It’s been shown that the tone of our communication is far more important than the words being communicated. How communication is perceived can be completely changed by changing the tone.
The reason why I think Obama is so popular is because of the tone of his politics. He makes people feel inspired and hopeful, regardless of the policies themselves.
I’d say this is true of popular presidents in the past as well. Is tone one of the reasons Bush is so unpopular? Are presidents’ popularity more dependent on how they make people feel as opposed to the policies themselves? How important is a Presidents’ “tone?”
I don’t think so. I think his tone is fine, and I think people are already starting to feel sorry for him for screwing things up so much. I think he remains an object of empathy. It’s his policies people hate - not him.
I agree with you, Faust, I’ve been ashamed to be an American because of him for the past eight years, but for the last 9 months I’ve felt really bad for the guy. He’ll go down as one of the worst presidents in history; whatever his failures, he’s definitely paying for them.
I do think his tone had something to do with it, though. A big part of the reason he won the election is because he came off so nonchalant. He was relaxed and confident, and it played really well. When 9/11 happened, he knew he was unprepared to deal with it, his confidence was shaken, and the tone of his presidency changed. With each new disaster, he lost more and more of the confidence and locker-room leadership that got him into the presidency. It culminated in an election where the Republican candidate was fighting for his political life to disassociate himself from the president, to the point of shunning help from what should have been a solid ally. That’s pretty sad.
Or the absence of policies or… Hell there’s a lot that goes into it. Obama’s spread the wealth comment scares the hell out of the people that understand it, or others love it who think he’s going to take care of their car and house payments (which I actually heard someone say). We need to take another long hard look at the concept of selfishness. It’s the Christian Democrats who support the redistribution of wealth the loudest and some actually point to Jesus to justify it. Only thing they don’t want to hear is that Jesus redistribution of wealth was voluntary. Leftists are really free with other people’s money.
Jeezus, how is he paying for them? When he’s done with his term he can go back to oil business or buy another ball team. He can live out his life in wealth and comfort. Sure he’ll be a pariah, scorned and despised for the rest of his life, but he’ll still write his memoirs and get on with the rest of his life. It’s the rest of nation and the world as a whole that’s going to be bleeding from every orifice for years to come. The thousands of dead and mutilated America soldiers and untold thousands of Iraqi civilians have truly paid the price for the hubris and stupidity of the Bush administration.
I agree that there used to something likable about Bush on a human level, and at one time I thought he might turn things around, but now I feel nothing for him but disgust.