Meh. I’m an Obama supporter, but I’ve been increasingly underwhelmed since he took office. For me, the “A More Perfect Union” speech was terrific, and everything else has been so-so.
On the other hand, I thought the speech you linked to was pretty bad, other than the stuff about the Taliban, which was almost poetic.
Setting aside the subjectivity of what constitutes “great”, Bush did, over his 8 years, evolve into the poster boy of teleprompter dependency. Could he deliver a speech ably with one? Sure.
But he was an absolute disaster when speaking extemporaneously. His vocabulary was stunted, his answers rote and repetitive (not to mention reductive), his efforts to evade questions or shift the topic embarrassing in their obviousness.
Regardless of what you think of his policies, I think there’s little denying that Obama telempromptered and untelempromptered are far closer together than his predecessor. Sure, there are “ums” and pauses–but his grasp of the issues, his command of the subjects, his ability with a turn of phrase are still very good. He doesn’t wax poetic like he can with something prepared (his inner wonk comes out quite a bit more), but you can tell that he’s smart and that he sees the people he’s talking to as smart, too. Regardless of what Bush’s intellect was, he could rarely ever talk off-the-cuff* without sounding like a 13-year old talking to a group of 6-year olds.
*Yes, yes, his Ground Zero “we hear you” speech blah blah blah. I’m talking about when he’s in a formal situation being asked questions and expected to discuss policy, not just a single moment of inspiration
Given how ubiquitous the teleprompter has become, this strikes me as a clear case of moving the goal posts. If Obama performed a slam dunk, they’d be sneering about how he was afraid to try a shot from the three-point line. If he knocks one out of the park, I’m sure they’ll smugly point out that he didn’t actually knock the cover off the ball.
As for the Special Olympics comment, I’ve been amused to see who is all of the sudden so deeply concerned with sensitive language and hurt feelings.
Cite?
Exactly how is ridiculing the Special Olympics a “strength”, “irrelevant”, or a scare-quoted “flaw”?
Obama on “60 Minutes”:
Thoughtful thinkers…think. And people rhapsodized about his oratorical wonderfulness.
The point is Bush was pilloried for mistakes like that and lots of people were ashamed of him. Obama does it, no problem.