Obama’s Unwords Begone
July 27, 2009 by Jerry
Barack Obama, whose smooth, articulate delivery style in his major speeches has been lauded by friend and foe alike, has also been derided by friend and foe alike for his tendency to sputter “unwords”—“ums” and “ahs”—throughout his extemporaneous press conferences. In my previous blog on the subject, you read a serious online commentary and saw a comic television mash-up of Obama’s sputtering.
One of the major factors for the sharp differences in his cadence is his use of the teleprompter. Because of his diligent attention to policy as well as to rhetorical detail, Obama uses the teleprompter to read his major speeches verbatim. The two teleprompter panels cause him to swing back and forth, the swings cause him to pause between his phrases, and the pauses eliminate his unwords. But when he speaks extemporaneously, his words, fueled by his deep knowledge and dynamic delivery, come pouring out with far fewer pauses. Unbroken strings of words inhibit thinking, and so the mind, in search of processing time, breaks into the word strings with “ums” and “ahs.” The problem is compounded by the insertion of unnecessary “ands,” which also inhibit thinking and cause even more unwords.
All of that changed in Obama’s fifth and latest press conference last week. After his usual smooth reading of his opening remarks from a teleprompter, he opened the floor to reporters’ questions. In his response to the very first question, his cadence was as smooth as it was in his remarks; almost as if his answers were on the teleprompter—which they were not. Punctuating his phrases and pausing frequently, he produced his signature rhythmic pattern.
To appreciate the full power of Obama’s almost musical cadence, listen to one of his speeches with your eyes closed and hear how he parses his words. (By the way, there is now a dedicated website of his speeches.) During this latest press conference, his parsing pattern eliminated almost all of his unwords in his answers—until he responded to a question from Chuck Todd of NBC News.
Tomorrow’s post will examine that exchange in detail.
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I realiuze that I’m really “exposing” myself with these comments but it’s a choice I have to make.. I relate with a large group of people who follow political events and personalities closely. We’ve all read your recent article in “BOTTOM LINE” and had to snicker. Structurally, your comments as to “what makes a great speech” were pretty well on target and understood. You being and EXPERT, xpert”, that’s a given.. However, in our opinion, Obama’s presence and presenation was nothing short of a “robot with CD installed”. His delivery, facial movemnets and body actions were the usual cold and unfriendly display we’ve come to expect. It’s obyious to most, that without a teleprompter, his speeches would be utter “spagetti”. You mentioned how he “excelled at “handling the press”, off the cuff, sans teleprompter. IWe’re of the understanding that it;s “pretty much common knowledge”… that press questions generally come from a designated few and the answers pretty well pre-determined and agreed to by Obamma. Based on our unprofreshional, relatively common understanding, it wouldn’t seem difficult for most anyone to “read a speech” or resp[ond to questions smoothly, already having prior knowledge of the answers, Our concensus seems that Mr. Obamma does nothing more that “relay information” that “draws the sheep”.