Back in 2004 when Obama made the keynote address at the Democrat National Convention I noticed that the MSM was swooning over his public speaking ability. I was not impressed by his speaking ability, but I could see why the MSM and much of the public was. They were impressed by the way he said things: I was unimpressed with what he had to say. It brought to mind the first TV debate between Presidential candidates in 1960, which was between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Kennedy really looked good (though he was actually quite ill with Addison's disease, a bad back, and an incurable social disease) and he was a smooth talker. Nixon looked sick because he didn't have on TV makeup, though he was actually in good health, and was not a slick speaker. But, there was more substance in what Nixon said. I remember one exchange about federal funding for education. Kennedy spoke eloquently about how it was needed, and how it would help the country, etc. Nixon said if the federal government pours money into states for education, it will be for nought; bureaucracy will devour the money. In hindsight Nixon was right. When I was in high school in the early 1950's my school had an office staff of five (the Principal, the Assistant Principal, the Dean of Women, the Registrar, and the Secretary) and five coaches (three men and two women). When my children were in high school around 1990, I don't know the precise numbers, but the football team had 17 coaches, and the non-teaching staff was huge. I think schools all around the nation have had a similar increase in non-teaching staff. And how has that helped education? Not much. SAT scores have actually declined if the changes in grading are taken into account. But, the graduates are much better football players. The point of this is that just because a person is a slick speaker doesn't mean his ideas are any good. Personally I prefer guys like Bush and Cheney who "say what they mean, and mean what they say." It is hard to tell what Obama means. He uses strawman, sets up false choices, demonizes his opponents, and obscures what he really means with soaring rhetoric, at least while his teleprompter is working. There are other people don't think much of Obama's speaking style. Jennifer Rubin cites this article by James Delingpole in the UK Telegraph.