When You’re A Hammer, Everything Looks Like A Nail

Posted by: Tristan

Back in April, Senator Harry Reid revealed that freshman US Senator Barack Obama had told him, “I have a gift”.  Debate has raged since then whether he was talking about his teleprompter or his actual speaking ability, with Vice President Joe Biden a pillar of the teleprompter camp. Regardless of how terribly Obama speaks without a teleprompter, when working in unison, the two create such bliss that people lose consciousness. Whatever the issue, Obama can give a speech on it.

Fortunately for the President, he is not the only one to recognize his rhetorical present. Obamaspeech.com has been created to help the world recognize the man’s ability to say so little with so much so well.

“The Speech” has become one of Obama’s primary tools.  Whatever the issue, the Administration will create a speech to deal with it.  These speeches usually involve Obama skillfully throwing family members or the United States under the bus while beating an army of evil straw men, known as the “Those”, to death.

Whenever his Presidential campaign or Administration has faced a challenge, the writers are fired up, the teleprompters have been deployed and a rhetorical offensive is launched.

Unfortunately, what Obama doesn’t seem to comprehend is that speeches are merely marketing for solutions, not actual solutions, and marketing will only take you so far when you’re selling a flawed product.  Placing too much reliance on only one means of communication will rapidly create what advertisers call “saturation“.

Obama’s attempts to use soaring rhetoric in parts of the world where people are more interested in the substance of what he says rather than the soaring way he delivers it have left many wondering “Where’s the beef?” As the great expectations created for the American people before last year’s election fail to be realized, it’s likely that many more will find themselves asking the same thing.