I'm surprised the founding fathers didn't include among the requirements to be president, "gifted orator." It seems like such an important aspect since everything is honky-dory with Obama orating such great speeches.

It's apparent that this guy is not smart enough to give a speech without a teleprompter.  He makes a great actor though.

Greatest Orator???

Sheer nonsense.

Great orators create great orations. People remember the words, phrases, ideas of a great orator for generations. Think Churchill, Lincoln, Reagan, even FDR on occasion, the masterful orations in any of Shakespeare's plays.

Nobody remembers what Obama says five minutes after he speaks. The only thing coming out of his mouth is robotic blather. There is no heart in any speech he ever made.

The NYT continues its shameless hagiography of the Empty One.

No citizen's right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, or property is safe as long as Obama is President of the United States.

Libs love someone who can sling the BS...

As far as "gifted orators" go, I hope they're not including President Teleprompter.

Gifted?

Like Pelosi?

Like Hillary?

Like Harry Reid?

Like Joe Biden?

Like the Governor of NY?

Like the former Governor of NJ?

Like the Governor of Penn?

Like the Governor of Michigan?

Like the Governor of Ohio?

Like the Governorof Maryland?

Like the Governor of Mass?

Where are these gifted speakers?

I agree with the Times, actually.  Democrats have the market cornered on good speeches and speech writers.  Even on the forums, liberals have taken public manipulation to new artisitic heights.  The techniques they use are facinating and effective, but it's like some of those pictures of Jesus in the meat loaf.  At first you can't see it but once you've seen it, you can't STOP seeing it.

I certainly think that Republicans and conservatives in general need to get on the ball, not to duplicate these techniques, but to understand them.

The important thing is to keep your cool and don't let the liberal change the subject on you (a popular tactic is the "ad hominem", where instead of talking about the subject, you will end up having to verbally defend your right and ability to talk about the subject -- you have to learn how to avoid these types of derailings).

Stick to the facts.  Stick to the topic.  Know your stuff.

This is why I really love Bill O'Reilly, by the way.  I don't like his talk show format but get him out of that format and he's awesome.  He knows his stuff.  Watching him talk with Letterman is a beautiful thing because he really understands the game and knows how to keep on his central point, not get sidetracked and deliver effective, knowledable counters off the cuff.  He is The Man when it comes to this.

More conservatives need to aspire to that level of dialogue.  50% of it is having the knowledge to know what you're talking about and have the facts on your side, the other 50% is avoiding liberal traps meant to derail any conversation that isn't going their way.

If Obama did fire up the young in Iran to take to the streets, he sure ignored their efforts until the very end (of their life and/or the life of the uprising). Sort of like a dog chasing a car. He got them fire up and would even verbally support them. Now they are chanting Obama (which means something like He who Arrived) or will he not arrive? Those young people in Iran think that our president may say or do something to help their situation. I feel so sorry for those poor fools, Obama cannot even call the shooter at Fort Hood a Terrorist much less help them. The last time we had a weak POTUS we suffered in Iran. I guess it is only fair to let them suffer. I did think we were beyond this kind of childishness. If we are going to help them say so or at least give some F-22’s to Israel now so they can help all of us.

If you think medical care is expensive now wait until it is free!

Someone--trying to be uptown--said the other day that he was a Caesar in the oratory dept--I think they meant Cicero. Not even close.

Has Mr. Obama lost his oratorical touch? Is the magic finally beginning
to fade? Does the White House rely too heavily on his skills on the
stump to advance his priorities?

Perhaps his priorities are the reason for his fading magic; reality has set in:  "It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk"~Joshua Reynolds.

Even the most gifted of tongues can push a pile of bullsh*t only so far.  Obama has attempted that feat and, as ironic as it sounds, it is his listeners who are beginning to get a bad taste in their mouths.  Across America people are beginning to see how unpalatable it all is, and they are beginning to object to this modern day Esau attempting to sell our birth-right for a mess of pottage, excepting of course that pseudo-intellectual enclave known as the New York Times.

Anyway, oratory can be a bane to a nation's political, moral and intellectual life:

"Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable"~Cicero

"Oratory, n.  A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding.  A tyranny tempered by stenography"~Ambrose Bierce.

"The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion"~Macaulay, Essays on Athenian Orators.

There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory"~Mark Twain.

"We fear that the glittering generalities of the speaker have left an impression more delightful than permanent"~Franklin J. Dickman.

Concerning this last quote we can only hope that it is so.

Words don't mean anything unless you back them up with action. Churchill was great because he spoke well and did what he had to to help Britain win World War II. Same with Roosevelt, and same with other great leaders throughout history.

"You just don't get it." - Pa Grape, "Veggietales"

If, uh, I, ah, used ums and uhs, uh, as often as...theeeee...greatest...orator...theeeee...country has.....ever known, I, um, would have been laughed out of several aspects of my life by now.  I, um, cannot...ah, say that....His....Majesty The Shahinshah is...a great speaker......or, um, a "great orator"...as the New York Times insists, uh, that He is.  

"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)

Well, they were close.  The correct term is "gifted bullshitters."