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Talk show hosts love when
the president gives one of his very rare press conference or any other
occasion when he is off prompter. That is when these "tells" surface,
giving all veteran Obama observers the verbal heads-up that the
president has entered the land of thinly disguised fantasy or obvious
dissembling.
First, the president begins a pattern of "ahs" and
"uhmms"
which are as embarrassing as they are revealing. The awkward pausing
punctuated by these semi-stutters increases in frequency as the
president senses his own flailing about.
Next, the president begins filibustering. His average length of answer
in every press conference is already epic, but he has been getting
worse as the presidency has dragged on. Pressers are not battles
between the "reporters" and the president. Very few not named Jake or
Ed bother the president with fastballs. The struggle is simply between
the president and the effort he has to land the plane anywhere near
where it took off, so far does he wander as he rambles through the
minutes he is obliged to spend appearing to take questions.
The president will allegedly be subject to time limits on Wednesday
night, but his contempt for most such rules almost guarantees he will
blow through every limit and dare the moderator or Mitt Romney to
challenge him. [Hugh
Hewitt cont]
The media are up to the task, if the past is any indication. Four
years ago Steve Kroft interviewed candidate Obama on Sixty-Minutes.
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KROFT: But what is there specifically
about you? You mentioned
disposition. You mentioned disposition. What skills and traits do you
have that would make you a good president?
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Obama's stumbling, bumbling answer to this, and other questions,
were
so telling about this vapid little man left unscripted, that
Sixty-Minutes later doctored
the transcript.
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