Bush on "Tribal Sovereignty" (audio clip)

I saw them both (and powell) speak. It was an totally hostile crowd and I think Bush came better through than the article say.

Especially listen to his remarks regarding affirmative action. He is defending his position rather well infront of a crowd that disagrees with him 100%

And a general remark: Why is it that everybody wants to judge the candidates by their oratory gifts?

Bush: rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/c04/c04080604_bush.rm?mode=compact

Kerry: rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/c04/c04080504_kerry.rm?mode=compact

Window -> clip info

Originally posted by Anders
And a general remark: Why is it that everybody wants to judge the candidates by their oratory gifts?
That's clearly not an oratory issue. It appears George doesn't know what the word sovereignty means.

Originally posted by BRussell
Communication is one of the primary jobs of the president. This clip, and Bush's communication problem more generally, isn't about oratory gifts, it's about knowledge and the ability to clearly talk about ideas and issues. He can't talk extemporaneously about issues because he embarrasses himself every time.

"What do you think tribal sovereignty means it the 21st century and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and the federal government?"

Asked that question without preperation I would answer halfassed as the prez does or have to say "gee I dont know much about that. Im ready to read up on it. Are there any problems you know of? Please let me know and I will focus on it."

I ran for our parliarment six years ago and you simply cannot know everything. Remember he is campaigning, probably giving a speech every hour for most of the day. You are totally dependend on your speech writers and informants. It looks like Kerry have the upper hand in that area.

Originally posted by Anders
"What do you think tribal sovereignty means it the 21st century and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and the federal government?"

Asked that question without preperation I would answer halfassed as the prez does or have to say "gee I dont know much about that. Im ready to read up on it. Are there any problems you know of? Please let me know and I will focus on it."

I ran for our parliarment six years ago and you simply cannot know everything. Remember he is campaigning, probably giving a speech every hour for most of the day. You are totally dependend on your speech writers and informants. It looks like Kerry have the upper hand in that area.

Anders, those were my exact thoughts. Except I thought he *should* have said the latter, countering his perception as a bumbling, largely incurious man. Personally, I don't fault him for not knowing the answer to a sophisticated question on a fairly esoteric topic (although Clinton speaks eloquently about tribal issues). I fault him for trying to pass off his seemingly *complete* lack of knowledge of tribal issues as knowledge. It's dishonest. And it sounds more like he's trying to guess the answer to a quiz than to provide real solutions or dialogue, further insulting those affected by the issue.

(but I posted it as in the michael moore style "hey look at bush" tradition :p )

Originally posted by pfflam
Well, why would we demand the head of our country be able to think on his feet?

Why would we rather have an exceptional thinker in an exceptional position of authority rather than, say, have Anders (re: "I would answer halfassed as the prez does"?

What you can say is what you are capable of saying, speech, -taken in its larger aspect, including written, computer assisted etc forms, and actions seen as a kind of inscrition- is all that we have as a testimony of someone's intelligence.
So why would we want a leader to be able to think on their feet?

Are you really serious about this? That speech on a stage surrounded by thousands of people truly show how intelligent you are?

Prepared speeches depends on your speech writers. Answers to unknown questions depends on your informants ("Next thing on the agenda mr. Kerry/president is a conference for minority journalists. You can expect to get questions about these issues...") AND to some degree knowledge. And training, training, training. Not intelligence. Though I would argue that intelligence can be used to train you oratory abilities. But a casual link between the two, No.

Originally posted by Anders
Are you really serious about this? That speech on a stage surrounded by thousands of people truly show how intelligent you are?

Prepared speeches depends on your speech writers. Answers to unknown questions depends on your informants ("Next thing on the agenda mr. Kerry/president is a conference for minority journalists. You can expect to get questions about these issues...") AND to some degree knowledge. And training, training, training. Not intelligence. Though I would argue that intelligence can be used to train you oratory abilities. But a casual link between the two, No. But he fumbled on the description of the meaning of sovereignty!!

What does sovereignty mean? Mr president of the United States . . . obviously from his record of invading other sovereign states, he doesn't know the meaning of the word!

Interesting Kerry-esque equivocation by Bush: "I didn't cut taxes. The Congress cut them." (8:30)

It's a column, Nick. Be nice. :)