Obama's unmemorable speech

Michael Tomasky:

There's a famous story in American media and politics told by Lesley Stahl, the longtime CBS television reporter. During the Reagan administration, she did a very tough piece on the effect of Reagan's budget cuts to nursing homes and facilities for children with disabilities. After it aired, she got a call from Dick Darman, a Reagan official.

She was braced for a blast of criticism, but lo and behold Darman told her the segment was great. Stahl asked: what are you talking about? He explained that the segment's visuals had consisted of pictures of Reagan smiling while cutting ribbons at healthcare centres and nursing homes, and the visuals were all that mattered: "Nobody heard what you said."

I'm not sure that's quite as true today as it was in 1984. I think people are somewhat savvier news consumers now. But assuming it's mostly still true, then Barack Obama probably got what he needed today out of the much-hyped Berlin speech.

As speeches go, it was a long way from being Obama's best and may not even merit a spot on a 12-cut greatest hits compilation. In Obama's best speeches, he says something you didn't quite expect to hear from a politician. He substitutes – not all the time, but frequently enough to make things interesting – the first-reflex political euphemism with language that's more specific and imagistic, at times even quasi-literary.

This speech, though, relied on a lot of first-reflex rhetoric. It was all nice stuff about world cooperation at a time of intense interconnectedness that has produced both good effects and bad. It's useful that he said it on a prominent world stage. I don't think I disagreed with a word.

But it just wasn't said very memorably. The famous Berlin speeches by John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan each had at least one memorable, timeless line: "Ich bin ein Berliner" and "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall." As I type this sentence, it's only half-an-hour after the speech ended, and I can't remember such a line.

...

I am not sure whether the visuals will make a good YouTube. If they don't then it was pretty much a wasted effort. If you go be the YouTube moments from this trip it was not as great as many others in the media have suggested.

The YouTube moments were the interviews with Terry Moran of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS where Obama botched the questions on the success of the surge by claiming he would not change his vote regardless of the fact he was wrong.

When combined with his statements last summer that he was willing to accept genocide to effect his retreat Obama comes off as someone whose judgment is suspect and he is not smart enough to recognize it.

Finally, when the headlines about your trip are all about your safe landing in various cities, there is not much of substance happening.