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Thingish Things

Obama’s Squandered Gift

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Aug• 09•11

 

from alexjmartin@wordpress.com

I’ve written about this once before, but it bears repeating in the wake of President Obama’s widely panned remarks following the stock market crash yesterday.

This President got overexposed within weeks of being elected. The phenomenon was first pointed out to me by a friend and former Reagan White press officer who was aghast at how often President Obama’s political team was trotting him out to speak in the early days of his presidency. It never stopped. If anything, the President’s media appearances increased in frequency over the past three years, and with each one, his words became more diluted. 

When the President of the United States speaks it has to mean something, my friend explained. It has to be special and rare so that the words carry weight, yet President Obama’s handlers squandered that resource. They had on their hands one of the best talkers in the world, and so they told him to keep on talking.

They are seeing the unfortunate result of that decision now. There are no words the President can utter today that will inspire confidence in the American public.  The great orator is spent 16 months before the end of his term.

It is a teachable moment.

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4 Comments

  1. Your Friend says:

    Spoken like someone who is an entire generation removed from the current media saturated generation, like guys who claim things were so much harder when they were kids. The crux of his comments are below. You would be alone in this country if you claimed that this thought is anything short of 100% true. God forbid we change.

    “So it’s not a lack of plans or policies that’s the problem here. It’s a lack of political will in Washington. It’s the insistence on drawing lines in the sand, a refusal to put what’s best for the country ahead of self-interest or party or ideology. And that’s what we need to change.”

  2. I couldn’t disagree more. Today’s media environment makes scarce words all the more pertinent.

  3. […] Former White House press secretary nails it in Callahan’s piece, I think, touching on a theme these pages have harped on several times: Overexposure.  […]

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