Barack Obama's speech: Is the president trolling? [View all]

Last edited Wed Oct 23, 2013, 02:51 AM - Edit history (1)

by M.S - Oct 18th 2013



...Barack Obama is very much alive and reads the responses of people who listen to his speeches. We're all trying to interpret him, but he is also trying to interpret us. And the speeches he makes are designed with an understanding of how we are likely to interpret them. Mr Obama is surely aware that in the eyes of several powerful interpretive communities, particularly those of active liberals and of the mainstream media, full-throated condemnations of Republicans sound partisan and upsetting, while careful denunciations of "extremism" and calls for pragmatic compromise sound mature and comforting. At the same time, he is also aware of how committed conservatives see him; he makes this clear by referring to those "who think that my policies are misguided—and that's putting it mildly." And I suspect he is aware that when he speaks in the voice of the calm centrist, conservatives go bananas.

So what I'm wondering is: at this point, when Barack Obama talks like a centrist, delivers civics lessons and declares his willingness to consider all viewpoints, is he trolling Republicans?

Is he betting that by sticking to scrupulously neutral bipartisan language, even when his criticisms clearly refer to tea-party Republicans, he will drive them into ever-more-extreme paroxysms of hatred?

I don't know. Even if he were doing this, I'm not sure what other option he has than to embrace the language of bipartisanship. Maybe I'm overthinking the whole thing. But at a minimum, it's interesting to think about how Mr Obama decides on the language he uses, when the two audiences he's speaking to will interpret every statement through such different lenses...

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/10/barack-obamas-speech?spc=scode&spv=xm&ah=9d7f7ab945510a56fa6d37c30b6f1709

The video referred to: