Point one: When President Obama introduced his new economic adviser today, he spoke for three minutes. He only spoke on the one subject, the economy and this new adviser’s credentials.
The president needed two teleprompters to pull off this one-note, three-minute speech. What person in public life needs a teleprompter just to introduce someone else?
Point two: Obama’s speeches score lower in their content reading level than any other modern president. The words tend to be small, and the sentence structures simple. Obama doesn’t write these speeches entirely, of course, but they are supposed to represent his thinking and are crafted to suit his delivery style.
Point three: Obama himself is a terrible writer. Read Jack Cashill’s post at that link. It’s convincing, and the letter Jack writes about isn’t from fairly early in Obama’s life, but when he was already editor of Harvard Law Review. There are a couple of things in Jack’s post that jump out, to me. One is that many of Obama’s sentences are muddled messes. The other is that Obama’s extemporaneous speaking sounds very similar to the muddled sentences he wrote as a young man. The ideology is certainly the same.
The obvious counter point to this is that Obama has written two books and they’re fine. The counter to that is that he wrote two books about himself, he had a lot of time, and those books went through a publisher’s editorial process to clean them up. The letter in Cashill’s post is straight from Obama’s typewriter.
None of these points by themselves prove that Barack Obama is as dumb as a bag of hammers. I know more than a few people I would consider intelligent to brilliant who are either not very good writers or are even pretty bad writers. Their intelligence manifests itself in other ways, to the point that it’s too obvious to wonder about. They may not write well but they speak in paragraphs, and the choices they make show their smarts clearly enough. Obama might keep his speeches simple so that they will connect with a broader slice of Americans. And he might have trouble memorizing things too, which could account for his use of a teleprompter even in such a brief, one-topic speech.
But the three taken together suggest that Barack Obama actually does not think very deeply, does not retain information very well or for very long, and cannot form the ideas he does believe into coherent, grammatically-correct sentences. For a fourth point, consider that he hardly ever shows any real curiosity or passion about much and has not shown any ability to process new information or change his mind about anything, and you have ample evidence that Barack Obama is quite average, and possibly below average.
But… but… he’s so good looking… and he wears his suits so well… and he is so cooool… and he was the Editor of the Harvard Law Review!!!! He is totally brilliant. He has a Nobel Peace Prize. And (you can’t argue with this), he is the President of the United States of America.
I guess you just cannot recognize excellence when it’s plopped right down in front of you.
And he got Bin Laden. Don’t forget that he got Bin Laden.
Show me the head on a pike. That’s how a pro handles the jihadis. Obama is no Vlad Dracul.
No, the US Navy SEALS (and a few other US Special Operators) got Bin Laden. Don’t forget that.
The President made a “yes” or “no” decision and he made the right call, something all Americans can respect and appreciate, but to take primary credit for an extraordinary effort that took years of work from several agencies and units…culminating in some of our bravest risking their lives — well, it is such a liberal thing to do.
The President was simply a minor but essential cog in a long process that he did not design. Likely he was not even knowledgeable on most of the military aspects of it. Given his “corpse-men” statement and his campaign declaration that US troops are “air-raiding villages and killing civilians,” his knowledge and appreciation of the military is lacking.
Perhpas his supporters should just keep their mouths shut and say “thank you” to the US military and leave it at that.
Oops, make that: …keep their mouths shut OR just say “thank you”…
This post is awesome. It reveals three smoking guns. That’s a lot of smoke.
The event that really got me, a few months back, was when our president spoke to a classroom of sixth-graders with two teleprompters. Huh? Eleven and 12-year-olds were too much for him to handle without prepared, teleprompted remarks?
Does he use a teleprompter to have dinner with Sasha and Malia?
Well done, Mr. Preston.
Yes Gloria,he does.
http://www.theonion.com/video/obamas-home-teleprompter-malfunctions-during-famil,14383/
Show me the transcripts.
The transcripts? Really? He was magna cum laude at Harvard Law School. That means he was in the top 10% of his class in a law program that is consistently ranked as the 1st or 2nd best law school in America.
ya know when someone is hiding thier transcripts from college you can tell anyone anything – from what Obama has done for the last 3 years he missed alot of his classes or he didnt go at all – my dog has more memory of content – hes gone in 2012 and no more black presidents for awhile thank you -
Glib but no substance.
All hat, no cattle.
Fini.
How about three cheers for our ‘CORPSE’ MEN?
Do not forget that progressive liberal ideology in and of itself is based on factual inaccuracies and tortured logic. It doesn’t stand up to critical scrutiny and doesn’t make any rational sense. Obama is not alone in being unable to articulate an idea or position without having it written out for him and displayed on the teleprompter screen to read. To break down the observations from the last paragraph above:
1. “does not think very deeply” – does any liberal think deeply? They don’t think, they just emote and react.
2. “does not retain information very well or for very long” – look at the flip-flop on climate issues within just one generation on the Left. Look at the mountains of evidence that show the racism and classism of the Left, but how no one seems to remember that it was conservatives who ended slavery and who voted in the Civil Rights Act.
3. “cannot form the ideas he does believe into coherent, grammatically-correct sentences.” – Chris Matthews. Keith Olberman. The list of left-leaning pundits who can do little more than spew incoherent dribble is quite long.
4. “hardly ever shows any real curiosity or passion about much and has not shown any ability to process new information or change his mind about anything” – except for passion, in the form of blind rage which occasionally erupts into violence, this describes any average progressive/leftist individual and/or organization.
That is why Obama had his college transcripts sealed. So the public can’t see he is not as smart as he claims to be.
I am not a betting man but if I were I would wager a whole paycheck that the transcripts betray a bottom-of-the-class non-hacker who got by with his sweet-talking tongue, seasoned with a bit of affirmative action guilt on the part of university faculty.
There are a couple things I’ll be interested in when his records are unsealed…what name did he use, did he receive financial aid and on what basis.
We may never know why he cannot speak without prompting, whether it is due to laziness, a learning disability, or a tendency to speak more candidly than his handlers think wise. He’ll have help in the debates and I don’t think he’ll agree to more than 2 total. Rather than try to jam the frequency his team will be using, any chance a couple of reporters could listen in and share the details right here on PJM?
Another reason Obama may have sealed his college transcripts is they will reveal a radical Communist. This may trump his average grades. It’s obvious Obama was a pot smoking druggy whose main goal was to party in college. I knew a few people like this in my college days, but they never past the freshman year; they dropped out since the school put them on probation. The other question is how did Obama get to Harvard since he was a druggy himself? Obama has more questions that answers. His sealed grades make him more suspicious & won’t help him in 2012.
Bryan – My writing has always been a problem because it’s too complicated. (I tend to write about technical stuff which is why it’s complicated.) So, one of the tricks I have learned is to use simple words in short sentences. So, I wouldn’t hold that against O. Another problem I have is extemporaneous speaking in front of an audience, so another trick I have is to prepare what I have to say ahead of time. So, I don’t hold that against O either (although politician should be able to talk extemporaneously if he is to be successful). As for the books he “wrote,” I understand one of them appears to have been ghost-written by Bill Ayers (of American terrorism fame).
Where I think O really falls down is that he simply votes present, even as President, and the policy choices he has made, have simply been awful.
You are also assuming that he wrote his two books himself. Did he? I am not so certain. One of his books “The Audacity of Hope” seems remarkably similar to the writings, which are quite good, writing-wise, of that of a well-known domestic terrorist who was quite close to to the president at one point in history. Coincidence?
Don’t forget the pictures of him in staff meetings… with his teleprompter! Who in God’s name brings a teleprompter to staff meetings?
He does.
Please,pleeese tell me you’re kidding. O.M.G. Words fail me.
And Bryan, you need to link this to Fleming’s article, comparing Obama to a sack of hammer (http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/comparing-obamas-performance-in-office-with-that-of-a-sack-of-hammers/).
Good post Bryan.
Liberals have spent an enormous amount of effort creating for themselves a universe of credentials, in which only they live. No businessman can enter. No soldier can enter. No plumber can enter. Not only can’t anybody but a liberal enter the world, they deny anybocy who they don’t allow to enter the world from even commenting on it. Not qualified.
It’s an alternate reality created for the sole purpose of giving themselves complete power.
It’s one of the most important things we need to shatter to put the world of Ameria back together.
And oh yes…Obama is as dumb as a sack of hammers. If he wasn’t stupid, he wouldn’t live such an ostentatious lifestyle while the rest of the country suffers. And he would have learned something in the last 33 months.
Dumb as a sack of hammers.
Simple answer. Barrys a Boomer.
Hate to be the one to say it but I really thing that he was a product of Affirmative Action. Not really sure just how smart he really is but he does seem to be narcissistic and that can make up for lack of intelligence. The Media will never investigate and even if they did, they would never divulge their findings. He is of course above average, but that does not really amount to much with today’s averages.
Racist
On the other hand, Jesse Jackson rhymes, Al Sharpton speaks in paragraphs. But Obama was, paraphrashing his VP, “clean”, paraphrasing the Senate Majority Leader, he did not speak negro.
It isn’t against the law to be an average, or even below average public speaker. There are many people who become successful by using what they have to the best or their abilities. I know several successful businessmen who just cannot speak very well publicly.
But if your stock in trade is to make everyone believe that you are some sort of super genius, some sort of super orator, you better be able to back that up. After 3 years, I don’t see any evidence of that with this man. His speeches are so rote and boring that as soon as I see his face on TV, I just change the channel or mute the volume.
The best strategy for next year’s election is to try and get Obama in as many off-the-cuff positiions as possible. The Repubs must appeal to his vanity – he believes that he is the best orator on earth, so he is going to want to talk as much as possible. Offer 20 debates, some outrageous number, and when he says yes to even 5, that is 5 times he has to speak to the public without his teleprompter. Oh, the humanity.
Is Obama dumb? You answered that question in an excellent way, Mr Preston. I can also highly recommend Jack Cashill´s article about Obamas writing in American Thinker. So revealing.
Admit it. Obama is a genius. Can you really doubt that he is a genius at self-promotion? He acted the part of someone who deserved to be respected, and it gained him respect. He has said that he has a gift, the gift of saying things in a way that convinced both sides of an argument that he was on their side, a talent that only the best con men have.
Obama does not have the talent to be an effective president, but had the talent to be an outstanding campaigner. It was that talent that attracted handlers like Ayers and Axelrod who were able to package him for the American public. If the full story of his rise to the presidency is ever told, it should be called “The Audacity of Con.”
An interesting question that may never be answered is how many of those in the media were in on the con, realizing that he was not the calm, centrist, post-partisan pragmatist he claimed to be, and how many were duped by the con.
Dumb!, and a narcissist to boot. Hell of a combination for the bum on the street, but…
Not only is he dumb , he is also very deceiving , almost to the point of pure evil . That is all I see and hear from this man. The lies , the deception,the narsicism , the treacherous and corrupt policies that are destroying America from within . You do gotta hand it to the radicals from the 60′s who wanted to change our country , they were smart enough to understand a black man would be the most useful vehicle to their utopia. Why , if you say anything you are labled a racist. Look at how this has divided the people. Were he white this would not have been possible. Even amongst the black community who are hurt most by Liberal policies still support him. I can understand why though , because of course there must be a large sense of pride amongst them , having the first black president would be great , however this man is destructive. Too bad,he could have been a uniter , another lie he told ! NO , I AM NOT A RASCIST , I AM BEING TRUTHFUL. Enough of the destruction of our country.It is time for Obama to be retired.
Whether you are racist or not can’t be proven, so it isn’t worth the discussion. But, when you so willingly project racist ideas in a public forum, people will tend to suspect the sincerity of your objections..
It is racist to say that Obama is incompetent, or evil, or malevolent because he is black.
Saying that his skin color has provided him with political cover/immunity for his actions, however, is not only not “racist,” it is merely stating the truth. His race shielded him from proper scrutiny of his opinions, his lack of accomplishment, and his highly questionable associates; no white person with so meager a resume and so many questionable connections would ever have been considered for the office of President, let alone been elected. And since he has been in office, he has been shielded at every turn by people shouting down legitimate discussion of his actions and inactions by playing the race card.