The President Speaks

I didn’t go to the Beck rally, of course, nor did I watch it on television. I watch some things so that you don’t have to, but there are limits; when it comes to Glen Beck you are on your own. Nonetheless, I did see clips of his, um, whatever it was replayed on the news shows which I do watch and I was struck by one thing – he really engages with his audience.

“Look at the Washington Monument,” he exhorts them, and points at it. They turn and look as one body. He has them involved.

Not to compare the two men, but I did watch Dr. Martin Luther King as often as I could, and I heard him in person once. He connected with the people he was speaking to. “I have a dream,” he said, and then he challenged millions of people to adopt his dream as their own.

Listen to our current president, making an effort to “lead” on the economy,

Our most urgent task is to restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work. To strengthen our middle class, we must give all our children the education they deserve, and all our workers the skills that they need to compete in a global economy. We must jump-start industries that create jobs, and end our dependence on foreign oil. We must unleash the innovation that allows new products to roll off our assembly lines, and nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs. This will be difficult. But in the days to come, it must be our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as president.

Wow, that’s about as stirring and energizing as listening to your doctor describing the enema you’re about to be given. That may be intelligent as all get out, but it isn’t going to inspire anyone to sprint for the voting booth.

And, really, “unleash the innovation?” I mean, read that whole sentence,

“We must unleash the innovation that allows new products to roll off our assembly lines, and nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs.”

Who really talks like that in the real world? I mean, I was an entrepreneur for many years and the only thing that ever “sprang from” me was sweat, and occasionally vomit when I had a hangover.