obama speech

Gene Koo has an interesting observation about Obama’s rhetorical style:

By using complex constructions that resist distillation, Obama minimizes out-of-context critics, although he cannot mute them (witness the “bitter” comment).

Koo suggests his rhetorical style allows him to bypass traditional media that relies on sound bytes to distill arguments and to speak directly to the American people. Personally, I think the bigger constraint for the media is that Obama’s presentation of self defies easy caricature. Pundits haven’t been able to settle on an salient frame from which to attack him….yet. remember, the McCain campaign struck brief gold with “The One” ads that painted him as a celebrity. Were it not for the economic collapse, that meme might have stuck. It is fun to have a major political figure that flummoxes the mainstream media.