something to prevent it. you know how long it takes to prep for a congressional hearing? it’s congress whose been forcing geithner to make poor use of his time.
someguy
That’s right guest. Most Republicans are too stupid and uneducated to recognize genius, decency, educational attainment and morality when they see it. Most of the people here too, based on how quick they are to jump ship. All these "serious questions have arisen" arguments are nothing but Republican concern trolling that the villagers are running with. When the best the Republicans can do is point to a verbal slip or a joke about bowling, then you know they have no actual ammo to use.
SGEW
@guest: I am already too self-indulgent to have my own blog. Virtue, sometimes, is avoidance of vice.
dj spellchecka
the minute i hit this :"relying heavily on ill-defined terms like “deficit reduction” (which means tax increases, rather than actual “savings”) " i knew i was dealing with a hopeless hack…
Tsulagi
Seriously. Just what I was thinking while reading down through the post.
After eight years of the miscommunicator, who with or without a teleprompter, no matter how many months prepped by aides for a big speech like a SOTU, who was always an odds-on favorite to deliver gibberish or a trainwreck, this Obama/teleprompter meme is what the bobbleheads want to sync up on? Never misunderestimate their airhead capacity.
If you’re going to go the Rove tactic of attacking a strength, might help if you could point to someone strong on your team. Looking at that roster, recently they’ve had green-screen McCain. Winky blathering on about moving energy molecules in the ground while keeping a wary eye out for Putin’s head flying above in US airspace. Jindal giving a counter to Obama’s recent address who looked, sounded, and reasoned like a zombie pulled out of a LA bayou. And now the current titular head of Republican stalwartness who when not tweeting total abject subservience to a hillbilly heroin addict, he’ll apologize for not choosing his words better.
You can point that out, but with the 28%ers who have the focus and attention span of a gnat with alzheimers, it just whooshes over their bobbling heads.
hart williams
@guest:
As Bill Maher noted Friday, isn’t it amazing to finally see someone educated and competent in the White House? (I’m purposely wrecking the joke.)
The chamber pot stench and savage ferocity of the anti-intellectual strain of Republiklan propaganda is reaching its apogee — as has been cataloged here over the past several weeks.
This "death by a thousand paper cuts" approach was exactly what they tried too early with Obama during the primaries. When it came time to play the Rev. Wright card ("the BLACK PREACHER IS A RACIST! "), it was too late to be other than counter-productive, which the McCain handlers obviously realized. (Well, all but the Weekly Standard’s Michael Goldfarb, when he performed his famous positronic brain meltdown last Halloween.)
When they get ’round to actual gaffes, miscues and errors, again, they’ll once more be the little party that cried Wolfowitz.
Don’t these idiots ever read Aesop, fer chrissakes?
Oh. Wait. I think that was pretty much rhetorical, stopping just at "Don’t these idiots ever read[?]"
After 29 years of unabashed character assassination as a tactic (if you ignore Nixon and his spiritual mentor, Joe McCarthy), the public is turning their backs on the tactic, but the Malkinites and Limbürgermeisters don’t ‘get’ that.
So, the lies become ever more transparent, and ever more "tuned out" by the very people they need to convince if they want to win any more elections.
Well, you remember what Einstein said was the definition of ‘insanity’ ….
smiley
@Svensker:
When I was over at Hot Air I saw a lot of that in the comments. Along with the obligatory affirmative action reference, of course. Racists who’s heads are exploding because we have a smart black president.
scruncher
@Tom: I know Obama is on a publicity blitz to explain the economic situation and the administration’s plans to rectify it. I don’t think he’s done a great job of it yet , and you do. Can we just agree to disagree … agreeably, as Obama would say?
There’s a huge difference between saying someone is an alcoholic and saying they had too much to drink at the Christmas party. The Repub meme is doing the former and I’m doing the latter.
joe from Lowell
I remain deeply grateful to the Republicans for helping Obama win the expectations game.
These idiots somehow caused the "point spread" going into the three presidential debates to be a push. That’s right, the expectation was that debates between Barack Obama and John McCain would end in ties.
Republican commentary these consists has no higher purpose than to make themselves feel better for their pathetic performance over the past several years.
joe from Lowell
There’s a rather obvious problem with this application of the Rove Doctrine.
Ordinary Americans can’t actually confirm with their own eyes what happened during John Kerry’s combat tour in Vietnam.
Ordinary Americans can’t confirm for themselves whether there were or were not enough desks for all the students in that school in Florida.
But ordinary Americans can watch Barack Obama at a town hall-type event, or at a press conference, and see for themselves that he’s quite adept at public speaking and thinking on his feet.
Mike in NC
@someguy:
But when is Mrs. O going to cover up those bare biceps? Keeps some people awake at night, apparently.
Stephanie
Oh, and don’t forget the next leader of the Republican Party – Bobby "Americans Can Do Anything" Jindal.
El Cid
I just watched the 60 Minutes interview. It was clear to me that there was an invisible teleprompter present for the entire interview. They project a laser beam into Obama’s eyes and it simulates a teleprompter. That is the only possible explanation for Obama’s ability to rapidly and sensibly answer questions on the fly.
jcricket
You neglect to include the very real use of mind control techniques by the Democrats.
In fact, as I write this in snark, I’m now remembering that there were conservative blogs seriously arguing that Obama was using Hitler-esque crowd/mind control techniques during his rallies.
Snark can’t keep up with conservative reality anymore.
guest
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:
while it took me a while to get used to it, i can also see how that little quirk would be reassuring to people. it’s a humanizing trait that suggests a humble character. a too perfect obama would freak people out. i’d rather have authenticity than slickness.
passerby
@TheHatOnMyCat:
Thanks for the link TheHatOnMyCat. Moyers has a way of bringing intelligence to any of today’ issues.
WRT Davis, he did a good job setting forth why the government should be calling the shots on the bailout money (for society’s benefit vs. bankers’ benefit), but I wished he would have delved more deeply in to how national finances as a commodity would work.
I think that the government, duly elected representatives of the American taxpayers, should force the banks to divulge all information currently hidden. I’m talking about total transparency. This is only a pipe dream though as I’m sure it would expose massive fraud and bring the whole thing down. AIG doesn’t want bankruptcy for the same reason, all of their dirty laudry would be made public.
But, there are too many rat bastards in government today to convert to the Finance-as-Commodity system that Davis was talking about. We’d just be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
I liked his observation about "who has power?"
The battle is not Republican vs Democrat, it’s Banks vs The People.
Steeplejack
@passerby:
I, too, watched the whole interview and was impressed. Davis came across as the opposite of the wild-eyed radical pinko, and he raised a lot of useful questions, which I would definitely like to see addressed in the public sphere. Not saying he is right, but he has a useful perspective.
I’ve been meaning to read City of Quartz or Ecology of Fear. Maybe this will get me off my ass on that.
glasgowtremontaine
As a former schoolgirl, I resent your implication, sir.
mannemalon
I think the Republicans’ meme actually has affected even some of the clearheaded folks here who now hedge when discussing Obama’s non telepromptered speaking. Lets be real: the guy is absolutely brilliant and it shows almost everytime he speaks in any setting, whether it’s a scripted speech, a townhall forum, or an interview.
Don’t fall victim to the traps set by the children. No, Obama never really followed a dynamic speech by boring the pants off you regarding tax policy. He’s clear, articulate and witty in most or all settings.
I don’t doubt that some of the criticisms come from people who actually can’t follow him, because he does speak with a certain level of intelligence. So to them, the ums and ahs complimented with the "high minded mumbo jumbo" they cant understand turns into Obama not being smart or not able to speak without a teleprompter. Sure they may believe it, because they’re idiots. What’s sad is actually internalizing their arguments and starting to hedge when discussing the situation.
Herb
This explains that strange voice mail I got from my Uncle Jim…
He never heard a right-wing canard that wasn’t worth repeating.
zoe kentucky from pittsburgh
Like most rightwing memes, they’re all just parroting Rush.
That is how Rush regularly talks about Obama, almost always referring to him as "Obama’s teleprompter." Whenever Rush talks about Obama coming on his radio show to debate him he says he has invited "Obama’s teleprompter" to debate him. Whenever he quotes Obama he begins by saying "Obama’s teleprompter said yesterday…"
It’s some weird way of attacking Obama as an empty suit, that his eloquence is all faked, and that he’s hopeless/clueless unless someone else is telling him what to say. It only makes sense if you hate all things Democrat.
The funny thing is that, as usual, it’s merely a projection. Bush was postively incoherent unless he had a teleprompter in front of him. For pete’s sake, Rush is fed info all day long– his teleprompter is the earwhig in his ear.