Bush Was Brilliant at his Press Conference on Saddam’s Capture

newschannel5.com ^ | 12/15/2003 5:29:44 PM | NewsChannel5.com

[pettifogger]

President Bush is an inspirational speaker when he is delivering in front of an audience. The only time he seems robotic is when he is speaking to a camera with no audience.

Nail on the head award.

[Destro]

Any speech given by a president using words he did not write is for me a robotic event that means nothing beyond the current message of the week.

There is a reason we have stopped studying speeches after JFK and even then JFK is rembered for his warmth and wit in unscipted settings.

[Revolting cat!]

You're right on target but insight of any kind doesn't go well with the Fan Club crowd. That somebody would cite calculated clever bumpersticker phrases that had been brainstormed by speechwriters as examples of great speechmaking is a little absurd to begin with.

The problem is that we've learned to accept staged events, pre-written speeches, rehearsed playacting, ceremonial brouhaha, and other controlled affairs, as real and as deeply significant, forgetting that what goes behind the scenes, what's unrehearsed is what's revealing and what's important.

[Destro]

That somebody would cite calculated clever bumpersticker phrases that had been brainstormed by speechwriters as examples of great speechmaking is a little absurd to begin with.

That reaction to was a little disturbing I must say. I did not know how to respond to such robotic programming. You expressed my feelings/thoughts better than I did and for that I am grateful.

[Destro]

I agree-not brilliant. What is a good word to sum up "right on target"?

[Dolphy]

There is a reason we have stopped studying speeches after JFK and even then JFK is rembered for his warmth and wit in unscipted settings.

We will have to disagree then. I fully expect a number of President Bush's speeches to be studied in the years to come precisely because they were not about the message of the day, but rather the course of a new century. (The Gorey Island speech that I referred to earlier will not be one of those, but that is unfortunate because it was a beautiful speech.)

Television and the daily recordings of every move and action of a President have led to the devaluation of the Presidential speech. Still, these times combined with the President's bold policy and courage will see his speeches remembered and referred to differently.

[Kath]

I will wait for Bush to say what he is for. For months I have listened to people on this site bash him for supporting blanket amnesty and I never once heard him say he was for it. Today what I did hear from his mouth and not the arm chair presidents on this site is that he is against blanket amnesty.

[Destro]

I am in the field-trust me-no one will study his speeches for the sake of the speech. As part of a review of the administration? Yes. No children will be made to remember any speech, no recitals of same speeches, etc. This is not a reflection on my support of Bush. I did not vote for Bish because his speeches had me swooning. His press confrences (except that horrible scripted one -it hurt to watch-remember that one?)/

[tubebender]

I think Bush has been watching Rumsfield and added a little "Polish". I kept wondering what that Fool Algore would have said...

[Ichneumon]

The man's delivered some of the most brilliant political speeches of the past century-- and that's not just my opinion.

Um, not to quibble, but all his great speeches have been in *this* century, not the past one. ;-)

[IncPen]

Any speech given by a president using words he did not write is for me a robotic event that means nothing beyond the current message of the week.

I have a neighbor, a Dad who's a few years older than me, who I run into at soccer games. He was a spook in Nicaragua in the 80s, training 'our' guys.

This neighbor wrote a speech that Reagan gave before the U.N. (being that he was an expert on the subject).

Reagan rewrote the speech, and made it his own.

My neighbor laughed when he told me, because he wrote it, but Reagan delivered it.

[Jorge]

I am the author of those words and if you think Bush "delivered some of the most brilliant political speeches of the past century" I would like to have what YOU are smoking!

Actually the question is what YOU have been smoking! And where you have been the past 3 years?

Several of Bush's speeches have been widely praised by world leaders and journalists as some of the most brilliant political speeches in our lifetimes.

He has gotten significant bumps in the polls after some of these speaches, they were that good.

[WOSG]

"Another reason why I was so pleased with what Bush said was that he refused to hand over Saddam to an international court the way Clinton did for Milosevic. Not that I like Milosevic, but inventing a court that destroys national sovereignty is allowing a bad precedent. Saddam did his crime to Iraq and in Iraq he should be judge just like Milosevic should be judged in Serbia not at some U.N. kangaroo court. FREE SLOBO!! (and then try him in Serbia)."

I am with you on this. The Serbians should try Slobo for his crimes, the Iraqis should try Saddam for his crimes.

The victims of these criminals and not some internation elite at the hague should be the ones passing judgement.

This is another example of President Bush standing tall for common sense against the globalist Socialist one-worlders. Kyoto, ICC, Iraq, etc. - it adds up to a lot of precedents that are protecting our sovereignty. It's why I DONT agree with the casual talk by those accusing Bush of being a globalist. He is standing up for what is right even when the Kofi Annans of the world are tut-tutting against it.

And as usual - actions speak louder than words.

[Coop]

I respectfully disagree. I think President Bush has become excellent at giving prepared speeches, but his press conferences - especially the unscheduled ones (e.g., to/from Marine One) - do not come across nearly as well.

[dagnabit]

I was at his inaugural. That speech was a real tear jerker.

[OldPossum]

You said Bush is possibly the most inarticulate President in my lifetime, maybe even since the beginning of the 20th Century.

I presume that you were not of age during the Eisenhower years.

[OldPossum]

Oh by the way, I really enjoyed that good-natured jab at David Gregory of NBC at the conclusion of the press conference. No rejoinder possible for that POS, either.

[BenLurkin]

Well, I was around, sort of: