The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Obama's Speech

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I'm working on a longer piece on this so I'll make this post brief. Overall I thought it was a well-delivered speech and I wouldn't be shocked if he receives a slight boost from it -- depending on how many people actually watched it -- but I don't really see this changing the bigger picture. More or less, the same arguments he made tonight he's been making for months. He said that we have to act now, that his plan will help everybody get covered, that it will curb insurance industry absuses, that it won't add to the deficit, that it isn't a government takeover, that his Medicare cuts won't mean reduced benefits, and that he won't increase taxes. The American people have been hearing this for months, and they haven't been buying it, so I don't see why that will change with one speech. The most significant part, I think, came when he talked about the government-run plan. While expressing support for it, it's pretty clear that he was trying to sell the left on the idea that a "trigger" or co-op could be an acceptable substitute, but I don't think that is ultimately going to satisfy the left. Taken altogether, I think that the speech may create a day or two of good feelings, but once we return to hashing out the details and get into the specifics, he'll be faced with all of the same problems that have plagued the effort all along.

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Don Carlson| 9.9.09 @ 10:25PM

All the assertions made by Mr. Obama in support of his effort to alter healthcare in America are untrue, have been demonstrated to be untrue, and his insistence upon them qualifies him as an egregious liar and an avid practitioner of that faithless art. One can only suppose that his purpose is to do what damage he can to America in whatever time he is given the opportunity. If there were ever a Manchurian President, this is he.

Ellis Wyatt| 9.9.09 @ 11:21PM

He created huge expectations calling for a joint session speech over a policy matter which he holds an unpopular view and the result was a failure in my opinion. Nothing new, except someone called him a liar which clearly stunned him. My guess is the much hyped speech did not change any opinions, but it will be a wasted opportunity politically. America is tired of hearing Obama talk and seems to trust him less every time he speaks.

John - TMF| 9.9.09 @ 11:40PM

Congressman Wilson said it all, and said it best live and in person. "You lie!"

Of course Johnny Mac the author of the book "How to Lose Big Elections by Not Really Trying" denounced the good Congressman for telling the plain truth. Gee John doormat is your favorite Holloween costume, isn't it?

We need more Wilsons, and fewer McCains. That's for sure.

ugh..

The Mighty Fahvaag

Nick| 9.9.09 @ 11:44PM

John - TMF,

Ha - Ha!!!

Excellent, sir!

Greta| 9.9.09 @ 11:49PM

the line of the night will be "you lie" even if the speaker of the line apologized for reasons of decorum. I doubt the seaker will say I was wrong in what I said, only where it was said.
Only a total Obama nutcase would conclude anything other than lie based on one line. He said he would not sign a bill that costs us a dime more, that rationing would not occur, that seniors will not lose anything, and that he will save 500-600 billion from medicare in fraud and abuse. This would still leave him a tad short like 400 billion more needed. How many believe this is not a lie?

On the issue of illegals and that they are not included, seems like an easy deal. Put clear language that at not time now or in the future can anyone here illegally now or who enters later be ever permitted to get benefit of healthcare even if congress grants them amnesty which is coming next. He can look at the person and say he is not lying only if he intends to later give them healthcare benefits in the amnesty bill. I seem them becoming legal by presidential act or later bill if not already in this one pushed through. I would bet the courts would not allow them to be excluded if they become legal by any means. I guess it is once again a democrat using the meaning of the word "is" defense on honesty.

Gene| 9.10.09 @ 12:04AM

Sounds like he is back on the same old B.S, trail, he will still loose , count on it.

Daisy| 9.10.09 @ 12:19AM

Palin/Wilson 2012!

skip MacLure | 9.10.09 @ 12:44AM

All he has done is to further insult the intelligence of a few million more Americans. Some one should hang a medal on the congressman who called him a liar for liar he is. It was funny in a sad sort of way...I thought Pelosi's face was going to crack and fall off.

Theresa| 9.10.09 @ 8:14AM

You lied will be what everyone is talking about. Even if that line is taken negatively the President still has to own up to whether or not he is lying. I believe he is only because he has told so many sides of one view that we don't really know where he stands. Of course this is how progressives work, they talk like they are on all sides of one issue when in fact they are on the side that is most unpopular. Case and point - just months before the election was won by Obama he said to his union base that he was for a single payer system. Now he acts like he is for free market values. See he has to say that because america is still middle right no matter how much they (progressives) complain about that idealogy.

martin j smith| 9.10.09 @ 8:19AM

Joe wilson's comment was like human volcano waiting too long to come out. Now we can look at the situation with healthcare with even greater clarity. What Obama wants as Karl Rove said today ( see WSJ ) is the full government control nothing less. There will be con compromises in the end. Yes I believe Obama is and has been a liar and it is a relief that someone of stature has publicly said so.

Grzmlyk| 9.10.09 @ 9:17AM

You know, every conservative pundit - and I mean every one - begins all of his or her critiques of Obama speeches with the obligatory "it was well delivered," or "he certainly is a great speaker," or "I may disagree with the content, but the man can give a great speech."

I guess conservatives think this will inoculate them against the charge of bias and validate their parking at liberal salons. Let's pray our conservative bright lights don't actually believe it. If so, we're in even bigger trouble than I thought.

Whenever I see Obama speak - and I've watched them all since he announced his candidacy - I ask myself, what am I missing? Why aren't I impressed? Everyone around me thinks he is a silver-tongued orator without peer through the annals of human history and I think, well, ok, he can deliever a speech decently. That's it. He's better than Bush, but not a lot better, and he clings to the teleprompter like a man drowning in a churning surf clings to a life preserver.

And speaking ex tempore, Obama is not impressive at all. Again, he's better than Bush, but both are painful, wholly unpersuasive speakers off the cuff. Bush was full of malapropisms. Obama is a neverending parade of stammering "uuuuuuuuhs."

So let me be the first on the planet to say it: Obama is NOT a great speaker. He is about what you'd expect from your average powerpoint presentation delivered by a business person who is comfortable speaking in public. That's IT.

So why do conservatives pay homage to this myth? Similarly, they never fail to pay tribute to the meme that Obama is super-intelligent. It is obvious that Obama is facile, but highly intelligent? I haven't seen the signs. Constitutional scholar? Are you kidding? And, for the record, that's what he taught.

I have seen signs that he is woefully ignorant of history, economics, business administration and all matters relating to governance - and painfully uschooled of human nature, empathy and the power of self-deprecating humor.

In addition, isn't everyone already tired of the unvarying structure of every Obama speech? My god, each one is the same guided tour through the pedantic, dogmatic, vindictive, immature, unimaginative mind of David Axelrod.

He always has Obama pose as the non-partisan Omniscient One who has the supreme objectivity to stand above the fray. Then The Great One proceeds to deliver the most partisan, mean-spirited lie after lie after lie. Has he even read the legislation? Does he know what's in the bill? You'll be able to keep your insurance company? Wanna bet?

He copies Reagan's tactic (which has, in fact, been copied by every president since the Gipper) of "humanizing" his points by offering personal anecdotes: One guy from Illionois lost his coverage because he hadn't reported gallstones and the insurance comany allowed his cancer to kill him. Another woman from Texas was about about to get a mastectomy (which Obama mispronounced, by the way), but because she didn't declare her acne, her insurance was cancelled and by the time it was reinstated, the cancer doubled in size. So I guess these two incidents - whether true or apocryphal - means we must all become serfs to the state, right?

Then Obama launches into his highly-suspect statistics - every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage, "we spend one and a half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier."

Says who?

Then the outlandish: "Our health care system is placing an unsustainable burden on taxpayers." Okaaay, but insuring an extra 50 million, including pre-existing conditions for everyone, allowing state monopolies to continue to flourish and maintaining the outrageous cost of practicing defensive medicine by doing nothing about tort reform would bring the costs down, right?

Then he ALWAYS says, "nobody disputes these facts."

Really? I do. Every damn one of them.

There's always a section of every speech populated exclusively by straw men where Obama does a riff on "some say that it's ok for so many Americans to live in misery" (nudge, nudge, and WE WHO CARE know who YOU ARE) which is about as honest as "sir, when did you stop beating your wife?"

Then he accuses the right of using scare tactics. The right? This from the man who must do everything under the chaotic cover of imminent disaster? This from the man for whom hyperbole, panic and looming catastrophe are the legs that hold up the stool of every policy he enacts?

Then of course the feint to bipartisanship: "The time for bickering is over. The time for games has past. . . . Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together."

Really, Barack? Then why have you shut Republicans out of the negotiations altogether? Why have you JUST flogged Republicans, conseratives, doctors, insurance companies and average Americans while leaving odious lawyers unscathed in your scorched-earth, Sherman's-march-to-the-sea-style full court press toward enslaving America?

Then the obligatory veiled threat: If you say bad things about this health care monstrosity, "we will call you out." Wow. I guess Cass Sunstein is right: Free speech isn't so good for The State. Better cast it asunder.

I wonder if they've erected a guillotine on the Capitol Hill grounds yet. Hey, don't knock it: It's created some jobs!

This is not meant to be a point-by-point refutation of Obama's speech. That would require volumes - it is merely meant to show how monolithically mendacious, insincere, self-serving and riddled with veiled thuggishness every one of Obama's speeches is at the core.

So what do we have? A mediocre speaker who delivers boiler plate propaganda that varies little from speech to speech and would fit in well with Hitler's and Mussolini's speeches - for both of those tyrants were highly praised for their demagogic public speaking ability as well.

Meanwhile, the substance is essentially rhetorical cotton candy: the cold water of even the slightest scrutiny instantly dissolves the content into nothingness. No doubt he and his handlers subscribe to that great belief that if you deliver a lie that's big enough, often enough, people will eventually believe it.

I wonder where I've heard that before?

And still conservative pundits always begin their critiquies by kissing this ass's ass.

I fail to understand how that serves us in pulling back the curtain on this would-be banana republic dictator. Particularly because it ISN'T TRUE. He is NOT A GREAT SPEAKER.

When are we going to realize we're in the fight of our lives here?

Amor de Cosmos| 9.10.09 @ 10:15AM

I agree with Grzmlyk. Obama is a so-so speaker but he is not spellbinding. As an extemporaneous speaker he is absolutely horrible and unconvincing. I say this as one who speaks for a living.

Moreover, this speech, like almost every speech Obama gives is junk food. It was tasty at the time of consumption but full of empty calories. One is left hungry after digestion and forgets anything whatsoever about the filler content.

The part about "bickering" and "games" is pure Obama BS. Our Narcissist in Chief has ALWAYS taken the position that whatever his conclusions are on a subject, they are the perfect synthesis of reasonableness. There is no need for debate or division, he's got it figured out.Fall in line, the Great Obama has spoken.

Well, sorry, you aren't dictator and you aren't particularly reasonable or well educated Mr. President. What you are is a dumb luck incompetent executive whose every piety and dogma is being mugged by reality.

Amor de Cosmos| 9.10.09 @ 10:15AM

I agree with Grzmlyk. Obama is a so-so speaker but he is not spellbinding. As an extemporaneous speaker he is absolutely horrible and unconvincing. I say this as one who speaks for a living.

Amor de Cosmos| 9.10.09 @ 10:15AM

I agree with Grzmlyk. Obama is a so-so speaker but he is not spellbinding. As an extemporaneous speaker he is absolutely horrible and unconvincing. I say this as one who speaks for a living.

Pete| 9.10.09 @ 10:29AM

How can you even watch him any more? It turns my stomach to hear the disdain in his voice and see his arrogant expression. I seriously cannot take it, and why would I want to? Am I likely to learn something by watching? Of course not, I will just end up getting lied to straight to my face. Combine that with the nausea from the visual and no thank you.

As for speaking prowess, I have to agree with the above - I have seen similar delivery in conference rooms for years. And I'get called racist for saying so, but I think part of the allure comes from the pleasant surprise that he speaks english (at least in public forums) - In much the same way you take note when an NFL or NBA player is interviewed and is particularly articulate. I remain unimpressed.

Yosemeti Sam| 9.10.09 @ 11:38AM

Greek to me theatre - sans the columns.

Waxed - old!

afadsf| 12.7.09 @ 11:48AM

Case and point - just months before the election was won by Obama he said to his union base that he was for a single payer system. Now he acts like he is for free market values.

http://spectator.org/blog/2009.....ent_175086

asddf| 12.7.09 @ 11:49AM

Case and point - just months before the election was won by Obama he said to his union base that he was for a single payer system. Now he acts like he is for free market values.

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