Comments on: Obama’s gamble on complexity

By: Roddenberry

Roddenberry — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:00:35 +0000

Obama is the political path to lead the USA to the complexity of XXIst century The question is if his sophisticated communication can reach the most uneducated and conservative composants of the US population.

By: sysrick.com » links for 2008-03-21

sysrick.com » links for 2008-03-21 — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:33:02 +0000

[…] Obama’s gamble on complexity […]

By: Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:35:19 +0000

Here’s an interesting argument on your complexity point, Scott. Obama and the Decline of the Soundbite

“I’m sure millions of people watched clips from Obama’s remarks on the network evening news. But millions more are experiencing the speech outside the mainstream media. They’re reading, watching, and listening to this speech in full, then discussing it and sharing it. The evening news is still important, and the cable shows still matter. But the filters are no doubt becoming less important, and that in turn means that the soundbite might lose some of its stranglehold on political communications.”

And here’s Jon Stewart on TV news not listening well to what Obama meant. Some of it hysterically apt.

Thanks for this post, Scott.

By: Lord

Lord — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:45:02 +0000

It was a great speech and his supporters will love it, but will it assuage the doubts of the undecided? What I fear is people may second guess what others may think of it, assume they are not capable of this level of thought, and decline to support him for this reason. That would be sad, but given our history of electoral campaigns, hardly surprising.

By: Vanderleun

Vanderleun — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:44:29 +0000

You just slapped some bologna into Ashley’s mustard and relish sandwich. [Hint: read that anecdote at the wrap of the speech very carefully with blinders off.]

Now just pour a tall glass of Grape Kool-Aid and kick back.

By: Cléo Saulnier

Cléo Saulnier — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:23:59 +0000

I was deeply offended by his speech. History won’t be kind to this speech because the seeds of the future generation are already here and he’s trying to undo the work that countless people around the world have done to put hate behind us. For Obama to defend his pastor is reprehensible (and rejecting the words do less than nothing). Hate can never be justified. The good of Wright can never negate the hate. And that’s something that Obama just doesn’t get but that most people implicitly understand. He just told people that hate is ok if you do some good to counter it (which is impossible). This had nothing to do with race. It was the only thing he could do because if he distanced himself from Wright, no one would believe it cuz of the 20 years he’s been there (not to mention risk losing his base).

Please tell this guy to shut up before more people around the world start believing that defending hatred is ok. And why wasn’t he taught this basic principle in school like I was?

By: Rick Hood

Rick Hood — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:50:54 +0000

I think he will need to repeat this speech - or something like it - many more times. This was a great speech for all the reasons you say, but as a one-timer it won’t make the Reverend Wright problem go away - or at least into go away enough - especially for when he is up against McCain.

At first is was completely demoralized by the Wright remarks. Now I think this could be an opportunity for Obama to push the envelope and show us more of what makes him great.

If he stops at this one speech - big mistake. If he can keep talking to us about this issue, his greatness will increase.

By: Michael Turro

Michael Turro — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:17:48 +0000

With regard to your friend’s ““not sure he put the controversy to rest.” observation - that is something that I have heard echoed by a lot of media folk, Clinton people, and McCain supporters. I think the real dramatic point to be made her is that it didn’t seem like he wanted to put the controversy to rest… he wanted to open it up, unpack every little piece of guilt, prejudice, and racial misunderstanding that had gotten packed into it in the first place. That is what I found to be so refreshing about the speech… he didn’t run from Wright like every other politician in America would have… he invited us to talk it out. That’s a nice change of pace.

By: als

als — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:11:24 +0000

Just make sure you vote for the guy and don’t second guess yourselves when the d-day comes.