President Obama’s First News Conference: Articulate but Long-Winded
A seven minute, 42-second-long answer. A six minute answer. Three and four minute answers. Even listening to the most powerful person in the world — and a verbally adept one at that — I (and much of the rest of America) just don’t have the attention span to listen intently to someone talking that long. (A 50-second answer was a welcome relief.)
Obama is refreshingly articulate (especially compared to our last President). He “knows his stuff.” But he needs to answer more succinctly. Whether we like it or not, this is a soundbite society. No matter how long his answer, the media (and the public) will boil it down to one sentence or ten seconds — if they even understand the bottom line. Better for him to boil it down for us so we can focus on the essence of his answer.
Obama is such a good communicator, I know he will figure it out: he doesn’t have to show how smart he is by saying everything he knows. One of the hardest things for knowledgeable people to do is decide what to leave out.
The good: Knowledgeable, transparent, friendly and conversational. And — He handled one of the first of many questions about loose-cannon Joe Biden effectively.
The not-so-good: Near the beginning of the Q and A, he repeated a negative while answering a question about bipartisanship. “I don’t think I underestimated it.” [How hard it would be to change the way Washington works]
But, here’s the best news: at least he didn’t say “misunderestimate.”
February 14th, 2009 at 6:54 am
Hi Kathy:
I too thought his answers were laborious, but…and it’s a big butt…O’s press conference was the first one in a long, long time, that I listened to beginning to end. I’ll take long answers over lies and foolishness. With Dubbya, I was embarrassed. With Clinton I was sickened. With Nixon I was ashamed. All emotional responses. But with Obama, I was fascinated, intrigued, and…yes…hopeful. These are exciting times, aren’t they? It is going to be a compelling journey.