An Ugly Unwanted Stray

Powerline informs us that Barack Obama has trouble with public speaking, contrasting his skills in this regard with George W. Bush's oratorical mastery.

Wheeeee.

MORE. Powerline enjoins us to be outraged, outraged, that Obama used Memorial Day for crass political purposes, as opposed to his GOP rival, George W. Bush. Oh wait. That makes no sense at all. What was that McCain fellow doing? Why, using Memorial Day for crass political purposes.

The intellectual rigor of Movement Conservatism never fails to impress.

Comments

[flory]

It's only May. Shoot me now.....

[Righteous Bubba]

CAN HE BOWL???

[Porlock Hussein Junior]

Very funny. You expect me to say "Wha----?" and go over there to see it, and you'll gloat "Made you look!!"

Well, I'm not falling for it. Try telling me there are little green men on the lawn, but not that somebody thinks Obama is a poor public speaker, let alone comparing him to Bush.

No, not even Powerline -- uh -- oh, forget it.

[rea]

Memorial Day, being about dead soldiers, belongs to the Republicans. Therefore i'ts crass for Obama to use the day for politics, but it's okay if you're a Republican . . .

[coozledad]

I thought memorial day used to be about dead Union Soldiers. Anyway, they had Confederate Memorial Day down here. Maybe they ought to shift obsequies for Iraq vets to that day, since we've just experienced the result of the South rising again.
Looks a whole lot like the last time. Lost again. Lots of broken, beleaguered soldiers without a pot to piss in trying to get home, and away from that stupid mistake. The leaders grabbing the gold, and maybe making a run for South America. Only this time, we roped the yankees in with us.

[theperilouspea]

If you keep betting eventually you win , Duh .
How could any person , reasonable or 'Otherwise' , miss so obvious an approach ?
Just because an ordinary observation demonstrates ordinary results doesn't mean anything out of the ordinary .
There you have it !

[michael d]

Not gonna click it, nope. But allow me to be contrarian, even maverick-like: Obama isn't that great a public speaker. He's not bad, and he's got that nice husky baritone, but he pauses and stutters and gets a little nasal from time to time.

He's not a great public speaker, but he is a world-class orator. People respond to what he says, not how he says it.

The Hillary W McCain crowd wants you to believe that Obama supporters have been fooled by slick jive patter, by empty sound with no substance. It's very unlike Powerline not to push this official line.

[chiggins]

Powerline : Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice that you were looking in my direction.

Victoria : Oh, yes I was, you just ordered the same exact lunch as me.

Powerline : My name is Assrocket. I'm unemployed and I live with my parents.

[J.]

I believe Mr. Bush used the term "awesome" in reference to our armed forces. What an amazing range of his vocabulary. I mean, what is it with him and "awesome?" The Pope's speech was "awesome." Does he need a "word of the day" desk calendar?

[virgotex]

This is my favorite comment in response to one of the other, critical, comments on that post. In fact, I'm still not sure it's not a parody:

You just can’t take the fact that an ordinary, salt of the earth American who earned his fortune through his own blood, sweat, and tears was able to become president. You ivory tower snobs have controlled this country for years and now that a real working man who knows what it’s like to clear brush on a ranch or serve in the military has been president, you have to put him down for not being one of your elite cadre of pinheads.

Sorry he can’t speak French. Sorry he doesn’t drink the finest Italian wines. Sorry he didn’t participate in anti-American protests. He was too busy serving his country, unlike that traitor Kerry that you all tried to trick us into voting for in 2004.

Why does Obama hate the flag?? What did American soldiers ever do to him?

[Southern Beale]

Along the same lines, how interesting that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is warning soldiers against engaging in election year politics. No one seemed to mind when Pres. Bush used the soldiers as stage props for the past 8 years.

[Jay B.]

Powerline, not content to simply screw the pooch after 8 years of unleashed Republicanism -- they now want to fuck the corpse.

[Bitter Scribe]

Not only that, but McCain used Memorial Day to argue against expanding the GI Bill.

[fahey]

powerline/talkleft/correntewire/redstate

I can't keep them strait...

[actor212]

The intellectual rigor mortis of Movement Conservatism never fails to impress.

Fixed yer post.

[¡El Gato Negro!]

¿Is this the new Rovian blather? ¿An attempt to attack Obama's strong point?
I've seen more than one red-handed, err, I mean red-state blogger run with just this line over the past week or so.

If so, they are stupider than I had thought, which I had no thought possible, eh?

so.

[Righteous Bubba]

Maximos cannot be stopped.

[Jemand von Niemand]

"Bush's oratorical mastery"?

I watched the portions of his speechafyin' at Arlington. I thought: Wow -- a war criminal speaks at our national cemetery; America really is the land of opportunity!

[Me]

Memorial Day, being about dead soldiers, belongs to the Republicans.

The only kind of soldier Republicans care about.

[Bob]

Obama said: “On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”
To which numbnuts replied: “Memorial Day honors those who have died in our nation's military service. Is it possible that Obama does not know this? Sometimes the things that come out of his mouth defy understanding.”
I work for the Army. One of my duties is running the installation’s Memorial and Veteran’s Day ceremonies. At every one I’ve attended (20 + years now) the Installation Commander (an Active Duty COL) and the guest speaker (virtually all retired military, and all, obviously, respectful of the troops) has used the opportunity to praise all soldiers, whether they died in combat or served 3 years without incident at Ft. Lee, VA and then returned to civilian life.
I understand numbnuts doesn’t want Obama to be president but is it to much to ask he not make such bone-headed statements?

[Bob]

virgotex: Thanks for directing to the comments. Here's another choice example of the conservative mind at work:
"He’s just another ghetto messiah who wants to succeed by riding off of the hard work done by actual soldiers like McCain, Reagan, and George W.

That’s just what we need: a gangsta rapper for a president. First we had to put up with this filth on TV and now they want to be Commander-in-Chief too. Things weren’t liek this back in the fifties. Is nothing sacred anymore?

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If you don’t like it, you can get the hell out of my country.