Wednesday, February 25, 2009

More public speaking, Mr. President!

After watching Barack Obama's speech last night, it seems more obvious than ever that he should make regular, very public addresses to the nation. Not soundbite stuff and not necessarily long form, but he should find a way to get out and visible more often. He's very good at it and I think his messages draw more public support than coverage of the sausage-making policy maneuvers that are always covered in the press as "president this, opposition that."

I was curious to see Bobby Jindal's response. I haven't seen him speak that much and he's being set up as the Republican "go-to" guy, it seems. I thought he did ok, but he had a manner of speaking that I didn't like. It took a while to get used to the accent, he had some odd facial expressions and his tone and language made me feel like he was trying to make things very basic, very clear, very easy for my simple mind to process.

Keep in mind, I'm a liberal democrat, so I'm biased going in. Until I fell asleep, I thought he did a decent job rhetorically making his argument, even if I don't buy it. And you don't get to that level of potential stardom without having some actual skill (I know, I know Palin did.) But stylistically I didn't care for it.

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