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Obama Has Lost His Speaking Mojo
USNews.com ^ | May 7, 2012 | Kira Zalan

Posted on 05/09/2012 6:34:51 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement

Barack Obama's oratory skills may have helped him win the White House in 2008, but his speaking prowess could be a liability in this year's presidential election, says Sam Leith, author of Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric From Aristotle to Obama. Rhetoric is central to democracy, says Leith. "You win elections by talking to people, by trying to persuade them, not only on what you're going to do, but that you're trustworthy." And, he says, Obama talked his way into the Oval Office with "amazing speeches" that invoked Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., and he even beat out the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. "He just spoke better than everybody else," says the former literary editor of the Daily Telegraph.[See a collection of political cartoons on Mitt Romney.]

(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: mojo; obama; obamatruthfile; speaking; uuuuuhh
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To: ConservativeStatement
"But he's cool. You know he's black, right?"

You have captured the "mystery force" that was probably worth 10 million votes to Obama in 2008.

For the most part, those particular votes won't be there in 2012.

61 posted on 05/09/2012 8:09:15 AM PDT by okie01
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To: kosciusko51
I can't stand listening to the man. He speaks way too slow, with way too many affectations, that is like someone is drilling into my head right through my ear canal.

Not only that, but he's always talking down to his audience, like he's the great Swami or something.

In the same vein, I've never understood the argument that he's likeable. He's the most unlikeable POS I've ever seen in high office.

62 posted on 05/09/2012 8:09:51 AM PDT by Marathoner (At least Ann Romney won't tell us what to eat.)
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To: ConservativeStatement
Photobucket
63 posted on 05/09/2012 8:10:04 AM PDT by baddog 219
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To: ConservativeStatement

I think that it might have Rush who said that he never heard anyone talk so much and not actually say anything.


64 posted on 05/09/2012 8:10:43 AM PDT by Malone LaVeigh
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To: thethirddegree

I used to teach public speaking skills to business executives and I would interrupt them, asking them to explain what they were talking about. Many of them were just reading what was in front of them without any understanding. That is the case with Zero. He is a parrot, nothing more. He has no comprehension of his words.


65 posted on 05/09/2012 8:11:16 AM PDT by Wordkraft (Remember who the Collaborators are.)
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To: ConservativeStatement

His speaking skills were always overrated. When he was running his speeches consisted mostly of inflated promises to a long list of special interest groups. I was not in any of the groups, so I was never particularly impressed. Maybe if he had promised a Federal government program to clean our my garage and wash my car he would have had my vote.

The problem he has now is that he stiffed his constituency on the silly promises he made during his last campaign so even the leftist do not believe him this time.


66 posted on 05/09/2012 8:13:00 AM PDT by Busywhiskers ("Once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy" -Dan Gable)
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To: ConservativeStatement

Obama’s media witch spell of the last election has been broken.


67 posted on 05/09/2012 8:13:07 AM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: ConservativeStatement
If speaking ability is so darn important to people, then we should have elected James Earl Jones as our president.

I never did see what all the fuss was all about regarding Obama's speaking ability. Maybe it was the Greek Styrofoam columns and the fainting women planted in the audience that drove the myth.

68 posted on 05/09/2012 8:25:56 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 1 day away from outliving Phil Hartman)
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To: baddog 219; ConservativeStatement



69 posted on 05/09/2012 8:26:38 AM PDT by Lady Jag (If you can't make them see the light, let them feel the heat. - Reagan)
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To: InterceptPoint

That great voice has way too many ssssses on the esses. Terrible speaking voice because he is not speaking to me or anyone else here on FR.
I guess he sounds great to the people he is speaking to.


70 posted on 05/09/2012 8:29:46 AM PDT by certrtwngnut (It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes. (Josef Stalin))
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To: basil

Even with a MAC You should be able to get Google Chrome. Try It I don’t have any trouble. I did with Microsoft IE.


71 posted on 05/09/2012 8:31:30 AM PDT by DeaconRed (My vote in Nov will be dictated by my extreme hatred for ZERO and what he is doing to our country.)
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To: ConservativeStatement

I guess his Teleprompter has gotten discouraged. Maybe it found out that it will have to pay out the a$$ for Obamacare.


72 posted on 05/09/2012 8:31:59 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: ConservativeStatement
Obama was never a great speaker, we have all agreed on that. However, he was good at appealing to the dumbed-down Americans; people who never really heard or understood a great speech and people who reacted to trite, repetitious expressions. And, of course, those who were used to the Jesse jackson/al sharpton/rev. wright type speeches where comfortable with Obama’s “from the pulpit” style. Obama patterned his speaking style after those types of speeches that are based on emotion more than substance. In order to mesmerize the masses who had no real understanding of the issues, Obama knew he had to promise them anything, entertain them and make them laugh. He was good at being the court jester, and people who thought he was more ended up being the fools.
73 posted on 05/09/2012 8:32:23 AM PDT by CitizenM (Obama studied our Constution because he hates it, not because he loves our country or laws.)
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To: DeaconRed

Okay.


74 posted on 05/09/2012 8:34:51 AM PDT by basil (It's time to rid the country of "gun free zones" aka "Killing Fields")
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To: ConservativeStatement

pssssstttttt!!!! He never had it, he could just read off a teleprompter.


75 posted on 05/09/2012 8:59:07 AM PDT by erod (This Chicagoan will crawl over broken glass to vote the fake Chicagoan Obama out!)
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To: ConservativeStatement

pssssstttttt!!!! He never had it, he could just read off a teleprompter.


76 posted on 05/09/2012 8:59:18 AM PDT by erod (This Chicagoan will crawl over broken glass to vote the fake Chicagoan Obama out!)
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To: ConservativeStatement

I cannot imagine Abraham Lincoln ever uttering words like “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” or having the nerve to stand with Greek columns to make himself look like some kind of god.

Michelle thinks he is America’s savior but Obama and Michelles opinion of Obama is vastly different than mine


77 posted on 05/09/2012 9:09:45 AM PDT by Babashane
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
He has SOMETHING. The first time I heard him speak, he was debating Alan Keyes, and he WON the debate by reciting platitudes, but in a confident, authoritative, and hypnotic way.

You're right.
It seems his air of confidence arises from his ability not to listen to what an opponent says, but simply identify the theme and regurgitate stock replies.

Two things are lacking in his current appearances:
He doesn't take the time to prepare-- I've always wondered about his disappearances prior to major addresses, sometimes for several days, then emerging on some podium somewhere to deliver what MSNBC would hail as one of the greatest speeches of all time.

The second thing: his writers are mediocre, compared to the one he had in '08, and Rahm Emanual is no longer with him. Rahm is a scumbag, but he's shrewd-- perhaps the real power behind him in '08.

78 posted on 05/09/2012 9:40:12 AM PDT by tsomer
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To: ConservativeStatement
“Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric From Aristotle to Obama.”

Sounds like a good book to read next.

The headline of this thread makes me smile.

Just sayin’....

79 posted on 05/09/2012 9:56:36 AM PDT by hummingbird (I am Breitbart.)
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To: tsomer

I didn’t think of Emanuel. He lost Axelrod, too.

But what impressed me the most about his debate performance was that it required a sustained effort to listen to what he was actually saying, versus thinking, “he sounds like he knows what he’s talking about... What did he just say?”

He never stumbled, and the blather flowed effortlessly.

He seems to slip whenever he answers direct questions, rather than when he speaks extemporaneously. He covers this weakness by filibustering.


80 posted on 05/09/2012 9:57:08 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas (Viva Christo Rey!)
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