This man sure can give a speech.

[freeny]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_182740.html

I have only read this snippet and not the entire speech, but Obama sure is damn good with words.

==================
From the article-

Urging a common effort to restructure the world economy and rebuild international alliances, President Barack Obama did not hesitate on Friday to call out his own country for "arrogant" patriotism and Europe for "insidious" anti-Americanism.

"In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive. But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad. On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They are not wise. They do not represent the truth. They threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more isolated. They fail to acknowledge the fundamental truth that America cannot confront the challenges of this century alone, but that Europe cannot confront them without America."

These were, perhaps, the sharpest and most condemning words that Obama offered to the largely adoring crowd. Speaking at a town hall meeting in France, the president outlined and pledged a new internationalism, one forged on commitments from disparate nations and melded around common interests. In this frame, he pledged a united front tackling climate change, the war in Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the global financial crisis. He also noted several changes that his administration has already made that put American more in line with international sentiment. The list included the impending closure of Guantanamo Bay and the outlawing of torture, both of which -- when announced -- drew great applause from the crowd. "America is changing," he declared at one point, "but it cannot be America alone that changes."

Time and again, however, he reverted back to need to move beyond the divisions that had marked the presidency prior to his. Stressing a "renewed relationship for a new generation" his speech brought the crowd to applause on several occasions.

"It's more difficult to break down walls of division than to simply allow our differences to build and our resentments to fester," he said. "So we must be honest with ourselves. In recent years, we've allowed our alliance to drift. I know that there have been honest disagreements over policy, but we also know that there is something more that has crept into our relationship... This is our generation, this is our time, and I am confident that we can meet any challenges as long as we are together."

[arkitect]

His speeches are excellent…

I did however find him a tad less impressive during impromptu questions and press conferences.

Mind you — he is at least able to scramble together a coherent reply!

[hexonxonx]

I have ever only heard one of his speeches and it was about two weeks after he took office. He sounded nervous.

I never once heard him speak during the campaigns. I stay away from TV for the most part.

[takao]

for a speech on a NATO summit do you expect any less ?

and asking for a new definition of the NATO into a more trigger happy coalition sure isn't want this world needs

[ntrigue]

I also enjoy these speeches. This is exactly how the President should operate.

[MacNut]

Doesn't the speech writer deserve more credit? I don't think Obama writes everything himself, or any president for that matter. Obama might be better at speeches but the prompt too question and answer is where he is not as fluid.

[arkitect]

Originally Posted by MacNut

Doesn't the speech writer deserve more credit? I don't think Obama writes everything himself, or any president for that matter.

You're correct:

Step forward Jon Favreau…

Here's a link that you might find interesting.
Guardian…

It was probably because Obama first made his name as an eloquent writer that in December the Washington Post broke the convention of tactful silence on the issue of ghostwriting, and published a long and revealing article about Obama's relationship with Jon Favreau, his chief speechwriter. Favreau is now 27, and has been ghosting for Obama since 2004. He was found by the Post reporter in a local Starbucks, working at a laptop on a document headed "ROUGH DRAFT OF INAUGURAL", having missed his original deadline of Thanksgiving.

Unlike Sorenson, Favreau (otherwise "Favs") wasn't coy about his job as presidential dramaturge, chatting freely about how he'd been listening to recordings of previous inaugurals and had paid a visit to Peggy Noonan to get the inside dope on how to write one. (Bad news, this: the modern inaugural address is a form that cries out to be broken, not copied.) The reporter, Eli Saslow, described Obama's and Favreau's usual procedure as they work up a speech:

"Before most speeches, Obama meets with Favreau for an hour to explain what he wants to say. Favreau types notes on his laptop and takes a crack at the first draft. Obama edits and rewrites portions himself - he is the better writer, Favreau insists - and they usually work through final revisions together. If Favreau looks stressed, Obama sometimes reassures him: 'Don't worry. I'm a writer, too, and I know that sometimes the muse hits you and sometimes it doesn't. We'll figure it out together.'"

Favreau is said to travel everywhere with a copy of Dreams From My Father, written before Obama entered politics, using it as the key to his master's authentic voice. He has internalised Obama's speech patterns along with his biography, and can now impersonate Obama on the page, speaking in the first person singular, with uncanny plausibility. Favreau says that when he leaves the White House he'd like to write "a screenplay or maybe a fiction book based loosely on what all this was like". But - whether or not he knows it - he is writing fiction now, losing himself inside a character remote from his own, as playwrights do. It's a bit like Alan Bennett writing Miss Fozzard and the other monologuists in his Talking Heads series: Favreau is white, single, 20 years younger than Obama, a buzzcut Generation Y-er, whose chief amusement, when not channelling Obama on his laptop, is all-night videogaming.

[Rt&Dzine]

Originally Posted by MacNut

Doesn't the speech writer deserve more credit? I don't think Obama writes everything himself, or any president for that matter. Obama might be better at speeches but the prompt too question and answer is where he is not as fluid.

Is this the guy who deserves the credit?

Jon Favreau, 27, is, as Obama himself puts it, the president's mind reader. He is one of the youngest chief speechwriters on record in the White House.

EDIT: arkitect beat me to it.

[Dmac77]

He's a good speaker as long as he has his teleprompter. If he doesn't have it, he turns into a bumbling idiot, and his favorite words become uhhhhh... and ummmmmm....

Bush wasn't much better though, I'll admit that.

Don

[arkitect]

Originally Posted by Dmac77

Bush wasn't much better though, I'll admit that.

Wow!
You asked Dubbyah any question and his little eyes glazed over… you could see the panicky "get me out of here and back to the ranch"… flash through his little brain.

Obama at least manages to deal with the question.
Quite as smoothly as it could be? No.

But to say Bush was better is just being deluded.

Oh, hang on. It's you again…

[mactastic]

Originally Posted by Dmac77

He's a good speaker as long as he has his teleprompter. If he doesn't have it, he turns into a bumbling idiot, and his favorite words become uhhhhh... and ummmmmm....

Bush wasn't much better though, I'll admit that.

Don

Oh you're a sharp one... I bet you won't get fooled again!

[Rt&Dzine]

Originally Posted by Dmac77

Bush wasn't much better though, I'll admit that.

Bush was entertaining ... I'll give him that.

[MacNut]

Bush was better off script, Obama is better reading speeches.

[NT1440]

Originally Posted by Dmac77

He's a good speaker as long as he has his teleprompter. If he doesn't have it, he turns into a bumbling idiot, and his favorite words become uhhhhh... and ummmmmm....

Bush wasn't much better though, I'll admit that.

Don

Yes, THINKING about your answer instead of just babbling made up words is so horrible....

[arkitect]

Originally Posted by MacNut

Bush was better off script, Obama is better reading speeches.

Of course he was…
Here's a gem:

"I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet….I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have.
I just haven't — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one."
President George W. Bush, after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

[srl7741]

I'm not sure why but every time I saw President Bush give a speech all I wanted to do is break out laughing. I've never been like that with anyone, he just had some thing about his deliveries. Politics aside even if he was a CEO of a local company is would be the same for me.

I just enjoyed the humor of it all.

[MacNut]

Bush was not the smoothest person reading a speech. You can't say that he was a great public speaker.

[Ant1-Hero]

What!

The guy reads off a TelePrompTer, he has messed up in speeches more then a few times now. Its obvious he is just another political robot, and as soon as people stop drinking the kool-aid, you'll realize he is just a darker skinned politician

[mactastic]

Originally Posted by MacNut

Bush was better off script, Obama is better reading speeches.

Bush might have been better off script than on script -- maybe. That point is highly debatable.

But Obama still handily bests Bush in both catagories of public speaking, even if Obama is better with a prepared speech than off-the-cuff remarks.

But really, aren't most people better off with prepared remarks than they are with extemporaneous speaking? It that really something that's all that remarkable?

And regarding teleprompters...


If it's good enough for St. Ronnie, why can't Obama use one?

[MacNut]

Is a prompter really the issue, all presidents use them now. I think the problem is getting too comfortable using them. Didn't Clinton say he had his whole speech on paper if the prompter failed.

[mactastic]

Originally Posted by MacNut

Is a prompter really the issue, all presidents use them now. I think the problem is getting too comfortable using them. Didn't Clinton say he had his whole speech on paper if the prompter failed.

It's an issue only insofar as you're going to see it used by conservatives as an attack on Obama, as if no other president had ever relied on the use of a teleprompter. It's classic Rovian politics to attack your opponent's strength.

Just Google "Obama teleprompter" and see what pops up in the images section. Tons of captioned images suggesting that Obama is "the teleprompter president". It's as if these people are so stupid they actually think Obama is the first person to use them; and further, that he uses it to hide some intellectual deficiency.

[MacNut]

I don't know if Carter used one but every president since him has I'm sure.

[paddy]

I can't believe people actually make any sort of noise about the fact Obama uses a teleprompter. What's he going to do, memorise the thing?

[NT1440]

Originally Posted by paddy

I can't believe people actually make any sort of noise about the fact Obama uses a teleprompter. What's he going to do, memorise the thing?

Que the "ZOMG he spends more time memorizing speeches than coming up with policy!" complaints.

People who want to bitch will find a way. I say let them sit there continuing to look foolish.

[MacNut]

Originally Posted by NT1440

Que the "ZOMG he spends more time memorizing speeches than coming up with policy!" complaints.

People who want to bitch will find a way. I say let them sit there continuing to look foolish.

No matter who is in power the other side with bitch. It is nothing new and it won't change.