Have Something Interesting to Say -- This may sound extraordinarily basic, but it's a principle violated by most professional politicians on a regular basis. Part of the torpor of modern presidential speeches is that they mostly sound as if they're run off an assembly line. The same points are made in the same language, ad nauseam. And because the process of crafting a presidential speech combines the natural risk aversion of a White House communications operation with vetting by the bureaucracy, the language often ends up about as inspired as a workplace training video.
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Sunday, January 02, 2011
Link of the Day
Troy Senik, writing at Ricochet, has a great post on presidential speeches. Here's a tidbit from something worth reading in full.
One of the commenters said that Obama's campaign speeches were "all sizzle and no steak". I can't help but think that describes Obama himself. Obama is a caricature, a facade, instead of a man. I'm not sure how a person comes to this fate. He's certainly faced some hardships in his life, but they've given him no depth of character or personality.
ReplyDeleteIvyan, I'm not sure there's even any sizzle there. I turn the guy off as soon as he comes on, not because he's a nut, but because he's boring.
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