Is Obama Too D*mn Smart For His Own Good?!?

Seems like President Obama just can't win. They want him to get more "angry" then get mad when he uses the term "kick a$$". They want him to quit overreaching into private industry, yet complain that he didn't step in sooner to close BP's leak. They assail him for being elitist, yet call him inauthentic when he orders buffalo wings and drinks beer. For many people Barack Obama will never be good enough, simply because he isn't the guy they voted for back in 08'.

That said, I've seen some nonsensical navel gazing thus far, but this might take the cake.

President Obama's speech on the gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.

Tuesday night's speech from the Oval Office of the White House was written to a 9.8 grade level, said Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. The Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on culture.

Though the president used slightly less than four sentences per paragraph, his 19.8 words per sentence "added some difficulty for his target audience," Payack said.

At a micro level, the average word in the speech contained 4.5 letters, a bit longer than is typical for the former constitutional law professor, Payack said.

Obama's nearly 10th-grade-level rating was the highest of any of his major speeches and well above the Grade 7.4 of his 2008 "Yes, we can" victory speech, which many consider his best effort, Payack said.

"The scores indicate that this was not Obama at his best, especially when attempting to make an emotional connection to the American people," he added.

Before anyone gets all up in arms about this being more Fox News trickery, this story appeared on CNN, a cable network that's quickly becoming about as relevant as Fine Living and MaverickTV. At least those channels are interesting, I can't say the same for CNN.

Look, even I'll admit Obama can be overly wordy and downright boring at times, but the guy's intelligence is never something I worry about. He's a well-reasoned, considerate thinker who considers all information before just jumping to a flippant decision. But this line of criticism is particularly silly because after 8 years of George Bush, I figured we'd want a President who could speak in a complete, coherent sentence. I mean, seriously, would you rather have boring, wordy Professor Barry, or this bumbling moron representing us to the rest of the free world?



Bush was folksy though, and Conservatives Americans love "folksy". I guess an Honest Tea drinking, arugula eating, chain smoking guy like Obama just isn't regular enough for us. Nope, want folksy. Give us folksy.

Seriously, is this who we want representing us?!?



Uh, I'll take Boring Kenyan Guys for $200, Alex.

Seriously, CNN. Get it together.

Question: Is Obama too darn smart and professorial? Does he need to dumb it down to better appeal to "real Americans"? Would a Bush/Palin style of communication benefit him in any way?

Language guru: Obama speech too 'professorial' for his target audience [CNN]