Guest Commentary by Nancy Cahalan
On the radio station I listen to each morning, 97.1 Talk in St. Louis, a regular contributor to the "Allman in the Morning show", Dr. Randy Tobler (who also has his own time slot on Saturday mornings) suggested several times that people watch President Obama's speeches with the sound off and just watch his body language and facial expressions. It is Tobler's assertion that Obama without sound appears to be a very angry man.
After reading Dan Zanoza’s interview with Debbie Revor [http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2009/09/obama-acorn-i-worked-with-the-community-organizer-by-debbie-revor-.html]--who at one time was a legal secretary working in the same law office of Mr. Obama--I commented to Zanoza about Dr. Tobler's assertion. Zanoza wrote back, wondering if anyone had ever written about the topic and invited me to do so. Since this was just before the weekend of the "Big 5", Obama’s five appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows, I agreed, knowing I would have plenty of sound off/watching time.
I recorded three of the shows and the following day, I viewed them. I must admit that the three shows did not tell me much at first. The only time I saw anger, I decided to review this particular segment with the sound on. I listened to what was asked of Obama by George Stephanopoulos that had elicited the angry response. The question had to do with the definition of tax. It was obvious that Mr. Obama was not pleased with the implication that any part of "his" health care plan is a tax, even though it fits the dictionary definition of such.
I then decided that I would access You Tube and look at other Obama speeches over the last couple of years. I viewed speeches from 2008 and 2009 which included a part of Obama's weekly address from 9.5.09, his labor day speech to union members, his eulogy for Ted Kennedy, a speech about patriotism on 7.4.09, something from an AME church on 6.5.08 and the short four-minute sound byte from his health care speech in front of Congress which can be found on the White House website.
But I also thought, in order to be completely fair, I should look at other presidents in similar speeches. So, through the wonderful portal of You Tube, I found George W. Bush speaking at the funeral of Gerald Ford and Bush's post 9/11 speech; Bill Clinton when he spoke at Richard Nixon's funeral and Clinton's farewell speech; Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech; George H. W. Bush’s inaugural address and a speech he gave on 12.20.89. Finally, I watched Jimmy Carter speaking about the Iran Embassy hostage situation.
It was when I was watching Mr. Reagan that it finally dawned on me what was clearly apparent concerning Obama’s facial expressions and body language. Obama seems to only have two facial expressions...pre-scowl and scowl. Basically, his face never changes expression. I went back to the speech in front of the union members thinking, "Gee, he is really pro-union, surely there will be a friendlier look on his face there." But I was wrong. Even during that speech there was not much change in his expression. During the snippets of Obama's recent address to a joint session of Congress, his face looked like a parent who was greatly displeased at having to tell a child, yet again, something that has been told to said child many times before and why in the world do I have to tell you this again?
I have always found Obama's body language to be stiff and somewhat choreographed, but watching his speeches without sound really brought attention to the stridency behind his hand movements. He points, sometimes with his whole hand, in a very strong, jerky motion that reminds me, once again, of an upset parent scolding a child. I also found that the angry looks are particularly noticeable when Obama is using the teleprompter and therefore never looks down at notes. When he uses the teleprompter and is looking straight into the cameras or the crowd to whom he is speaking, the never-changing expression seems particularly stern and angry.
What I saw on the other President's faces were true expressions of emotion: Carter's obvious sadness over the events in Iran and Bush 41's positive emotion as he has just been sworn in as President. I also saw faces that were mobile, eyebrows raised at appropriate times, smiles occurred appropriately as well--smiles that made it all the way to the speaker’s eyes. Hand movements were fluid or hands were folded calmly in front of the speaker. None of the other Presidents seemed to have a chip on their shoulder like Obama seems to have.
Now, again, to be completely fair, I have seen still pictures of Obama smiling, including his eyes and those pictures are pleasant. But when I was watching his speeches with the sound off, I found that I agreed with Dr. Tobler, Obama looks very angry. He looks like someone who expects to just have everyone agree with him and is greatly displeased to find out that so many people do not. The health care speech seemed particularly angry to me as it included the whole parent-scolding-a-child thing. This, coupled with his strident, pointing, stiff hand movements combine to communicate to myself, and I'm sure others, a man who has a chip on his shoulder who seems to think that he just has to say something and people will believe him and he becomes quite upset at anyone who dares to even suggest that things are other than what they are (as in the tax question posed by Mr. Stephanopoulos).
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I guess anger and arrogance look very similar.
Posted by: R. Jean Cohoon | March 13, 2010 at 08:37 PM