Obama’s Pelvic Stiffness and the Teleprompter Presidency
by Ben Atlas on 07.12.2011.7:28am · 0 comments
President Barack Obama meets with Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau on the Colonnade outside the Oval Office, April 11, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
There is some stiffness in the core of Obama’s body. Sometimes when he moves there is an impression that his long legs and arms are dangling off his fixed chest. He is also the most difficult person in the world to debate. He is completely unemotional and cool and he proceeds to argue as a machine. While most humans get emotionally entangled in an argument, inevitably this looks bad on TV. The core of Barack’s oratory is stationary (say that three times). After his press conference yesterday there are the headlines today that Obama is claiming the centrist ground. The thing is, it was always his core, his default stump narrative. Remember “there are no red states or blue states, there are the united states”, or “no black america or white america”, etc. This is who he really is.
But then there are the unscripted moments when he unexpectedly fumbles the ball. There were three such uncomfortable moments during the press conference yesterday:
- He said we need a “lean and mean government”. It’s an expression but I am sure he didn’t intend the “mean” part.
- He set a trap for himself when he said “I would rather be talking about”… There was a pause as he struggled to suppress what he would rather be talking about and then mumbled something about the NFL lockout, to get out of the bind.
- Finally he attempted to describe what we should do about the jobs after the debt debate and he fell into the incoherence, with his wretched “infrastructure investments”, the factually irrelevant “broadband expansion”, etc.
Coincidentally the last part is also one of his rehearsed, involuntary verbal tics. Which raises the question is this the oldest president in the American history? By old I mean the person who clings to the frozen ideas and stops growing, someone who is not curious, someone who is shielding his heart with a teleprompter?
P.S. To my astonishment he also said that the “infrastructure investment is a progressive value”. Is Obama caught in the rooseveltian time warp or is he reflexively pandering to the unions? Also is he really (as heard on CNBC) timing his great sacrificial, taxation compromise can down the road of the 2013, after the election?
Tagged as:
politics,
president
Obama’s Pelvic Stiffness and the Teleprompter Presidency
by Ben Atlas on 07.12.2011.7:28am · 0 comments
President Barack Obama meets with Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau on the Colonnade outside the Oval Office, April 11, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
There is some stiffness in the core of Obama’s body. Sometimes when he moves there is an impression that his long legs and arms are dangling off his fixed chest. He is also the most difficult person in the world to debate. He is completely unemotional and cool and he proceeds to argue as a machine. While most humans get emotionally entangled in an argument, inevitably this looks bad on TV. The core of Barack’s oratory is stationary (say that three times). After his press conference yesterday there are the headlines today that Obama is claiming the centrist ground. The thing is, it was always his core, his default stump narrative. Remember “there are no red states or blue states, there are the united states”, or “no black america or white america”, etc. This is who he really is.
But then there are the unscripted moments when he unexpectedly fumbles the ball. There were three such uncomfortable moments during the press conference yesterday:
Coincidentally the last part is also one of his rehearsed, involuntary verbal tics. Which raises the question is this the oldest president in the American history? By old I mean the person who clings to the frozen ideas and stops growing, someone who is not curious, someone who is shielding his heart with a teleprompter?
P.S. To my astonishment he also said that the “infrastructure investment is a progressive value”. Is Obama caught in the rooseveltian time warp or is he reflexively pandering to the unions? Also is he really (as heard on CNBC) timing his great sacrificial, taxation compromise can down the road of the 2013, after the election?
Tagged as: politics, president