In ‘Hope ‘n Change is a Bore’, I noted that the British – whose extemporaneous speech and debate is far crisper than our own – were sizing up Hope ‘n Change as a windy bore, much given to rhetorical nullites and self-centered posturing.
And now, it’s James Dellingpole of the UK Telegraph’s turn to play hanging judge in matters of rhetoric: ‘Barack Obama’s Deadly New Torture Weapon in the War on Terror: His Oratory’.
Watching Obama lose his screen on screen duel with Dick Cheney yesterday I was reminded of some lines from Paradise Lost.
“Thus Belial with words clothed in reason’s garb
Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth, not peace.”But while the silver-tongued minor devil Belial would no doubt have approved the President’s new surrender-monkey “realist” approach to the war on terror, I doubt he would have been so impressed with his oratorical skills. Never mind the bizarre reputation Obama has acquired as a great public speaker: his speeches are fast beginning to sound almost as excruciating as anything in his predecessor’s “enhanced interrogation program.” . . .
Now, though, that novelty has worn off. Now, it’s becoming clear that this carefully worked, glacial poise is all there is to Obama. He’s just a hollow man spouting empty rhetoric.
Compare and contrast the flatulent pomposity of Obama’s speech with Cheney’s angry, from-the-heart, tell-it-like-it-is riposte. No one is accusing Cheney of being the next Marc Antony but as Toby Harnden rightly says, he had some strong points to make and his audience got the message.
Obama’s speech on the other hand, was the usual grandiloquent exercise in high-sounding nothingness. Apart from the familiar gangsta-rap-style boasting about how big and important he now is (“I took an oath as your Commander In Chief..”), all he had to offer were platitudes designed – a la Belial – to make inaction and pusillanimity in the war on terror look the only sensible course.
Hope ‘n Change is not a great orator. He’s not even a good one. What he is good at is reading a teleprompter. He’s simply lost without it. An orator is someone who (1) has something to say and (2) knows how to get his point across, extemporaneously if necessary. It’s being able to stand in a debate, face down the hecklers and demolish one’s opponent.
Here’s an example of an orator. I particularly like the bit where he called Gordon Brown ‘pathological’ – to his face.
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