Always the Last to Know

Now is the time when we juxtapose, Small Dead Animals-style:

Saturday night’s stem-winder turned out quite differently from the typical Obama speech. With no Teleprompter signaling the prepared text, Obama failed to deliver the speech in his characteristically flawless fashion. He had to rely on notes. And his memory. And he improvised.

The results weren’t just interesting because they revealed Obama as a markedly inferior speaker without the Teleprompter. Obama’s supporters have had ample notice that the scripted Obama is far more effective than the spontaneous one. The extremely articulate and passionate Obama that makes all the speeches has yet to show up at any of the debates. For such a gifted and energetic speaker, he is an oddly tongue-tied and indifferent debater.

What was especially noteworthy about his Virginia speech were the diversions Obama took from the prepared text. Because of Obama’s improvised moments, this speech was different than the usual fare he offers. We didn’t get the normal dosages of post-partisanship or even “elevation.” Virtually every time Obama deviated from the text, he expressed the partisan anger that has so poisoned the Democratic party. His spontaneous comments eschewed the conciliatory and optimistic tone that has made the Obama campaign such a phenomenon. It looked like the spirit of John Edwards or Howard Dean had possessed Obama every time he vamped. While Paul Krugman probably loved it, this different Obama was a far less attractive one.

— “Obama Unplugged — Lost without a Teleprompter,” by the late (and sadly missed) Dean Barnett in the Weekly Standard, February 11, 2008.

MSNBC host and Obama sycophant Chris Matthews blamed the sun for spoiling the president’s speech in Berlin today.

“I think a lot of the problem he had today was the late afternoon sun in Berlin ruined his use of the teleprompter and so his usual dramatic windup was ruined,” Matthews said immediately after the speech. “I think he was really struggling with the text there.”

Speaking behind a glass bulletproof shield, Obama appeared to be using the text of the speech rather than reading off of teleprompters.

— “Matthews: Berlin Sun ‘Ruined’ Obama’s Speech,” Andrew Johnson, the Corner today.

Also, if the sun did blind Mr. Obama’s view of the TOTUS, then we’ve come full circle from 2008 in another way, considering how many times candidate Obama was photographed by AP and other “news” agencies with various halos and other coronas of back-lighting induced by the sun or artificial lighting, or simply Photoshopped in, during the 2008 campaign.

And another way history rhymes: The Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper reports that “Last time around, when Obama delivered a speech in Berlin in the 2008 presidential campaign, when he was still a senator, 200,000 folks came out to see him.” In sharp contrast, today, the “Crowd count at [today’s] Brandenburg Gate speech was 4,500 according to Elmar Jakobs,” the pool reporter covering Mr. Obama’s speech.

Oh, and catch this — President Obama warned about climate change in his sparsely-attended, poorly-delivered Berlin speech today:

“For the grim alternative affects all nations,” said Obama of climate change. “More severe storms. More famine and floods. New waves of refugees. Coastlines that vanish. Oceans that rise. This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work.”

A flight from DC to Germany is approximately 4180 miles. A Boeing 747 such as Air Force One burns approximately five gallons of jet fuel per mile. So that’s almost 21,000 gallons of fuel expelled to discuss “climate change.” And presumably, there was at least one additional aircraft also flying in with the president’s limos, Secret Service men, the PA equipment for the speech, etc. What would the president say about such waste?

No wonder the “Joyrider-in-Chief and his SkyPrius” was the surprise winner this past April in the competition to become “The 2013 Iowahawk Earth Week Cruise-In Grand Champion Carbonator.”