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Write-Your-Own Obama Speech
Clockwise, from top left: Getty Images (3); AP Photo
How does Obama keep up his hot streak of speeches? The Daily Beast analyzed his most famous speeches to crack the code behind the president's rhetoric. Our step-by-step guide for turning even the most divisive debates into an inspiring call for unity.
President Obama has faced his share of tough issues and audiences over the years, but at every turn he's managed to defuse tension with a well-timed speech. Already he's receiving rave reviews for this morning's address in Cairo, Egypt, on America's relationship with the Muslim world. But how does he do it? We analyzed Obama's most famous speeches to bring you this handy instruction manual.
Step 1. Thanks for having me.
Cairo: "I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement." (Egypt)
2004 DNC: "On behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a nation, land of Lincoln, let me express my deep gratitude for the privilege of expressing this convention." (Democratic National Convention, 7/27/04)
Notre Dame: "To Father Hesburgh, to Notre Dame trustees, to faculty, to family: I am honored to be here today. And I am grateful to all of you for allowing me to be a part of your graduation." (Notre Dame commencement, 5/17/09)
2. Express shock that someone with your life story could ever stand before such a crowd…
Cairo: "Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected president."
2004 DNC: "Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let's face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack."
Philadelphia Race Speech: "[My] story hasn't made me the most conventional of candidates..." (“A More Perfect Union,” 3/18/08)
3. ...But that's just America for you.
Cairo: "But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores—that includes nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today who enjoy incomes and education that are higher than average."
2004 DNC: "I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country on earth is my story even possible."
Race Speech: "I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible."
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Obama is so good
This is the ultimate hack article. For JFK the line is a quote from a classical greek. Ditto for RFK.
For Bush, the line would be: Dur, unintelligible, dur, unintelligible, dur, dur, dur.
This speech helped saved lives; so shut up until you think of something interesting to say.
This speech helped saved lives? So far over the top, and so early. You may wish to heed your own advice, because this is so far beyond silly that no one can possibly take you seriously.
This is the ultimate hack site. I imagine they are running out of money.
and if these great speeches fail to unite us, he can draw his blood, which I assume to be red, not green.
green?
Vulcans have green blood :) Humans have red :))
Sorry exploora, I am slow. Obama seems like a Vulcan to me. Too logical to be human and he does however somewhat resemble Tuvok.
When Star Trek came out, Obama said someone compared him to Spock, it was in a blog a while back.
Can someone PLEASE make a 'MadLibs' out of his speeches, broken down by subject and/or audience! they'd be great entertainment on my commute! You can call them, 'ObamadLibs'
;-)
Thanks for putting together a great list of how to unite people. These points are not too different from the organizational behavioral concepts that you would learn in business schools and executive training programs.
It is really about global citizenship, and a person's individual rights, related within that context.
So America for American leads to opportunities, that are closed to others, even to Obama's step brother.
I meant half brother.
Reagan was known as the Great Communicator because of his ability to connect to "regular" people. Obama will also be known for his speeches, because of his ability to convey complex issues in a simple, easy to digest way. That he does it in a soaring, unifying way is a bonus. It must make the Republicans, what's left of them, sick to their stomachs. All we need is the catchy name to solidify the marketing and the right is done for the next 7 years.
15
EdinNJ,
Contemplate:
"Richard Epstein, a prominent conservative [should say: libertarian] who taught with Obama at the University of Chicago, said he likes Obama but rejects the suggestion that he is an intellectual, arguing that he merely mimics an intellectual's mannerisms.."
"It's not a title that's an honorific," Epstein said. "He's an activist."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/25/law_professor_obam a_embraces_nuance_on_trail/
Obama has the mannerisms of an intellectual, but he's never really said anything, in speech or in print (zero scholarly articles) new, substantive, creative and interesting. As Epstein points out, "intellectual" is not an honorific, and this does not mean that the President does not have outstanding qualities.
Now, I just made a categorical statement, vulnerable to demolition via a single counter-example.
But you can't do it.
You assert (in so many words) that Obama is an intellectual, because you're in love.
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There is nothing so reliable as a libertarian's condescension. To them the world is simple--all problems curable by the same hammer, everybody an apostate but them.
A libertarian calling someone shallow is like a toilet complaining that something else stinks.
Nah. Reagan didn't rely so heavily on strawmen and contradictory arguments. Obama's "soaring rhetoric" has already started to wear thin. If it weren't for this article, you wouldn't have been able to recite verbatim more than 2 lines from any of Obama's speeches.
If we're looking for a "catchy name to solidify the marketing, how about "vacuous pontification," or "empty posturing" or "come hither and find nothing there."
That's cute.
Question: What kind of judgment would allow you, Mr. Obama, to stay in the church of a blatent racist for 7 years? Speech: The origins of racism and how ,we all, can rise above it. He is the master of deflection. He is the stealth bomber and the teflon Don rolled into one, and I love him.
Oh for God's sake camper! Get over it. Wright is no worse that Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts and that Dobson idiot.
You don't like Wright because he happens to be black and it scares your timid little self-righteous white butt that blacks can get mad too.
If you are going to be a religion-hater, don't be racists about it. Talk about how all those white preachers used their pulpits to preach that God demands the races live separately and then you have some non-racist credibility.
Put a sock in your own race hate.
This is one of the most breathtakingly stupid instances of moral equivalence I have ever seen. You can dislike all the fellows you listed and still see there is a chasm between them and Jeremiah Wright. And by the way, Dobson is not a preacher.
I guess some people from Virginia could see "a chasm between" the race hate of white people and black people whom they accuse of the same.
So tell me what is it that Wright accused of: claiming that white people did evil to blacks? Is that what is racist in his rantings?
How is that not "morally equivalent," at least, to advocating that public laws discriminate against blacks?
Can you explain your chasm? Let's us explore the attitudes that make you see the world the way you do?
Wright is overboard and some of his opinions plain old nuts, but they are a reaction to realities in this nation that framed his twisted perspective: realities that are many thousands of times more horrible than anything Wright has said.
Moral equivalency indeed!
Did the Boogie man scare you? Is your reaction to Pat Robinson's vending of hate on TV every night anything near that visceral?
Oh brother... lumping Dobson in with Wright shows your stupidity and ignorance. Your use of 'equivalency' almost rivals Obama's stupidity in equating American women's rights with those of Arab women's rights... hey ladies!... yall should move to Saudi Arabia cause after all, Obama says you'll be treated the same... and He is The One and thus Must Be Right!
So you think Dobson is morally superior to Wright eh?
Let's look at what Dobson says:
exchange [Nov 7, 2004] between George Stephanopoulos and James Dobson on ABC's This Week:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Dr. Dobson, ...in the Daily Oklahoman, [you were] quoted saying, "Patrick Leahy is a God's people hater. I don't know if he hates God, but he hates God's people." Now, Dr. Dobson, that doesn't sound like a particularly Christian thing to say. Do you think you owe Senator Leahy an apology?
DR JAMES DOBSON: George, you think you ought to lecture me on what a Christian is all about? You know, I think -I think I'll stand by the things I have said. Patrick Leahy has been in opposition to most of the things that I believe. He is the one that took the reference to God out of the oath.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But Dr. Dobson, excuse me for a second. You use the word hate. You said that he's a "God's people hater." How do you back that up?
DR JAMES DOBSON: Well, there's been an awful lot of hate expressed in this election. And most of it has been aimed at those who hold to conservative Christian views. He is certainly not the only one to take a position like that. But I think that that is -that's where he's coming from. He has certainly opposed most of the things that conservative Christians stand for.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apology?
DR JAMES DOBSON: No apology.
Virginia and conservative dude: If you don't see Dobson as an extremist, you must buy into his theory that anybody who disagrees with you guys deserve hate. You've reduced Christianity and elevated partisan ideology into a justification to hate.
Don't try try and tar others, when you are just as coated with the black stuff as anybody around.
Is it because Dobson, Falwell and Roberson are white and Wright isn't that you see a difference?
Hate is a blinding thing. Self-righteous hate is disgusting.
Sigh. How many times do we need to go through this with you Barry-worshiping liberals. Read carefully, dimwit. If someone criticizes a black person, that doesn't automatically make the criticizer a racist. You can't get away with that anymore and it makes YOU sound stupid.
Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts and James Dobson never preached separating the races. None of them are racist neosegrationalists like J-Wright. And no presidents spent decades sitting in their churches
listening to racist screeds and apparently agreeing with them.
Look, I know Barry hasn't turned out to be the Messiah you thought he was. Let's face it: he's a shallow arrogant fool. But really, throwing out the race card? I think that became passé when we elected a black guy (granted, a manifestly unqualified black guy) to be president.
This is the first article I've seen in Daily Beast that doesn't really, really suck. No doubt we'll get another dish of Meg McCain and Chris Buckley in a few minutes.
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You remind me of the neighbor man who once told me that he knew Ford automobiles were pieces of crap....and he knew because he'd bought 11 of them.
What gives bcrago? If it sucks, don't bother with it. Are you in to self abuse? Do you disappoint yourself for the pleasure of spouting off about it?
Yes, we're all created equal unless of course you're required to wear a hijab, in which case you are cordially invited to shut the hell up and obey your male family member lest you get acid thrown in your face or you get stoned to death.
I cannot believe you can see how dishonest and formulaic this man is and still think he gives a good speech. He doesn't mean a word he says. Wake up people Obama is a lying fraud who is taking every scrap of freedom you ever had. He is going to control the car you drive, the pay check you cash, the bank you cash it in, the temperature you live at, the food you eat, the movies you can see, the opinion you are spoon fed, your brain is no longer your own and you will never be free again nor will any American know freedom again until we rid ourselves of this monster we have allowed to lead us down this totalitarian path. This is America! We do not need a big brother controlling our lives!
Stop letting your infatuation with this man take our freedom!
Obama is already making a place in history for himself. They will write stories about him for generations to come. He will be known as "The Man That Destroyed The United States".
Bush and Cheney already have that distinction...
No.....they may have started it, but Obama has far surpassed them in that category. In four months he has done significantly more damage to our country than other President has done -----ever, including the last 8 years. He definitely will win this award.
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Boy........some here speak for God and this guy speaks for history.
Damn, I'm running with some pretty self-important dudes.
What job does this guy think he was elected to do: be mullifyer in chief? Enough already with this come together crap! Some is OK, but when every impulse is to pander to those most unlikely to be constructive, you end up sitting in the water still as a plastic duck.
The Muslim world is reassured, while its Militant leaders mock Obama's speech before it is even given and its "conservative" leaders are fascist. Rightwing religous zealots at home are reassured, while they work-on, unfazed, to capture the government to impose their values on all of us through the law. Homosexual rights wait while Obama reassures homophobes that he's not threatening.
Oh for God's sake! A couple weeks of this Jesus posing was OK...maybe even a month, but posing ain't governing and sooner or later this feather in the wind has to grow a set and show he actually believes in something.
.........of course, he did raise $730 million to buy his office, all the time claiming he was the embodiment of "change." Maybe, I'm expecting too much based on the evidence at hand.
Gay rights wait, while
ou are supposed to be governing not acting like
"of course, he did raise $730 million to buy his office"
He's just following the great Republican tradition.
That makes it OK?
Countervailing party pandering for money in place of focus on pubic or national needs is justified so long as whom you favor and whom you disfavor have equally dirty hands?
You don't expect much, do you?
And you are getting what you expect.
Obama wears eye shadow, (perhaps less and less since I keep pointing it out - word spreads -and White House people do read the Beast), but he is still wearing it. What's up with that?
"Barky" is a winner, not a leader. he won the election, but on the issues facing our planet i.e. World Pizza (Peace), food chain harmony, echo logical balance, he cannot deliver.
The world is leaderless. The only echo is the echo in your telephones when the living minions of J. Edgarina, the Pervert of Dirt have you live on their party line.
Then you get the echo in your telephone. For the mass interception of the millions of calls the domestic counter intelligence people gather every day, there isn't any echo. Only when they listen live.
Amer e kins feel
All men are e quill
Leaders come for word
They have clear heads
Be gin in log ca bins
Write ther own speech is
May ka lodda sense in
Don't raise ther voice is
Barky Obama does not write his own speeches. Sun Microsystems Scott McNeilly popularized the phrase, "all hat no cattle."
When Barky Obama talks in platitudes, as is his habit, without taking away from any of his platitudes, he is all hat and no cattle. The answers to these giant issues facing the world are above his pay grade.
Key to settlement of Middle East is Jerusalem. The city needs to become a free state, owned by its inhabitants, similar to the Vatican, with an ambassador to the United Nations, in charge of all the various Holy places. They would have their own city police force, postage stamps, and it would cost for tourists to visit.
The city state could then invite the Israelis and the Palestinians to share a ten story building with elevators that stop on each floor, one government to the right, the other to the left, or whatever the people of the Holy City State decide, because Jerusalem would belong to its inhabitants.
Presented the way I intend on presenting the above, I am confident all of the people there would accept my idea, especially the people of Jerusalem. Visit youtube.com/poetprophet and see the videos from Secretary of State William Gardner's office in New Hampshire. Or visit michael s levinson dot commie and see the video of the story of Adman and Even in the Gar Den ov edum. Though iamb hatless, you can decide whether I have any cattle.
Well folks, there are some issues you will never understand because.......you will not. When Solomon went before God, he was asked what did he want? Solomon said, wisdom so that I can lead your people. Folks, I think President Obama made the same request.."Wisdom" to lead God's people , the haters, the doubters, the pretenders, the foolish, the hard hearted, the whiners, the KKK, the criers, the poor in spirit, the rich, the poor, the homeless, and all of you who know what you stand up for.....
The Downfall of America
by
Osama bin Laden
NOTE: Osama bin Laden has prepared this speech for delivery to the world to commemorate the new United States President, Barack Hussein Obama. It has been obtained by an Iraqi double agent working for the CIA who is now safely in the Federal Witness Protection program.
OSAMA: My fellow freedom fighters and American invaders. Let me begin by saying the reports on my illness, injuries and death have been highly exaggerated. I am very much alive and proud of the havoc and destruction al Qaeda has created, far exceeding my wildest expectations. Certainly, American infidels shuddered over the shocking and awesome attacks on 9/11. That was your wakeup call and we are doing better as you well know.
Here is my game plan, revealed only because although there will be more surprises, this one is already operational. Briefly, al Qaeda die-hards have quietly infiltrated various businesses, industries and government jobs in over two-thousand cities and towns. Our cells wisely took the required loyalty oaths and joined every patriotic organization in the community.
Secret sabotage is commencing nicely. For example, elevators are mysteriously getting stuck between floors, clerks in stores insult customers, bus drivers slam their doors on senior citizens, potholes are everywhere and streets littered with refuse.
Loyal insurgents in your post offices make sure packages are badly mauled, mail is delivered late, if at all, often to the wrong addresses or returned for postage due. Rumors fly that the government has incompetent employees. Customers complain to no avail and channel their anger into drinking, drugs, road rage and vandalism following sporting events.
These and other planned annoyances begin to breed increased hostility among all people. Your ruling class, sensing discontent, blames it on air and water pollution or burning the rain forest. Meantime, American traitors in factories are busy manufacturing defective products such as leaky toothpaste tubes, television sets with built-in snow and detergents that clog kitchen drains.
As our war on your nerves builds momentum, the civilian population goes ballistic. They cancel newspaper subscriptions, fight with neighbors and minority groups organize marches on Washington. A frightened nation elevates its terrorist alert to red, so everybody hoards food, water and gasoline except the colorblind. They remain uninformed and unprotected.
For the next phase, our loyal telephone operators will give wrong numbers, disconnect and play a recorded message constantly: "Please hang up and try again." Then, hundreds of my computer geeks in Afghanistan and Pakistan are planting infectious viruses and billions of spam ads, code named "Bubonic Plague." An epidemic of frustration soon immobilizes 300 million people who are enraged, ready to revolt and willing to accept any change in government.
Finally, on Halloween night, small al Qaeda agents, disguised as children, invade major network television stations to "trick or treat" and force repeated playings of "The Lawrence Welk Show," "Green Acres" and "Ishtar."
With 99.% of television households having destroyed their TV sets, the next morning swarms of cars will converge on main streets in every city. Their mission is to tie up traffic, causing gridlock, and prevent people from going to work. This quagmire allows my victorious regime time to occupy offices, rearrange furniture, change names on doors and write pink slips for the former occupants.
My takeover will be complete without firing a shot. To ease emotional pressure, because Prozac supplies are going to be in high demand, I might schedule a few public floggings. This weekly sporting event was the highlight of Taliban soccer matches during intermission. On my "A" list I have Ann Coulter, Chris Matthews, Paris Hilton, Dr. Ruth, Donald Trump, Barbara Walters and probably Jerry Springer.
Let me conclude by offering a special thanks to Saddam Hussein, whether he be in hell or heaven, who diverted so much attention away from my mayhem. He was such a wonderful patsy, a bumbling idiot with no class. Although, God willing, he did manage to hide our WMD in Syria before General Bush invaded Iraq. Didn't you all love "Baghdad Bob?" He's my choice for press secretary; unless Ari Fleischer wants the job and renounces his religion. We'll see.
I look forward to bringing al Qaeda's style of servitude to America and remember, the trapdoor to the White House will always be open. So feel free to come and visit anytime. In the meantime, you can write to me care of General Delivery, Islamabad, Pakistan. Also, look for my new puzzle game at amazon.com called "Where's Osama?" The grand prize is $25 million dollars.
Now, if you will excuse me, praise Allah, I must get back to my wives who remain shrouded in misery.
© 2009 Alan Abel abelalan2000@yahoo.com
Funny piece, for those willing to understand that Obama is just a robotic, uninspired empty suit and a leftist fraud. His only talent is in getting gullible people to believe that he is something that he is not.
Krauthammer has pierced the veil and now understands Obama better than Obama does, and the result is quite astonishing. He sees the ugly, naked Emperor. In his analysis of the speech he shakes his head at Formula #8, wherein our Idiot President uses moral equivalency to compare the treatment of women in the U.S. and Iran. No one with a functioning brain could have made that comparison with a straight face; I conclude that either Obama's brain does not function, or he is a dangerous liar and a fraud.
You pick.
All of the above.
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