Monday, December 14, 2009

I've heard that song before

Here's Mark Steyn on Obama's speechwriters:

They seem to be the last guys on the planet in love with the sound of his voice and their one interminable tinny tune with its catchpenny hooks. The usual trick is to position their man as the uniquely insightful leader, pitching his tent between two extremes no sane person has ever believed: "There are those who say there is no evil in the world. There are others who argue that pink fluffy bunnies are the spawn of Satan and conspiring to overthrow civilization. Let me be clear: I believe people of goodwill on all sides can find common ground between the absurdly implausible caricatures I attribute to them on a daily basis. We must begin by finding the courage to acknowledge the hard truth that I am living testimony to the power of nuance to triumph over hard truth and come to the end of the sentence on a note of sonorous, polysyllabic if somewhat hollow uplift. Pause for applause."

It didn't come but once at Oslo last week, where Obama got bad press for blowing off the King of Norway's luncheon. In Obama's honor. Can you believe this line made it into the speech?

"I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war."

Well, there's a surprise. When you consider all the White House eyeballs that approve a presidential speech, it's truly remarkable that there's no one to scribble on the first draft: "Scrub this, Fred. It makes POTUS sound like a self-aggrandizing buffoon."
This begs the question: does Obama read his own speeches or did he add that line in himself? (H/T Maggie's Farm)

3 comments:

You fools! Obama's secretly a poor speaker, Chapter CCCLXIII... said...

Mark Steyn wrote approvingly of GWB's public speaking style.

The end.

Eric said...

I didn't even say anything about his crutch, I mean his teleprompter. Geez.

Anonymous said...

Oh, well. At least the bloggers' mournful, unrewarded cries of "Do you hear what I hear?" are holiday-appropriate.