Henninger Straight Up: "Obama and the Speech"

It's about Us and Them, I guess:

'Haven't you heard

It's a battle of words'

The poster bearer cried

Daniel Henninger has a way with words:

Six months into his presidency, with more surely to come, it is an appropriate moment to ask: What is the point and purpose of Barack Obama's speeches?

One answer -- offered by students of talk from Aristotle through Alfred North Whitehead -- is obvious: The purpose of the rhetorician's art is to persuade. John Locke, watching democracy's advance, had a darker view; rhetoric, said Locke, is an instrument of error and deceit. Or both: talking people into error. [emphasis mine]

I disagree with Mr. Henninger in one not-so-small point. He writes

In our time, public remarks remain first of all a photo-op to make a president glow in public. Mr. Obama is taking it to another level, making the public speech the central act of his presidency.…He seems to be on TV every day, talking.…The first thing to be said about this body of work is that it is astonishingly good. Even by the something-for-everyone standards of political speech, much of Mr. Obama's somethings are strong and worth hearing. [emphasis mine]

Mr. Obama speaks so often -- and so imperiously, professorially and with such urgent gravity -- I honestly can't hear his voice. It is as if he has become an adult in a Peanuts cartoon: something is being said but there is no comprehending what it is. I doubt dogs can even hear the president. And the grandstanding! Oh, the raised imperial chin! Look! Look at the dignity and profound bearing of this great orator! Seriously, the moment the teleprompters flicker their cues at Mr. Obama, I wince and fall strangely deaf. And as for the quality of these speeches, well, prima facie they MAY be impressive (I was fooled when he delivered his speech after losing the New Hampshire primary; I'd go deaf shortly thereafter), but I find them, at least when I read them, to be rather vapid and sometimes rather chilling (I think his words are often duplicitous and deceptive).

But if Henninger is right, that Barack Obama seems to be "talking, everyday," doesn't that suggest that Mr. Obama expects me to listen every day, all day? Doesn't it all become just about him?

"Hear me, hear me! Oh, my people!"

Perhaps I can no longer hear Mr. Obama because I live such a harried life. Perhaps I am just too self-absorbed:

Out of the way

I've a busy day

I've got things on my mind!

Well, maybe not. But one thing is certain. Barack Obama has got things on his mind.

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