Another SOTU, another one unwatched by me.
When I was director of public policy for an Atlanta group a few years back my boss asked me what I thought of the SOTU, I told him I hadn't seen it. He was semi-irate. How could a person in my position not watch the speech? Don't worry said I. It reads a lot faster.
Am I the only person who finds these speeches unwatchable? Even with a decent speaker the stupid dance of planned applause lines and the audience drives me insane. When did political speeches go this way? Surely there was a time when the speech was delivered with power as though written into the scene of a drama. Under those circumstances the hearers would only applaud when truly seized with emotion or appreciation. The speaker might even be a little tripped up by the unexpected (better still, unplanned) outpouring of approval.
Kill the applause line. It has already killed political speeches, so we're just talking about revenge.
6 comments:
Where are your self-preservation instincts, Hunter? You never show your hand in that situation. Come to work with the speech already read, and when asked to comment, you comment about content.
Only semi-irate? You're lucky.
Jay:
As a Naval officer once said of young men, "They're young, dumb, and full of . . ." Well, I really shouldn't finish that rather salty quote.
Not only was this, like every other SOTU I've ever tried, unwatchable, it preempted House. It's enough to send me back into the cranky and inept arms of the LP.
Kathy, the SOTU is just one more example of why you need TiVo.
I had Hillary down for a curiously strong breath mint.
I like SOTUs. They're more tone-setters than substantive, but besides campaign speeches, are the only venue for rhetoric high-minded enough to reflect our greatest aspirations.
The degree to which what the president says is not laughable to the public is a good gauge for how well we're doing.
Bush didn't do bad, I think.
Of course, it doesn't help when applause is used as a partisan trick.
That part was awesome! He totally deserved it, too.
I hate SOTU. It's boring and not even Constitutionally required.
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