Last night Obama was on 60 minutes, he was very candidabout some aspects of his former life that he is going to miss, such as: Taking a walk whenever he liked, or being private - he commented how he now has lost his anonymity. But as a man who is taking over the highest position in the land and arguably is the most powerful position on the planet, he is taking his new transition quite well.
I like how he talks to us like we are adults, and not with some watered down 8th grade mumblings. I like how he is straight about how things are going to work, how he tells it like it is. Some of the things he is proposing are not going to be full of fluffy feathers and soft cotton, but are going to sting a little. His straight talking is one of his defining charactoristics in my opinion.
Out of all of this, are we better off because we have a president who is willing to talk with us? Do you feel it is a good thing to relate to the president on a personal level? I look at Obama and I see a man with a beautiful wife, two kids and family values. The public displays of affection for his wife are something people talk about all the time, and it really shows his more human side.
What do you think? Do you relate to Obama? If so, how? Is relating to a president something you see as important, helpful, unimportant, detrimental?
We have to wait and see. He still has to follow through.
Bush was a joke. He was an embarrassment when he talked in public without a script. His attitude was always snotty and condescending. We all want our president to talk openly and to the press as often as possible. But when Bush did you would cringe in anticipation ,thinking about what stumbles were likely to come.
It’ll be a nice change. When Bush talks it’s not to communicate, but rather to try to set the narrative or shape the discourse in some way. That’s why he’s 100 percent full of shit all of the time he speaks in public. It’s seriously getting ridiculous. I remember him talking about how “things aren’t that bad” at any stage of the Presidency and all you could do is shake your head and sigh.
Jon Stewart frequently mentions the pleasure of actually listening to Obama and actually feeling you share the same language. His views seem to accurately reflect the same reality we preceive.
I wonder is Repubs/conservatives dislike hearing Obama as much as I hated to hear W. I’m sure some of the sympathy you and I feel for Obama’s words comes from the fact that we share many of his values and policies.
I recall being baffled as to why Reagan was considered “the great communicator.” I always thought he came off as a genial old boob playing a role. I wonder how much I would have felt differently had I agreed with his policies?
In my mind, it is of considerable value to have a president who impresses me as intelligent, and who seems to speak to the public as tho they are capable of understanding complex and often nuanced ideas. Of course, one of my best friends’ biggest criticism of Obama was that he was nothing but a smooth orator. Just a lot of empty words. I did not see that as valid, but I’m sure my friend was not alone.
While I voted for him and expect that he’s going to do a good job, can we wait until he’s actually doing the job to praise him for it? So far, it’s nothing but talk, and even if (as I expect) he does follow through on the talk come January, that still doesn’t make the talk itself praiseworthy.
FDR was the first president to harness the fairly new technology of radio to communicate with the American public. (As new then as the web is today.) Obama is going to use the web. He’s going to put his talks on YouTube, and use his big email list to communicate directly with people - and, I assume, add people who didn’t give him money. The Times said he’ll probably be the first president to have a laptop on his desk. And about time.
Sure it will take some time to move the people who worked for him into working for the entire country, but it is great that they’re not just dropping them. (And I’m aware that 2012 has something to do with it.) Perhaps experience as a community organizer is better preparation for the presidency than being a fighter pilot. It’s still early, but everything I’ve seen so far gives me even greater confidence in him.
That’s a very real problem. I know for a fact that local Democrats clubs haven’t been the best at attracting new members. There was possibly a little resentment because the Obama campaign got such a huge movement up from the same base of people they had been living with. Some of the people knew of the Dems clubs and didn’t necessarily want to associate with them. On a local level, the campaign caused some problems. Campaigns were run through the clubs or through a coordinated campaign. This was a big point of contention locally: how is this campaign going to be run v. how it has always gone.
Now that the campaign is over, we have to make sure that everyone is on board. Some came on grudgingly, because Obama was better than the alternative, Obama wasn’t their first choice, etc.
We all know that the Democratic Party is full of a bunch of very diverse people and interests. They have to be united under a common flag, or at least be able to take up that flag when needed.
Uh, no, Bush is President for two more months, and Obama, having never been President before, might really suck at it.
Obviously, it doesn’t look that way to most of us (including myself) but referring to wonderful things President Obama has done in the past tense is kinda creepy and very unproductive.