Friday, July 04, 2008

Is It Just Me, Or Is Barack Obama Getting a Little Long-Winded?


Good Thing They're Seated, 'Cause They're Gonna Be There a While....
Sometimes we fall in love with ourselves. I remember when I was in a band a few years ago, and everyone was telling how great my guitar playing was. Eventually, i started believing them, to where I thought I was actually pretty good. Then I saw my buddy in New York play..... and I realized that I still sucked.
Barack Obama is beginning to fall into the same trap. Yes, Obama is a good speaker, and sometimes along the trail, you have to make the 'big speech'. That was true, especially early on. However, most of America has heard Obama's shtick by now, so a quickie now and then would be nice. Team Obama apparently is not listening......
I was on my usual end of week drive home last night, listening to POTUS 08, when they played a speech given by Obama earlier in the day to a group in North Dakota. The topic was taking care of our troops. It got a bit dull after a couple minutes, so I popped in a CD (Lit), and listened to that instead. The CD's probably about 50 minutes long. I finished and ejected it......... and Obama is STILL going on about the same topic !
No offense to our troops, but even they don't want to listen to a guy kiss their asses for an entire hour. This crowd wasn't even at a military base - it was a civilian group. But since it it the 4th of July, Obama took it as an opportunity to try and shore up his image on the subject - and he bored these guys to death.
It's becoming clear that Obama is falling in love with the sound of his own voice. Remember the first time you heard a great song? Now think about the millionth time you heard that great song... How long did it take for you to flip the channel. Well, i flipped the channel too, and i'm sure most of America is as well. And some think waterboarding is torture........
I got some sage advice from a friend after a dud of a speech I gave at the Liberty Restaurant back in 2005. They gave me 15 minutes to speak, and I blew it because I tried to use all of it. The advice I got? 'It's better to give a good three minute speech than a bad 15 minute speech." Wise words indeed. I follow that rule with every speech I give, and on the blog, i try to keep the posts short - not just because I don't have the time to research, but also to not bore all of you guys. Your welcome !!
A crowd - and radio listeners - can't pay attention for more than 5-10 minutes, so to drone on for an hour is fruitless, and more likely, detrimental to your campaign. Obama seems to not have learned this lesson, but he will eventually. Speaking of which, I'm tired of my own voice right now. Peace Out !!
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hope you are right

Thoroughbred 401k said...

Aren;t I always right ??

Anonymous said...

Well we hear there was that one time...

Thoroughbred 401k said...

Hey Anon, everyone's allowed to get lucky once in a while, right?