In all of the dust that has been flung around following the comedic stylings of Wanda Sykes, one little point has been overlooked… President Obama gave a mediocre performance at the WHC Dinner.
The first four minutes of the speech were highlighted by the Sasha & Malia grounding over Air Force 1 and Rahm Emanuel being tripped up by using the word day after mother (instead of his usual word of choice).
One of the more interesting moments is when President Obama addresses RNC Chair Michael Steele. Obama takes a poke at Steele’s attempt to make the Republican Party more attractive to young black people by stating “Michael Steele is in the house tonight. Or as he would say, ‘in the heezy.’ What’s up?” Is this what happens when the leaders of the two major political parties are both black men? I was told that “Black on Black Crime” was a hoax… I guess it only exists at the highest levels of government.
The rest of the speech had its’ moments but for all of the good press Obama has gotten, the overall performance was so-so… after all, as Obama stated at the beginning of his speech “I am Barack Obama. Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me.” He had a partisan crowd that was tailored made for his remarks as opposed to his predecessor, George W. Bush.
I looked at last year’s farewell speech of President Bush, and I have to say that although Barack Obama is a much better communicator than George W. Bush, Bush has a much better delivery and is more comfortable in this surrounding than Obama (even in a room full of people that didn’t like him and didn’t vote for him).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV53worehV0I am not a Bush apologist by any stretch of the imagination. Watch the video, take your political bias out of the equation and decide for yourself. In my view, Bush is more relaxed, has a better command of timing and is funnier.
As President Obama stated in his remarks, “I have to confess I really did not want to be here tonight, but I knew I had to come — just one more problem that I’ve inherited from George W. Bush.” It is a problem that is inherited from Bush because Bush was very good at making fun of himself while Obama is too cool to allow himself to let his hair down.
Faculty, Department of Political Science, Towson University. Graduate from Liberty University Seminary.