Is the Bloom off Obama’s Rhetorical Rose?

January 9, 2009 by Jerry

Yesterday, in his first speech since the election, President-elect Obama spoke at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he formally unveiled his stimulus plan to address the economic crisis. But the magic carpet ride of his vaunted rhetoric ran into a snag. The New York Times, in a lead article, reported resistance to the plan, even among his senate allies. Moreover, the usually-supportive newspaper was less than thrilled about his delivery of the speech. They wrote, “Known on the campaign trail for inspirational addresses, Mr. Obama on Thursday was sober and ominous, summoning the nation to meet a daunting task.”
Andy Borowitz, the political satirist, was not so constrained in his online comments: “Hoping to calm a nation whose nerves have been rattled by economic woes, President-elect Barack Obama today delivered the first in a series of numbingly boring speeches designed to put the nation to sleep.”
Has the bloom come off Obama’s rhetorical rose even before he gets to give his much anticipated Inaugural Address? What happened? A very simple analysis of the text reveals what went wrong. Obama fell into the classic structural trap of spending too much time on the problem before getting to the solution. Problems are, of necessity, expressed in sober and ominous tones. The speech ran only 17 minutes, but Obama spent almost half of it describing the economic crisis that every man, woman, and child in this country is living through daily. He finally got around to his plan at about the seventh minute.
Waiting half the movie to bring in the cavalry is desirable in Westerns, because it keeps the audience in suspense and munching lots of popcorn. In speeches, the audiences, deprived of popcorn, don’t have that kind of patience. The speaker has to get to the point quickly.
From the sparkling string of his previous speeches, you know that Barack Obama will get his story straight on January 20th. Yes he can.

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