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Sunday, January 23, 2011

On My Last Nerve

Obama's public-speaking skills, that is: "goin'" and "guhnna build stuff and invent stuff" (hat tip to Randy's Roundtable):




As Randy said at his web site:
I want to see this man's college transcripts.
I teach public speaking to groups of homeschoolers. One of the first lessons we cover, at the beginning of the school term: correct enunciation and elimination of slang. Apparently, Obama, a Harvard graduate, never mastered the first lessons in middle-school and high-school public speaking.

And while I'm on the topic, will somebody please instruct Obama to quit using his head as a pendulum going from side to side? Turn down the sound and watch that movement. Maddening!

I can take any number of Obama's speeches and use those speeches in lessons as to what should NOT be done when delivering a speech.

45 comments:

  1. Note Adrienne's comment at Randy's post:

    Even on TOTUS his speech writers have him saying stuff that is completely meaningless. I used that tactic often when selling cars. The more "educated" the people I was dealing with were, the easier it was to pull it off. I sold LOTS of very high-end cars to these people who I'm sure bragged to their friends about the great deal they pulled off and how they duped the dealership.

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  2. I don't think they taught grammar or proper word usage at that madrassa he attended in Indonesia.

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  3. I know he speaks to different crowds with a different accent, hence he is just phony. But the great orator? Not even close. Thank you for the kind words and link AOW.

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  4. Keep in mind his target audience! It ain't us!!

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  5. ya know he's gotta b a homeboy an all that AOW..so he can relate to his boyz in da hood..sick!

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  6. Several History Channel documentaries speak of Adolf Hitler’s eloquence in speaking mush to the German people; they tell how his passion and focus on issues swayed intelligent people to accept his premises and reject those of his opponents —including his call for less liberty in exchange for a more orderly society. It is more than coincidence that Obama is also a national socialist.

    I think these documentaries tend to prove that people fall for nitwits like Obama because they either lack critical thinking skills, or too lazy to use them to analyze political rhetoric. Given Obama’s actual (thin) resume and his performance thus far as president, the American people remain in grave danger. Less so now that we have a conservative House —but if the GOP challenges Obama with someone like Palin, I have no doubt that he’ll win reelection. I personally do not think it is possible to do worse than Obama, unless we elected Ducky, but then I don’t have much confidence in the average voting American. For his part, Obama intends to raise a billion dollars for his up-coming election campaign. Can he do it? I’m not sure Hezbollah and Hamas will send quite as much money in his direction this time.

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  7. Logic, rhetoric and Grammar form a classical three-legged stool of debate and public discourse.

    Our schools have done away with logic, so use of grammar and rhetoric is how the crafty (politicians and advertisers) manipulate the masses.

    Dems are more shamelessly open about it than republican, perhaps because republicans would be called out on it by the press, where dems are not.

    Remember Hillary in that black church? "I ain't no ways taaahred!"

    Pompous ass John Kerry stumbling around lost in America's heartland asking "Where can I get me a huntin' license?"

    And now, Barack, man of the people, droppin' his g's.

    Imagine a republican trying this. Even worse, when someone genuinely talks like this (Palin) they dogpile her.

    It's all phony baloney from the dems and America knows it

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  8. Bunkerville said:

    Keep in mind his target audience! It ain't us!!

    Excellent and important point!

    Every well-crafted speech is designed around reaching a target audience.

    BHO is NOT the great uniter -- never mind what he's going to say in his State of the Union Address this week.

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  9. Mustang said:

    people fall for nitwits like Obama because they either lack critical thinking skills

    I call to readers' attention this article:

    Report: First two years of college show small gains

    Nearly half of the nation's undergraduates show almost no gains in learning in their first two years of college, in large part because colleges don't make academics a priority, a new report shows.

    Instructors tend to be more focused on their own faculty research than teaching younger students, who in turn are more tuned in to their social lives, according to the report, based on a book titled Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Findings are based on transcripts and surveys of more than 3,000 full-time traditional-age students on 29 campuses nationwide, along with their results on the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test that gauges students' critical thinking, analytic reasoning and writing skills.

    After two years in college, 45% of students showed no significant gains in learning; after four years, 36% showed little change.

    Students also spent 50% less time studying compared with students a few decades ago, the research shows.

    "These are really kind of shocking, disturbing numbers," says New York University professor Richard Arum, lead author of the book, published by the University of Chicago Press.

    He noted that students in the study, on average, earned a 3.2 grade-point average. "Students are able to navigate through the system quite well with little effort," Arum said....


    So, why are parents forking over such big bucks for their children's college education if critical thinking skills are languishing?

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  10. Silverfiddle astutely observed:

    Even worse, when someone genuinely talks like this (Palin) they dogpile her.


    I say: Therein lies yet one more example of the hypocrisy of the left. Ugh.

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  11. As a teacher, I can flatly state that it is an uphill slog to teach grammar and public speaking (including enunciation) when the leader of the free world makes such a poor showing in those areas. Furthermore, students make the same mistakes in their written essays as they've been taught somewhere along the line to write as they speak.

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  12. AOW, that report on the first two years of college is shameful.

    Obama is a shameful role model, on so many levels. I missed the guhnnas as I listened with incredulity at his lack of genuine belief in what he was telling the country.

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  13. Zero and Michelle can speak pretty proficient ebonics when addressing black people. Talk about insulting.

    "One of the first lessons we cover, at the beginning of the school term: correct enunciation and elimination of slang."

    Wow, I wish you could clone yourself and teach all English classes in this country.

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  14. Honestly, this reminds me of a real-life episode of Beavis and Butthead.

    No insult to B & B.

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  15. Didn't we just spend 8 years watching the left attack Bush for his fractured English?

    Where are these people now?

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  16. As far as Obama, he's just stupid enough to believe he can pull this BS off and that people will think him "cute" dat he can speaks jes lak us. An de be jus as dum, uh stupid as he be.

    Several of my neighbors who happen to be Black, think that Obama is an insult to Black people when he goes off on this type of talk and with his "diddy-bop" style of walk. One is a retired Navy Master Chief Petty Officer who says he'd teach him how to walk properly instead of "diddy boppin" I loved it. Not all Black people are fooled by his attempts to be "kool".

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  17. AOW, we'll never see Obama's college transcripts for the same reason we'll never see his actual birth certificate--the guy's got something to hide.

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  18. He slips into the vernacular at times. Who was the last orator to occupy the presidency?

    Haven't had one for a while. Back to Kennedy?

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  19. Ah, so Obam 'slips' into the vernacular at times.

    Yet let Bush mispronounce a single word (that he is NOT reading off of a teleprompter, btw) and he is the biggest moron to ever draw breath.

    Leftists are SO predictable in their hypocrisy.

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  20. If you think his performance is bad now, you should see him without his teleprompter. But without an actively hostile media, like George Bush had to deal with, there really is no reason for him to put forward his "A" game when he can just call it in from the bench. Regardless of what we all think of him, the man has the ability to bring a crowd to it's feet and pump them full of emotion when his back is against the wall, and with the 2012 elections approaching he knows that he will have to do so in order to bring the Democrats back into favor and to get himself re-elected.

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  21. obongo talking about spending and lecturing the masses about borrowing, lol. I knew he was a lot of things, but never knew he was a comedian too. i wouldn't pay to watch him though, i'll leave that sort of man-crush, tweener infatuation to will smith and the quack boy.

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  22. Maggie,
    that report on the first two years of college is shameful

    Thank you for taking time to check that link.

    Parents are paying up to $50,000/year for a child's college education -- now to find out that the first two years of that education are wasted years as far as any significant learning goes.

    Colleges today are teaching remedial courses for credit! Parents refuse to recognize the low level of work because of the colleges' giving credit for such courses. In addition, parents pay high real-estate taxes, which fund the public education system. If parents (taxpayers) realized what was going on with the cover up, they'd have fits.

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  23. Duck said:

    He slips into the vernacular at times.

    I say: BHO uses substandard English more often than "at times."

    Maybe it's my imagination, but I think that BHO's use of substandard English increased well after he took office as President.

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  24. Ticker said:

    One is a retired Navy Master Chief Petty Officer who says he'd teach him how to walk properly instead of "diddy boppin"

    I say: BHO didn't walk in that manner very often when he was campaigning for President. But once in office, the walk has appeared more and more frequently.

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  25. Brooke pointed out as follows:

    Yet let Bush mispronounce a single word (that he is NOT reading off of a teleprompter, btw) and he is the biggest moron to ever draw breath.

    Yep.

    GWB was constantly vilified for his speaking foibles -- as is Sarah Palin. BHO, of course, gets a pass.

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  26. TO DUCKY an apology

    oh by the way...like 2 years ago I was wrong....I said you could work on your tan before Gitmo was actually closed...man was I wrong...you could work on your tan twice and enjoy record snow falls twice and STILL REMAINS IN BUSINESS

    Hows that hopey changey thing working for ya

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  27. I think Ducky makes an important point; we are no longer producing citizens with classical educations. It is common to find individuals with advanced degrees incapable of writing a cogent paragraph, or even speaking eloquently about the subject of their degree. Universities have become diploma mills and that’s a fact. How is it that Obama served as president of the Harvard Law Review and never once published a scholarly paper in his own review? The basis of his election to the highest office was empty promises, false narratives, faulty premises, and talking points presented to him by a teleprompter. To these things, I must add his ability to sound black when speaking to predominantly black audiences; I will never understand why black Americans do not find this insulting.

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  28. This is so spot on. I tend to be politically wonkish and love to follow the news, yet I find myself UNABLE to listen to BO for more than a a few seconds.

    Basically, I don't believe what he's saying, and secondly, I can't stand the sibilant, i.e., whistling sounds at the end of words that end in "s" for those in Rio Linda ;-)

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  29. He's trying to sound like a middle class, blue-collar worker or engineer. Very few politicians at the national level can lay any claim to having experienced that lifestyle, and Mr. Obama is not one of them.

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  30. Alligator,
    Spot on!

    For Obama to make connections with blue-collar workers is surreal as he really has nothing in common with them.

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  31. Since I spent time in Toastmaster's I was appalled from day one on how poor of a speaker he is. His lack of enunciation drives me bonkers. And don't get me started on when he falls into his "shuck and jive" routine. Argh!

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  32. Wildstar,
    And let us note that BHO won't release his academic records.

    I still find it hard to believe that BHO graduated from Harvard Law School.

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  33. Sam, Adrienne, Widlstar and others

    I hope AOW can come back to this point. Many of us have turned to the TRULY traditional form of education....private instruction by parents.

    This experiment that we refer to as Public education is a failure.

    Citizens today are not even 1/10 are educated as folks from a few generations ago. They may have more technical knowledge about computers but they lack history, wisdom, and logic.

    Dont believe me find a copy of the 1895 test for children from (Nebraska??). You will not be able to pass even this simple test for children.

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  34. Blogginator,
    The test you're referring to supposedly came from Kansas. I found a copy HERE.

    The site states that there is no proof that the test was really for 8th grade, but I'm not sure about that. My grandmother, who graduated from 8th grade near the turn of the 20th Century told me about a similar test she had to take -- in Tennessee. The test wasn't easy, that's for sure.

    Americans today really unaware as to how far our education system has been dumbed down.

    I don't know how reliable THIS is, but it has been mentioned to me by several people.

    Today, a lot of Americans confuse tech knowledge with critical thinking skills. I do wonder what our society will be like in another 20 years!

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  35. Blogginator,
    Many of us have turned to the TRULY traditional form of education....private instruction by parents.

    I do hope that more parents do something about passing on knowledge and skills to their children. In that manner, our culture will have continuity.

    As things are now, the public education system is tearing down American civilization.

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  36. AOW

    At the risk of offending some, I believe the goal of Public school is to return us to the past.

    The wealthy of the day were well educated and versed in science but the masses were largely illiterate.

    We see the same pattern emerging today only today's children lack any work ethic for they do not have to work a farm or run a small mercantile business or labor in a lumber yard. Our masses our illiterate but their minds are filled with gunk.

    Most children of 1895 probably did not take such a test and I did not mean to imply they had. However, I submit the knowledge behind many of those questions was well known even by the lower classes for knowledge of seasons was essential to life. I would go a bit further and argue many had read a phamplet from the presses in Mass. or even what we call "classical" books now.

    My point is as you said they were people of substance, people who were critial thinkers, people with wisdom and people who were resolute that they should have liberty. Our people have technology but little wisdom or critical thinking (as proof I submit the bounce in polls after each Obama specch despite any change in his actions).

    My private fear is that the Greek philosopher was correct democratic forms of government come to end when the public can vote itself money out the treasure and that the next step after apathy for a society is bondage.

    I fear for myself and but mostly I fear for our children.

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  37. Blogginator,
    Our people have technology but little wisdom or critical thinking (as proof I submit the bounce in polls after each Obama specch despite any change in his actions).

    Exactly.

    I believe that the Greek philosopher was correct in his assessment. People today do vote for their "entitlements," the Constitution be damned.

    In my view, my generation will be the last free generation in the full sense of the word "free." Not that we are as free as we should be. In Northern Virginia, we property owners are enslaved by even-increasing local regulations (zoning ordinances and the like) and real estate taxes, taxes which, of course, support the public schools and ever-growing local bureaucracy. Were the federal government not here employing so many suburban residents, our local governments would collapse in bankruptcy.

    Actually, I saw this coming back in the 1970s, when, for reasons of conscience, I quit my job teaching for the public school system:

    I believe the goal of Public school is to return us to the past.

    The wealthy of the day were well educated and versed in science but the masses were largely illiterate.

    We see the same pattern emerging today only today's children lack any work ethic...


    The homeschool students with whom I work are good students. Nonetheless, I do see the effects of dumbing down, as you alluded to:

    I submit the knowledge behind many of those questions was well known even by the lower classes for knowledge of seasons was essential to life. I would go a bit further and argue many had read a phamplet from the presses in Mass. or even what we call "classical" books now.

    I find myself arguing with some homeschool parents as to (1) what constitutes a classic book and (2) why students should be reading true classics, not what passes for "classics" today.

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  38. Not long ago, I got into quite a discussion with my sister-in-law (age 50 or 51). She won't have her daughter read classics because "classics are boring." Sheesh.

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  39. I forgot to say that both my sister-in-law and her daughter are movie addicts.

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  40. I speak of homeschooling but of course I include private education as well for there is nothing wrong in finding someone with similar values and hiring them to teach your children.

    I talk to many parents every day who are shocked when their early teenage children have decided to challenge the authority of their parents, schools, police etc. Often their parents do not respect authority but sometimes they do, in every case the answer can be summed up this way--GIGO. Put the Garbage IN of modern culture and your will reap the Garbage Out.

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  41. my apology for double posts but as always I have 2 points.

    Homeschooling or understanding it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to teach your child is hard not because you have to teach children for teaching children is easy. They want to learn and damnit you should want to teach your children.

    The hard part is you have to remain sharp and in some case read those "boring" classics yourself.

    So much easier to watch the lastest American Idol, or Lindsay Lohan story, and order a pizza......

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  42. AOW

    you spoke of slavery...

    This year my family has committed to reading the Bible a little each day.

    The section of Genesis 46-47 is chilling to read. I realize this is all according to His will but the whole thing troubles me. The people willing gathered the harvest and gave it to the government to store and then they had to buy it back. In the end rather than moving, they sold themselves and their children into slavery for grain....chilling just chilling

    How could they do that? and then I realize I see it everyone 2,000 years later and people are willing to sell not only themselves but their children into bondage for a handout from the government.

    My post is a long way of saying I agree but then again I have said this for years to my liberal relatives...the Patriot Act did not bother me it was the slow slipping away of economic freedom that bothers me for without economic free you are not really free. What good is an Amendment that says you have the right to free speech if you are afraid to sppeak because you may not get an operation or a housing loan or a student loan, or a job?

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  43. Blogginator,
    Even among homeschoolers, we see a trend with some parents to drop off their children and leave the rest to those of us offering classes. This trend was not the case as recently as 7 years ago. The group with which I work won't allow parents to "drop and run," but we have to enforce the policy. As a result, our groups are quite small and really don't support me financially.

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  44. Blogginator,
    What good is an Amendment that says you have the right to free speech if you are afraid to sppeak because you may not get an operation or a housing loan or a student loan, or a job?

    Exactly.

    In many respects, Orwell's 1984 has arrived. Maybe we should start referring to the Economic Gulag?

    Frankly, I know very few government employees who are willing to put their names and faces out there in open dissent. Can I blame them? Not really. I've been out of work a few times in my life and can say from personal experience how awful unemployment is.

    I also admit that were I working for a school, I wouldn't dare let my students know about my blog.

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  45. Obama is nothing but a ghetto illiterate who was given academic credentials he never earned and clearly does not deserve.

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