PrintAugust 15, 2009
Obama's punctured gravitas
Barack Obama's political glass jaw is the illusion of gravitas that was successfully sold to enough Americans to get him elected. His stentorian deep voice persuades many, never mind the pablum of vague clichés he dishes out. Rush Limbaugh brilliant punctures the illusion by speeding up the tape and raising Obama's register when he plays excerpts of the president speaking. Minus the deep voice, with an altered rhythm no longer hypnotically caressing the listener, the banality of the actual words becomes clear.
For a man acclaimed as the greatest orator since Daniel Webster, how many people can quote even one memorable phrase from one of his speeches? "Acted stupidly" doesn't count, because it came in a press conference not a speech.
What Rush Limbaugh's audio wizardry does to Obama's voice, the Joker Poster artist does with Obama's mien. Minus any racial signifier, Obama suddenly loses a certain gravity. Add in the huge made-up smile, and it becomes clear that a massive joke has indeed been played on the American people.
Watch the following YouTube re-creation of an Obama speech, as given by the Joker Poster:
The Democrats and their media lapdogs will labor mightily to sustain and reinforce the image of Obama the cool, calm, authoritative, brilliant, serious, likable, man of destiny. But ridicule is the most powerful solvent on earth. And a false gravity, once punctured, dissipates with the breeze.
