Surprise! Charles Krauthammer hated Obama's speech!

[Bicoastal]

"Fascinating speech. It was so rhetorically flat, so lacking in rhythm and cadence, one almost has to believe he did it on purpose. Best not to dazzle on Opening Day. Otherwise, they'll expect magic all the time.

The most striking characteristic of Barack Obama is not his nimble mind, engaging manner or wide-ranging intellectual curiosity. It's the absence of neediness. He's Bill Clinton, master politician, but without the hunger.

Clinton craves your adulation (the source of all his troubles). Obama will take it, but he can leave it, too. He is astonishingly self-contained. He gives what he must to advance his goals, his programs, his ambitions. But no more. He has no need to.

Which seems to me the only way to understand the mediocrity of his inaugural address. The language lacked lyricism. The content had neither arc nor theme: no narrative trajectory like Lincoln's second inaugural; no central idea, as was (to take a lesser example) universal freedom in Bush's second inaugural."

And so forth. I'm just amazed ol' Krauty considered Bush's Second Inaugural Address inferior to Lincoln's!

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/krauthammer

[Hardrada]

1. I wish they'd send that evil gnome back to Canada fo ASAP!

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. The man defined ugly in every possible sense. His self loathing must be breathtaking.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. I'm shocked, I tell you..Just shocked.

[Aristus]

4. Shit. Krauthammer's problem is that he thinks everyone is as big an asshole as he is.

:eyes:

[ShortnFiery]

5. ROFL, yeah, we're all SHOCKED!

:eyes:

[Cha]

6. It was a great speech..we were listening to

content. Obama won inspite of the corporatemedia who played mccain=palin rallies and left Obama's alone.

They had to play his Inuaguration speech where he took it right to bush's door.

[JuniperLea]

14. Listening to content... spot on...

We don't need emotional tricks to keep us whipped to a froth like the Palin Fan Club.

[Curtland1015]

7. Until I read that insightful piece, I thought I LIKED President Obama's speech...

...I guess I was wrong.

:(

Joking aside, what a smug asshole this guy Krauthammer is. I'm surprised he hasn't overdosed on sarcasm pills.

[JuniperLea]

8. He's still living in Bush's Bizarro World of Opposites

I loved that speech. It didn't need to be a barn-burner... we were all too much in shock to pay that much attention anyway:) Swooning over benevolent leaders blocks a lot of auditory responses.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Did he like Warren's quoting Jews for Jesus? nt

[dcindian]

10. It is called substance.

Reading what he just wrote confirms he has no concept of what it is.

[Doctor_J]

11. I am shocked that a self-professed Democrat would read and post such shit

THe phrase self-hating comes to mind. I wonder how many blacks spend their days reading Klan dispatches.

[Bicoastal]

15. I caught it by accident--it was right there in today's NY Daily News.

Obviously I don't agree with his opinion, and I'm NOT a self-hating Dem.

[skeewee08]

12. Well since Charles put it that way....... I love the speech even more:-)

[DrDan]

13. he is just dying to appear intellectual

He sees himself as the next great conservative mind

[SeattleGirl]

16. Gee, I'm so glad CK straightened me out!

I thought I LIKED Obama's speech, but now I see the error of my ways. :crazy:

[kenny blankenship]

17. It was an AGENDA not a poem. That's because we're in trouble and have to move fast

Move FAST. "Quickly" takes too much time.

[Bolo Boffin]

18. It seems to be Kraut's way of complimenting Obama, oddly enough

I'm sure that the desire for adulation is a flaw for Krauthammer, and Obama's ambivalence for it is a strength.

However, I disagree that the speech was mediocre at all, much less purposely so. It makes me wonder what Krauthammer was listening to at the time! The overall theme was the call for a common sacrifice of which Americans have always been capable to confront this uncommon crisis. When he quoted Washington at Valley Forge, knowing that over 1 million people stood there in the cold to watch him be sworn in, I was moved at his craftiness -- crafty as serpents, said Jesus, and innocent as lambs. Maybe Krauthammer should have turned down the thermostat to get the full effect.

[npincus]

19. Right. Not enough horseshit.

[Hieronymus]

22. He must have been really disappointed in Bush's speeches for 8 years.

[damntexdem]

20. I saw that this morning -- good!

I hope it really made him feel bad.

And I'm glad that Rove and others who flew to Texas with Dubya had problems with the speech, too.

[ErinBerin84]

21. a face that only a mother could love.