Following on the false flag controversy, Dean Barnett barfs up round two of the anti-Obama pushback from the fringe right.
Shorter Dean Barnett– Obama can’t speak without a teleprompter.
Really- that is all Dean said, although it took him a couple thousand words to say it. I think we can officially call Obama the frontrunner now.
BTW- Has Dean ever heard President Bush speak? With or without a teleprompter?
*** Update ***
Lately, “the person formerly known as the Commissar” and I are forming some sort of bizarre pro-Obama vulcan mind-meld. At any rate, what he said.
*** Update ***
And Jake Tapper proves that he can swallow any choad from the right-wing just as well as Howard Kurtz:
Barnett writes for a conservative magazine, but he is an admirer of Obama’s oratorical gifts.
And the observation – which I have not seen anywhere else – gets at what could be a real vulnerability for Obama. Take it from a TV reporter, speaking with a Teleprompter and speaking without one are not remotely the same thing.
Sure, it could be a vulnerability- IF IT WERE FUCKING TRUE. And even then, it probably wouldn’t be. I repeat, have any of you seen Bush speak?
It is just amazing watching the right-wing spin machine at work now that I am no longer part of the problem. In fact, I expect Barnett’s piece to be Insta-linked, repeated by Malkin, regurgitated at the National Review, and on Brit Hume tonight and in the Washington Post with Howie tomorrow.
And again, it does not matter if it is complete bullshit (watch the video at the Politburo)- it is about flinging shit at the wall and hoping it sticks. And no one is better at it than the right-wing bullshit artists, the folks who were pretending the role of the blogs was to “fact-check” the media.
Bunch of hacks and bullshit artists.
*** Update ***
By popular demand.
*** yet another Update ***
And Instapundit gives Barnett a “Heh, indeedy.” Anyone want to bet Kurtz will pick this up?
4tehlulz
I’ll basically restate what I said in another thread. That’s it? Fucking fail. It’s like the right isn’t even trying anymore.
GSD
Funny stuff. I have seen Obama twice, in NH, and each time his entire speech was teleprompter free and really quite effective.
Has Barnett turned his incisive eye on the public speaking abilities of Dear Leader George W. Bush?
-GSD
GSD
Barnett also seems shocked that Sen. Obama would deliver a red-meat speech to the base of the party.
Shocking I say.
-GSD
Jen
I dunno guys, we’ve got Chegate and Telepromptergate, I say we pack it in.
TheFountainHead
Does Bush even know how to use a teleprompter?
norbizness
Bush is now demanding that all future speeches be delivered with the aid of Peter Frampton’s vocoder, and blames his shit-poor popularity on a lack of reverb.
Paul L.
I wonder when Obama will start having friendly reporters dig through John McCann’s divorce records.
He must have not been “tired”.
mark
Damn. More coffee on the screen.
mark
Why is my last line always crammed against the permalink? I’ve tried a couple of extra linefeeds. Suggestions?
Ninerdave
Actually if you watched his speech the other night after his WA win, you notice that the last quarter of it was all riffing.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
Are you fucking kidding me?
Obama @ Iowa Jefferson-Jackson
Show me the teleprompter.
I love hating morons.
Zifnab
Paul L, shouldn’t you be on the case of the Free Medicine Bandit of Sungai Petani, Malaysia?
Just like you stoopid liberals to resort to thievery when you can’t get your government-cheese sponsored free medicine. Why are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporting this man? Yeah, you liberals still don’t have an answer do you? Go back to Cuba!
/Paul L.
Joseph
Mr. Barnett says this of Obama’s Dick Cheney comments: “None of this was in the prepared text. And all of it was a marked departure from the kind of successful campaign that Obama has run. One can imagine Obama, if he thought things through more fully, using the revelation regarding Cheney as an occasion to note something vapidly uplifting like how in America, we’re all part of the same family.”
The thing is, the Dick Cheney comments are word for word a regular part of Obama’s stump speech. So Obama has thought them through and the comments are not in any way a “marked departure” from his campaign. And could you imagine if Obama took Barnett’s suggestion and used the example to show how we are “part of the same family”? I think half the audience would gag.
And as for being unable to speak without a teleprompter, Mr. Barnett should watch the recent Politico interview. It’s pretty clear Obama can speak eloquently without a teleprompter.
Zifnab
Ahhh! Angry Black Man Alert! Angry Black Man Alert! Jesse Jackson! Al Sharpton! Shrill! Shrill! BDS! Teleprompter! 9/11!
Cognitive dissonance, thy party affiliation is Republican.
neil
You know who never needed to use a teleprompter? St. Ronnie of Reagan.
lutton
Gentlemen, start your BS engines…
And the Al Gore treatment is underway!
Dennis - SGMM
Take it from a skeptic, repeating something that someone pulled out of their ass is not reporting.
Billy K
Once more, with feeling… “attack your enemy’s greatest strength.”
Clearly the GOP is afraid Obama will talk his way into the Presidency.
Attaturk
Does nobody remember McCain’s pathetic post-New Hampshire speech without a teleprompter?
“Noun, Verb, MY FRIENDS” repeat 500 times
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
HAHAHAHAHA
Tapper just torpedoed his own credibility. First, he repeats something, without opposition, from Dean Barnett and the Weekly Standard, of all places.
And the scoop? The best orator we’ve had in a couple decades isn’t a good orator!! HAHAHAHAHA
If I weren’t at work I’d be literally ROFL.
OMFG what a jackass.
Tom Maguire
Funny stuff. I have seen Obama twice, in NH, and each time his entire speech was teleprompter free and really quite effective.
Only saw him once, in NH, but ditto.
Dennis - SGMM
You mean, Obama invented the Internet?
The Grand Panjandrum
And he’s gonna raise your taxes! Take your guns away!
After his cherry picking the Bill Clinton video it is difficult to know just how fucking stupid this guy is. How the hell do someone like Tapper get a job at a major network? Shouldn’t he be limited to selling George Foreman grills and Ron Popeil’s latest gizmo?
Davebo
Look, comparisons to Bush speeches are really off the mark here.
Each candidate has his own advantages and disadvantages. In the case of Obama his oratory skills are clearly a major advantage.
But this was never the case for Bush. He could never speak well and it was obvious from day one.
So you’d have to look at an actual percieved advantage Bush held in 2000 to draw a comparison.
Unfortunately, I can’t recall a single one so perhaps it’s right after all….
Billy K
Tht’s pretty much what he’s doing, isn’t it?
Billy K
Not true. Haven’t you seen that video comparison between present-day Bush (this was a few years ago) and early Governor Bush? It was remarkable. Everyone assumed it was the booze, but I swear it made me think he’d had a stroke.
p.lukasiak
someone explain to me how stupid you have to be to completely ignore the 18 debates that Obama participated in without embarrassing himself…
I mean, he isn’t as good without the teleprompter, but that doesn’t mean he’s bad without it.
OxyCon
After today, Obama should be the front runner. I fully expect the media will finally take him on and give him the treatment.
As someone who has grown to dislike Obama the more I see his tired “Messiah” act, I think it’s about past time the media has a go at him. He’s had a free ride for far too long.
It’s a long way down from that lofty perch Obama has placed himself on.
Jorge
Oh Senator, I speak jive
Tsulagi
Could be he hasn’t seen the observation elsewhere because it’s so retarded.
This brilliant observation is funny. This is the best they got? Bush in his wildest wet dreams in an alternate universe couldn’t speak as well as Obama did in the clip prompting their revelation. And McCain would likely give up some parts to do that “poorly” too with a teleprompter directly in front of his face.
These guys are always good for the comedy.
p.a.
Hi John,
I have kind of a meta-question that maybe you, as an ex-R could shed some light on. I’ve always been a Dem-leaning independent, but living in Rhode Island I’ve had no problem voting for ‘RHINO’s’ like John and Linc Chafee. What does it say about a nation where 25% to 30% of the voting public can still support what you aptly term a ‘Republican Crime Syndicate’ and its obviously incompetent leader? I’m not asking why the support is there; fear, racism, authoritarian personality, whatever. What does it say about America that such a substantial minority is apparently so divorced from reality? My glib answer used to be that the rise in today’s so-called conservatism parallels the decline in public education. But there’s been nothing glib or funny about the last 7 years.
TheFountainHead
Yeah, Jesus wasn’t black!!
Dug Jay
I think Dean was commenting on a bit more than Obams’s lack of extemporaneous speaking skills. Hell, that weakness is nothing new; numerous others across the political spectrum have previously noted that Obama’s adlibbed oratory is seldom better than pedestrian, and usually is not up to the level of a typically intelligent Democrat.
Cole’s summary of Obama and the others of his ilk is probably about right:
Zifnab
Something about “Being around him makes you want to drink” was the criteria used, I believe.
ThymeZone
Sorry, but time once again to visit with Harlan McCraney, the Presidential Speechalist.
Enjoy.
TheFountainHead
That’s ‘ole school Troll right there, y’all!
Chris Huston
The accusation isn’t even true. I saw Obama speak in Austin. If there were teleprompters, they were well hidden. He spoke as well as he always does.
Punchy
Shorter Barnett: sprechen sie dooche?
Chinese
discussing Bush ?
myiq2xu
Not yet it isn’t. They are just warming up the slime machine.
They aren’t gonna go after him until he’s the nominee. If they give him the full treatment now, they’ll have to face Hillary in the GE.
They don’t want that.
But don’t believe me, keep telling yourselves “See, they can’t hurt him! The Magic Unity Pony is coated in Teflon!”
When they really go after Obama, it will be putrid, and they will be playing for keeps. If they can’t beat him, they want to render him ineffective as President.
Like they did to that Clinton guy.
NonyNony
And Jake Tapper proves that he can swallow any choad from the right-wing…
This is under the assumption that Tapper is “swallowing” and not “producing” said choad. Slowly Tapper is showing himself to be not a deluded idiot but an active participant in the whole mess. (Though the line between “deluded idiot” and “active participant” in the noise machine can be somewhat narrow, Tapper’s name is showing up a bit too frequently for my tastes).
Zifnab
Ok, first off you have to consider that the well has been poisoned on the side of the Dems for a decade now. Take your average FOX News/Rush Limbaugh adherent. We’ve got a person who was informed of Dem corruption in the 80s and slowly dragged into a net of exaggeration leading to propaganda leading to outright fabrications. This person has been told not to trust the local, state, or national press. He/She has been feed distortions or lies for a quarter of his life or more. Basically, you are dealing with an individual who has been totally brainwashed. Now, admittedly, this “core” base does not make up the majority of America. It probably doesn’t even make up the majority of the 25-30%, but it is the core of the problem.
Then you’ve got the “Democrats are worse” crowd, who watches Reid and Pelosi bend over backwards to take it up the ass from Dear Leader. These guys haven’t earned anyone’s respect and they haven’t given anyone much to vote for. At least when the Republicans were lying, cheating, and stealing their way through government, they were your team. It’s like watching the Patriots win at football. Sure, they cheated. But you won! Horray!
Then you’ve got the subset of America that hasn’t suffered and/or has benefited from the Bush years in office. Even the Subprime mess only extends so far. If you’ve dodged the booby traps laid out by all the asshole swindlers out there, and you’re still standing on top of a giant pile of money, Republicans have served you very well. If you exist in the Republican Crony Network and received the trickle-down benefits of backscratching the local party bigwigs (and the Republican schemes have done very well in seeing the 50% + 1 necessary people paid off) then you’ve done VERY well over the last 7 years. Why vote against your own self-interests?
Then you’ve got the people who don’t follow politics at all or only care about a single issue and just know they need to show up and hit the “R” button, like a good little lemming. The “Right to Life” crowd is the classic example of people who put fetuses before literally everything else. They are reliable zealots, and there’s nothing you can do to sway them.
I think the 25-30% number tells you that, in this great state of America there exists some people who are deluded, some people who are naive or cynical, some people who are greedy, and some people who just don’t care. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dems had a similar core of support that would never erode no matter how bad they acted.
Davebo
So their plan is to let Obama win the presidency and then pray he screws up his first 18 months so badly that they are swept into the majority in the House and Senate in the following mid terms?
Look, I’m not saying there isn’t an historical analogy that can be made here, but what happens if Obama doesn’t totally screwup his first 18 months?
NonyNony
myiq2xu –
I’m not so sure that they care whether it’s Clinton or Obama in the general – if they really wanted it to be Clinton they’d be gearing up the slime machine full-force to go after Obama. Right now they’re mostly “keeping their powder dry” and taking pot-shots at whoever presents the most convenient target.
This is 100% true. They will go all-out to do what they can to prevent him from having anything that smells remotely like a “mandate” for anything. They will go all-out to depress the idealistic new voters who are turning out for Obama in the general. And his hardcore supporters aren’t helping by putting him up on a pedestal – the higher that pedestal gets, the less the slime machine will have to do to turn him into “just another politician” – which, if they’re successful enough, would be death to his campaign come November.
But they don’t need death – they just need to keep his victory at roughly 50% of the popular vote and a close tally in electoral votes. If he gets more than a 5% margin in the popular vote he can say he has a mandate (for what, I don’t know, but he’ll have some kind of mandate) – less than that they can spin that mandate into air. So even if they don’t think they can beat him, expect it to be UGLY anyway because, well, what choice do they have?
TheFountainHead
Yeah. Cause Hillary isn’t playing for keeps.
Z
OMGZ!!! If the tarrists gets the teleprompter, then they controlz Hussain Obama! They winz! Brings back Mittens!!!
Billy K
Oh yes they do. And your claims to the contrary can’t change that.
carol h
Just, Obama fans, just get ready. How many times have we heard that the republican slime machine can’t work against Obama because of all his wonderful reach-out-to-republicans unity building speaches? It can and it might, and he better be ready. What in the world does that fact that Bush is a lousy speaker have to do with Obama? This isn’t a comparison, this is political war. How did they turn a decorated war veteran like Kerry into a lying combat avoiding coward? How did they turn Gore into a lying snob? When it is unleashed we will see how tough Obama is. I’m voted for Clinton because I know how tough she is and hope he can match it, because if he can’t we’d better get used to President McCain.
myiq2xu
Pictures? I’ve never seen that position before.
carol h
Another thing….those who think that Clinton is making too big a deal out of David Shuster calling her daughter a whore and her a pimp should ask themselves who would be president today if Gore and Kerry had responded differently to the media attacks on them. She’s been there and will fight back. Will Obama?
dslak
Exactly. Remember that time he caved to Fox News, even after they slandered him?
Davebo
If Senator Clinton wants to show us all how tough she is and how she will fight back against the inevitable GOP slimes then perhaps she should update her recent campaign strategy a bit.
I really don’t think publicly shedding tears is going to give her that fighting look.
NonyNony
Notice how Clinton backed off of Obama when people started whining that she was “going too far” and “playing too rough”? She did it because she knew she was going to lose Democratic voters if she didn’t back off. She has to play a balancing act because she wants to get those votes that Obama is getting now if she’s the one who gets the nomination in November. If she plays too dirty with Obama, it depresses those voters, they stay home outraged, and she loses. So, yes, Clinton is “playing for keeps” but the rules of the game she’s playing for keeps are different than the rules for the general election will be.
The slime machine won’t back off. Even if McCain himself decided they’d gone too far, it won’t stop them because they don’t answer to a candidate. They will do what they can to make Obama (or any Democrat) lose the election, or, failing that, be as powerless as possible once they hit the White House. Because that’s what they do and that’s how the rules of THAT game are played.
myiq2xu
First of all, Clinton had a lot of help from the GOP and the VRWC “screwing up” his first 18 months. His inexperience didn’t help.
Secondly, I’m saying that’s their plan, not that it will work.
The GOP does not plan on allowing any Democrat in the White House to be successful, even if the country suffers.
TheFountainHead
Yes, Hillary’s a fighter, we get it. But what her supporters fail to see/point out is that she’s fighting them on their ground, and by their rules, in their little game that they think is “politics”. Obama doesn’t fight them because what would be the point? They love it when Hillary engages them, because it legitimizes everything they say about her, even the most ridiculous of shit. Obama’s response to them has always been, “Okay, you kids run along and have fun while we deal with the mess you made.” He makes them look childish, which they are.
I’ll take eight years of laughing at their impotence versus eight years of bloody battle against them.
It all keeps reminding me of that Dr. Seuss poem abot two Battle Beetles in a Bottle.
Very well, then
Mr. Knox, sir.
Let’s have a little talk
about tweetle beetles….
What do you know
about tweetle beetles?
well…
When tweetle beetles fight,
it’s called
a tweetle beetle battle.
And when they
battle in a puddle,
it’s a tweetle
beetle puddle battle.
AND when tweetle beetles
battle with paddles in a puddle,
they call it a tweetle
beetle puddle paddle battle.
AND…
When beetles battle beetles
in a puddle paddle battle
and the beetle battle puddle
is a puddle in a bottle…
…they call this
a tweetle beetle
bottle puddle
paddle battle muddle.
AND…
When beetles
fight these battles
in a bottle
with their paddles
and the bottle’s
on a poodle
and the poodle’s
eating noodles…
…they call this
a muddle puddle
tweetle poodle
beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.
AND…
Now wait
a minute
Mr. Socks Fox!
When a fox is
in the bottle where
the tweetle beetls battle
with their paddles
in a puddle on a
noodle-eating poodle.
THIS is what they call…
…a tweetle beetle
noodle poodle bottles
paddled muddled duddled
fuddled wuddled
fox in socks, sir!
Fox in socks,
our game us done, sir.
Thank you for
a lot of fun, sir.
chopper
no no, you don’t get it. the moment obama takes the nom he’ll immediately wither under all the hardcore RW attacks because he isn’t hillary. whereas being first lady for 8 years really prepared her for the attack making her bulletproof. despite the fact that 40% of the country hates her and wouldn’t vote for her if she were on fire.
cleek
none
MNPundit
I’m game for this. Let’s have a big ol’speech off. McCain without a teleprompter, Obama without a teleprompter on National TV.
That should be fun.
Jen
Well, I for one haven’t said it wouldn’t necessarily work, just that they’re going to have to be tread carefully. The entire electorate isn’t Free Republic, nor are they going to be turned off by him because of CheGate or TelePrompTerGate.
My philosophy for this year is going to be to not take things for granted. Don’t take for granted that the Dems are going to sweep the election just because it makes perfect sense for them to do so. But I’m not going to buy into this guerrilla warfare, trench-fighting, same-ol-same-ol that ekes out a victory for someone, who will then claim they have a mandate and set out to burn some bridges. Maybe it will backfire and disillusion me, but you can’t bet if you don’t sit down at the table. I feel good about aiming higher this year.
myiq2xu
Really?
What do you call that?
crw
From what I’ve seen, Obama is more likely to turn attacks on him into a jokes or use them in his stump speeches as reasons to vote for him than to engage in a full frontal assault. His natural mode seems to be more jujitsu than kickboxing. He’ll address things directly when he absolutely must (like the Muslim smears), but that does not appear to be his preferred method of dealing with them. Only time will tell whether or not his style is effective. But I don’t think he’ll pull a Kerry and stay completely mum until it’s too late.
TheFountainHead
Acting like a responsible politician and adult?
The Other Steve
Apparently Obama isn’t a great speaker after all. Damn, I’ve been bamboozled!
Billy K
Something entirely different.
Did you even read the two paragraphs?
Billy K
The fact that he ju-jitsus all the senseless noise makes it even more attention-grabbing when he does engage something head-on.
myiq2xu
We don’t know how Obama will respond because he hasn’t been attacked yet.
The little bit we’ve seen so far is the equivilent of someone at a microphone doing a sound check by going “testing, testing” before a concert.
Wait until all those “friendly” members of the Lap Dog Press turn into hyenas and go after Obama. Everything good he does or says will be ignored or buried deep in the news. Everyhing bad (real or made-up) will get promoted hard.
I can remember when Clinton went after Bin Laden by ordering a missle attack on Afganistan they said he was just trying to “wag the dog” because of Monicagate.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Hillary Clinton needs to get in touch with Haley Joel Osment because her campaign is dead and she doesn’t even realize it.
Obama will sweep the Potomac today and will clean up in Hawaii and Wisconsin. Hillary must win all three of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania – but it’s not going to happen. There is too much time for Obama to get on the ground to “convert disciples” and everyone that was inclined to support her is already on-board.
And that is entirely fine with me because I really, really want Senator Clinton on the Supreme Court, just to watch every Republican’s head explode at once.
D-Chance.
And then she’ll send her daughter out to woo and impress 21-year-old college boy superdelegates…
but, hey, pimpin’ ain’t easy.
Hypatia
Obama did use the Teleprompter to address the troops after Iowa and elsewhere, which is indeed a little unusual for post-caucus/primary speeches. I did see it mentioned in print and on the net, and I don’t spend a great deal of time browsing right wing fringe sites. The Barnett article is silly and makes too much of the ‘issue’ but it seems to me that it’s worth a mention and nothing to freak out about. It was also inevitable that Republicans would start pointing out that Obama holds a lot of positions that aren’t very Republican. I predict that they may very well begin criticizing him severely. Fiends.
Billy K
Ha. I could get behind that. :D
Z
The RW noise machine overplayed their hand (see OMGZ! Don’t votes for teh McCain! and We are tired of carrying Bush’s water!). They don’t have the power or emotional resonance that they had 90’s through 2004. They will attack Obama with everything they have. It doesn’t mean that it will work with much of anyone but the 28%ers. Those people wouldn’t vote for a Democrat, anyway. Who you hope to bring to your side (ie to vote for a Democrat) are the right leaning independents. Pretty much all the right-leaning independents I know can’t stand Hillary, but are OK with Obama. It might not be fair. It might not make you happy, but that is the way it is.
Besides, with Obama, they don’t have the generational ammunition they had with Kerry or have with Clinton (with Gore, he was affiliated with the Clintons. That is all the rank & file RW needed.) So they will make up stuff. They will attack viciously (mostly on his policy positions). I have every reason to believe it won’t stick AS much, because they aren’t ALREADY negatively predisposed to him.
So please, stop moaning about the all powerful might of the RW smear machine.
myiq2xu
From Joe Wilson:
myiq2xu
Keep the dream alive.
Dennis - SGMM
I don’t see that Obama was intimidated because he kept pushing ethics reform and it did did in fact pass. What was Obama supposed to do? Challenge McCain to a duel? Beat the shit out of him? He answered discourtesy with courtesy – what a concept. I think that Obama came off the better for it. McCain knew that he was being insulting. Getting a rise out of the target would have been icing on the cake for him.
Tom Shipley
“Obama supposed to do? Challenge McCain to a duel? Beat the shit out of him?”
He should have gone old school and… CANE HIM!
chopper
man, it is just killing myiq2xu that obama’s doing so well, isn’t it? it’s so unfair.
myiq2xu
Yeah yeah yeah, it’s just me. I’m just making all this shit up.
When the GOP Slime Machine goes after Obama he’ll use ju-jitsu while quoting Dr. Seuss and everybody will have a good laugh.
Dennis - SGMM
At which point myiq would have held that up as proof that Obama is too young and hotheaded to be president.
ThymeZone
So much for anything you say ever being taken seriously again.
Tom in Texas
Considering so far the GOP’s slimes have only managed to gain traction in Greenfootballland and among the Skippers’ little buddies (and I doubt those were constituencies on the fence about Obama anyway), I don’t think this vaunted hit machine has gained traction just yet.
TheFountainHead
Well, I’d pay to see it…
The Other Steve
I really don’t understand the point of that Joe Wilson argument.
Perhaps myiq could help explain it.
The Other Steve
I’m convinced. myiq = Darrell
4tehlulz
I’m having a good laugh now.
ZOMG OBAMA KIDZ LIEK CHAY!
OBAMA USE TELEPR0MPT3R OMGWTFBBQ!
It’s like they felt defeated after the Muslim thing failed to gain traction outside the
traitor28% set and cannot come up with any good material.Zifnab
They didn’t really blow their budget on any of these yet. When you see the September Special Made For TV Movie “Obama: Coke, Conversion to Islam, and Communism” then you will know we’ve reached the promised land.
We haven’t met Barack Obama’s drug dealer yet. Or the teenage prostitute that claims to be his unacknowledged crack baby. Or his secret best friend, a serial killer and mass rapist who was converted to Islam in prison. Expect FOX to be running “The Manchurian Candidate” on a 24 hour loop the first week of November. Prepare for front page revelations about Obama’s ties with the Chicago branch of the mafia and how he ordered three well-known rich white men beaten to death by rap artists. We already got to see the six degrees of separation between Barack Obama and Louis Farrakhan. Get ready for the exciting expose on Barack’s link to Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, Idi Amin, and the Black KKK.
My god, we are just getting warmed up.
ThymeZone
Spits food.
Okay, but the real story here is that any of these people can be on the go 18-20 hours a day, stumping across states and across the country, day after day and week after week, and still have the chops to get up in front of cameras and a crowd and deliver an impromptu speech that makes sense and moves people to cast a vote for them. I think it’s quite incredible that any of them can do it. Fred Thompson couldn’t do it. Rudy couldn’t do it without making an ass of himself. Mitt Romney couldn’t hold to a coherent line of dialogue.
Obama and Clinton both can do this, and do it well, all day every day. They are pretty amazing in that regard. Their speeches are vastly different in style and content, but they do it.
John McCain can’t do it without sounding like General MacArthur. “Old soldiers never die, they just keep trying to scare you.” A few months of that stump speech should pretty well lock us up the White House for the Dem this fall.
Larv
You were taking him seriously before?
And yeah, the Joe Wilson thing is a joke. From later in that piece:
Um, yeah, cause an exchange of letters with a senior senator is exactly the same as a presidential campaign. I like Joe, but that’s pretty freaking stupid.
Zifnab
My jaw just hit the floor at the notion of Joe Wilson backing a man as prone to lying about Iraq as Mr Yellowcake-in-my-SOTU. Sometimes I forget that Former Ambassador Wilson was a good friend of Bush Sr, and then this snaps me back to reality.
I don’t know what you could ask for from John McCain that wasn’t getting thrust into you by George Bush, but some people just can’t get enough.
Jake
Still clutching at those straw men I see.
Now all we need is for one of the fRightened Kneepadists to claim speaking without a teleprompter is one of the top three signs that a person is an islamotarrist. “He can remember long speeches because he had to learn the Quran by heart!”
Jorge
myiq2xu,
If Hillary can’t beat obama in this primary with the advantages and money she began with in early 2006 (name recognition, political machine, high poll numbers, lots of money, a husband with record approval ratings among dems) then all the talk in the world about how she can take on the Republican political machine is worthless.
As much as some would like to pretend otherwise, Obama was the one who came into this race with the disadvantages. The very fact that Clinton is now spinning to make herself be the underfunded, underappreciated, and underestimated candidate shows just how low she’s sunk. Simply put, if she was the genius everyone claimed, Obama would have had to drop out of the race before Edwards did.
Joe Max
I did the audio/video for an Obama appearance in San Francisco some months ago (at the Ruby Skye, if anyone wants to look it up.) He most definitely did NOT have a teleprompter. He had a wireless microphone and he worked the stage like a motivational speaker. Though obviously a typical stump speech, he seemed to me to have a stock set of rhetorical routines, much like a stand-up comedian has, to mix together depending on the crowd, rather than recitation from beginning to end. It was a better than average stump speech, hitting all his familiar notes.
(I got a classic portrait taken shaking his hand too!)
The fact is I voted for Clinton in the primary. But this nonsense about Obama being incapable of speaking without a teleprompter is just that – nonsense. I have heard it with my own ears.
p.a.
Every camp has its true believers, but my impression is that much more of Hillary’s support is ‘a mile wide and an inch deep’. Admittedly, just an impression.
The Other Steve
I don’t think that’s quite fair, but it does coincide with the argument Hillary has been making. That Obama’s supporters are too committed to the Democratic party.
myiq2xu
Y’all don’t hurt yourselfs while yer pattin’ yer own backs.
There’s a shit storm a-coming and it won’t be pretty.
Lemme give ya a clue – the teleprompter thang is just laying the foundation.
Rove’s trademark is attacking the opponent’s strength.
What are Obama’s strengths? One is his speaking ability, and another is his ability to inspire and motivate.
What are we starting to hear? He’s just reading from a teleprompter and his supporters are cult-like followers.
Giggle and laugh all you want, but you’ll be hearing variations on these themes again. And again.
Why did they slime the Clinton’s with this whole “race card” bullshit?
So they can keep talking about it, over and over, while blaming the Clinton’s for doing such a dirty evil thing.
Didja think the GOP would play the race card by having a guy in a white hood shouting “Ni@@er Ni@@er Ni@@er!?”
The Rezko trial starts this month. Expect to hear about it a lot, for as long as Obama is around. It doesn’t matter that Obama didn’t do anything wrong. Think “Whitewater.”
When they go after him it will come from both the left and the right. They’re just getting things ready.
BTW – Rove got his start as a Nixon ratfucker. The ratfuckers’ job was to sabotage Democratic campaigns. Nixon wanted to make pick which candidate he would face in the GE.
More on that later – I gotta go back to the salt mines right now.
myiq2xu
Wow – preview didn’t show that the way it came out.
Davebo
Really? Wow!
I guess he failed then to get ethics reforms passed, with bipartisan support.
Davebo
Don’t worry. I understand from the campaign that Obama has ruled out going on The Today Show and complaining about the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”.
Now I realize, the VRWC does indeed exist.
It’s just that whining about it to Katie Couric wasn’t the smartest move and fed the slime machine for literally years afterward.
Oh, and it didn’t resonate with the public either.
Why everyone thinks Hillary is a Sparticus in the political wars has always confused me.
She was attacked, to be sure, and often unfairly (though often with reason).
It’s just that her responses from the past don’t strike me as those of someone with much political acumen.
Zifnab
We giggle and laugh because we heard it all before. If this was 2004 and we were as familiar with the Bush-style of politics as we are now, I’m sure we’d be giggling about how they’d go after John Kerry’s war record, his French Connection, and the fact that he lives in Massachusetts.
I’m going to close my eyes, cross my fingers, and pray America isn’t dumb enough to fall for the same set of stupid tricks three elections in a row. But that’s all I can do. If Americans are dumb enough to elect another Republican, it doesn’t matter who we run. Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Dodd, Kucinich, Jesus… they’ll all get smeared with the same amount of religious fervor.
The Republicans’ credibility should be blown at this point. Nothing they throw against the wall should stick. The default assumption should be that if a news story emerges about Hillary or Barack and it isn’t glowing with praise, its a Rovian hit piece.
I think Obama and Clinton have both shown themselves capable of handling Republican smears. Their voting records are better than par for the course when compared to their Senate colleagues. Their platforms are significantly more progressive than what you’d expect from Feinstein or Nelson. Their popularity ratings are through the roof inside and outside the caucus. Turnout has been hitting record levels through the primary season.
I can’t imagine what anyone could say to make either of these candidates lose in November. So I’m happy to sit and wait and enjoy the outcome. Barack’s my favorite, but I’ll vote for either one.
Ben
I consider this site my #1 source for covering the Right-Wing Noise Machine, and on that note, it’s been interesting to see how Obama has been received here. The knocks on him are mainly variations on the idea that cold-hard reality has yet to mug him (and his supporters) in some dark alley, but that it’s only a matter of time. But I’d argue that you guys are focusing a little too much on the noisemakers, and not necessarily on how their argument falls on their audience’s ears. Yes, I fully expect Malkin, K-Lo, Rush, Red-State, and the like to go apeshit over whichever Democrat is in the White House, but from what I’ve seen from normal Republicans, they won’t buy it, and it will backfire on them if they try to go down that path, just like it did for Hillary. The key is that Obama has made the denunciation of this type of politics the core of his message, so that cheap tactics just play right into his theme and only add to his appeal.
Yes there will always be the bullshit right-wing echo chamber. But with opponents like Bill, Hillary and other half-assed Democrats of this era, their shrill hysterics had a modicum of truth, at least enough to maintain support. Hell, John was one of their proud ranks for years, so he knows how easy it was to find reasons to hate them. But I guarantee you that if O’Reilly or Rush go Clinton-apeshit over Obama they will lose a lot of their audience, because Obama just doesn’t generate that level of animousity, on a partisan or personal level.
Bottom line, is was easy to get people to hate the Clintons. Hell, I’ve seen about 10 people in my office, as well as my parents become completely fed up with their antics just in the past few months. We’re finally beginning to see some of the reasons why the Republicans hated them so much. But it’s gonna be damn hard to convince them the same of Obama. Unless that email I read about him is true?!?
Chris Johnson
If people are just sick of politics being a cesspool, and going for Obama over Hillary because Hillary guarantees more cesspool for everyone, that’s an indicator that the slime machine won’t actually work this time.
I mean, that stuff does wear out eventually. People are perfectly capable of rebelling and demanding less slime. This doesn’t mean the right wing machine will stop doing it, because we can’t make them stop. But it can be used against them.
In such a circumstance you can’t triangulate it, or answer it in kind- you have to just hang on to the mature, reasoned viewpoint and show total politeness to establish your way of doing things.
Z
Well said, Ben!
les
Journalism. You’re doing it wrong.
Conservatively Liberal
The right complaining about Obama not being able to speechify without a teleprompter is laughable. This, coming from the same idjits who voted in Bu$h. Chimpy’s speechifyin’ sucks so bad that if you hooked his microphone to a vacuum cleaner, you would be able to clean Texas up in 5 minutes.
I think the fRight are coming out of the woodwork now because they want to drown Obama in the bathtub now so they can pair McCain up with Hillary later. The fRight wants Clinton because they know that she is an easy target. Hillary talks about being able to take on the fRight wing and the Mighty Wurlitzer, that they have already done their worst and can do no more to her.
Bullchips. While the fRight despises Hillary, most of their venom has always been directed at Bill. They are not attacking her directly right now because they do not want her to lose the primary. The CheGate bit fits in with the upcoming Texas primary. They want to start muddying the waters there now, and they would like to turn the Democratic vote to Hillary. Then, after the primary, they will open the floodgates on her. You have to know that the fRight has been working up their ‘war games’ in planning to win the general, and I bet this planning has been going on for a long time now. Ask yourself this question; Who do you think that fRight has been plotting to attack in the general?
Hillary. You can bet that they are scrambling now to try to build up war plans for Obama, but you can bet that they thought Hillary was going to walk away with the prize in the primary. Nothing would please me more than to toss a wrench into their plans by denying them Hillary. All of the time they will have wasted on their plans would be priceless.
As much as the fRight says that they hate Hillary, we all know that they secretly love her for what she may do to help get their party base revved up in the general. Obama will only rev up the racists on the fRight. Many moderate Republicans do not view Obama as a threat and some of them may actually vote for him. Hillary solves that problem for them.
A vote for Hillary is a vote to return to the politics of the past. Obama presents many contrasts to that past and I think he will be better equipped to handle the Mighty Wurlitzer than she will. The fRight has been calling “WOLF! WOLF!” for years now and people are tired of responding to it. They want change, and they want it now. The fRight enbraces the past (lovefest with the good old RayGun dayze is a good one), and thus they embrace Hillary. Only Hillary will guarantee a return to the politics of the past.
Hey wingnutz! Did you know Obama has a couple of black kids? And they are his! Quick, spread the word!
chopper
but of course it’s a shitstorm that only your favorite candidate can weather.
Charles
I’ll give Dean Barnett the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn’t intend to mislead his readers and is simply incompetent and dimwitted. After all, Obama’s speeches are available all over the Web, and for Barnett to suggest that the language he cites from the speech represents a marked departure from the language Obama has been using in all his other speeches on the campaign trail is evidence of laziness and incompetence on his part (after all, perhaps a third to one-half of his speeches over the past three months include all or some of this language). Secondly, what is not up to standard here is not Obama’s speech, but the fact that any person of sound mind could misconstrue a couple of sentences that are clearly intended as a joke (and always taken as such to thousands of people hearing them) as evidence of partisan “anger.” Dean Barnett’s incompetence and lack of basic English comprehension is simply staggering. What does this say about the Weekly Standard? Incidentally, I watched the speech myself online and it is very impressive.
jcricket
I hear his wife’s also black.
And that he’s been out of the country (unlike President Bush before his ascension to the Unitary Throne, er, Presidency).
Oh, Obama’s also blackish. I don’t think it’s just a tan. Not 100% sure, though.
Larv
Davebo at 5:42 gets it exactly (and, on preview, chopper above). I’ve never understood why Hillary supporters seem to think that her experience dealing with the RW noise machine is an asset. It looks o me like she’s batting well below the Mendoza line against them in previous meetings. Hillary came out of her first stay in the WH with absolutely terrible negative ratings and an indelible association with “Hillarycare”. Why is this a good thing?
John Cole
Why are people always throwing the shitty Pirates in my face?
Birdzilla
Its two strangers in the GRASSY KNOLL
myiq2xu
They didn’t believe Cassandra either.
Pug
The Republicans’ credibility should be blown at this point.
It is. Our preznit before the 2006 election: “If the Democrats win, the terrorists win”. He took “a thumpin'”. Too many people are tired of the bullshit.
They didn’t believe Cassandra either.
Yeah, they got tired of listening to her. And you can’t blame them.
myiq2xu
How did it work out for them?
bernarda
This looks like it was borrowed from this German video “Bush Pilot”.
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=xhqKoqqS0XI&mode=related&search=