July 28, 2016

Did Obama laugh at Hillary's slogan?



The line from the speech is:
Most of all, I see Americans of every party, every background, every faith who believe that we are stronger together – black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; young and old; gay, straight, men, women, folks with disabilities, all pledging allegiance, under the same proud flag, to this big, bold country that we love.
Obama laughs — scoffingly? — just as he says "stronger together," which is Hillary's slogan. 

54 comments:

Unknown said...

No, he was still laughing at Trump in a segment of his speech where he was referencing Trump. He chuckled several times at Trump's ridiculous claims. He was contrasting Clinton to a laughable Trump. Obama is an expert Trump mocker, he does it with subtle humor, but his meaning is unmistakable, that Trump is a joke.

CJinPA said...

Nah. The laughter is supposed to convey "Can you believe we even have to point this stuff out to those hateful cavemen in the GOP?"

It's his version of a unifying message.

pm317 said...

Perhaps. I never thought he could whole-heartedly throw his support for her. These people bear grudges.

David Begley said...

Stronger together? At least 40% loathe Hillary and over 60% don't trust her.

Face it. We were last united for about two years after 9-11. The highlight was when GWB threw that perfect strike at Yankee Stadium to open the World Series game.

Jonas said...

The part shown in the video is not the part you quoted. It came later:

"We don’t fear the future; we shape it, embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own."

MadisonMan said...

"Stronger Together" screams out focus group output to me.

rhhardin said...

Not much thought is given to the mechanism of coordination. For Obama it's guns; for Americans it's competition.

Nonapod said...

I have no idea. I can't imagine what that dude finds funny. He seems very sedate in most of the speeches I've seen him give (A lot of people seem to interpret that as calm rationality, reasonability. I don't since I pay attention to what he actually says and what he actually does). The only time he becomes animated is when he's attacking conservatives and Republicans with ham handed strawmen. I suspect he wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying and was lost in his own thoughts.

Brando said...

You might be reading a bit too deeply into it. Obama's probably not a big Hillary fan (not after the 2008 primaries) but he seems committed to helping her win. Whatever he may think of her focus grouped slogan, I doubt he'd scoff publicly over it. Hell, it seems like the sort of slogan he would have used himself.

Sebastian said...

"I may be the ultimate con artist who can make people believe I believe my own BS, but that doesn't mean I have to pretend I believe other people's BS."

n.n said...

Class diversity misses the individual for the skin color. Then there is selective exclusion, the missing millions in abortion chambers, Mengele's ghost at Planned Parenthood... A progressive trail of tears.

No punch drunk love for the Special Olympics? Positive progress.

Z said...

FAR from being an Obama apologist here (believe me) but I think he only chuckled there because he realized it WAS her 'slogan' as he said it....kind of "hey, I'm sayin' what she's pushin'"

traditionalguy said...

Obama knows that Together in Equality is an attack trope.only. The dictatorship of the Party needs division of groups on gender and race with a phony enemy to hate. Putin and Trump are one big phony enemy for now. Stay tuned.

traditionalguy said...

Hillary is testing her new slogan: walk softly and carry a Big Lie.

mikee said...

The entire election campaign and most policies of the Dems are based on "divide and conquer" with the creation and encouragement of irreconcilable, crises based on race, class, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference, criminal history, Pokemon Go team, and anything else they can devise to cause hatred among the citizenry.

Then they pretend to be advocates for the supposedly downtrodden subgroup.

Josef Tito used the same technique to keep Yugoslavia enslaved under his dictatorship, setting each ethnicity against the other then keeping them each impotent to resolve any of the problems he caused them.

I, for one, think that is no way to run a country.

n.n said...

walk softly and carry a Big Lie

Pulp fiction. A welcome separation of classical progressives and progressive liberals.

Balfegor said...

Wait, "stronger together" is her slogan? I thought that was for the EU Remain campaign in the UK . . .

Ah, I see I had confused "Better Together" (the campaign for Scotland to remain administratively part of the UK, rather than an independent kingdom in personal union), and "Stronger in Europe" (the EU Remain campaign).

tim in vermont said...

If people think the Ghostbusters remake was political, wait 'til they get a load of Star Trek.

The Scotty character actually intones "You can nae break a stick in a bundle." Uhura goes full SJW blathering on about how the Federation's "unity is its strenght," and if anybody can find the motivation of the "bully" (The character doesn't rise to the level of villain) let me know.

If you are planning to see it, make sure you are high enough to drop your IQ under 100 or you won't enjoy it.

Balfegor said...

RE: Brando:

Hell, it seems like the sort of slogan he would have used himself.

One of the most appealing things about Obama is that, at least according to some reports, he thought his 2008 slogan "Yes we can!" was stupid, so he had to be cajoled into using it. There's a clear sense of ironic distance from the barking demagogue he plays in public.

Conversely, one of the unappealing things about Trump (at least for a snob like me) is that he is so completely committed to his rôle that there's no sense whatsoever of ironic distance.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I so love the Democrats pushing the idea that they'll unite us. The party of "I won" and "move on" is going to bring us all together, ya'll.
The party that first divides everyone into smaller and smaller demographic groups and does its level best to pit those groups against one another for political gain--the party of Big Data and micro targeting--that party's gonna sell the idea that they love us all, that they want us all to be together. They can't even stand to be with lots of people on the Left--witness the DNC's active efforts to sink Bernie!--but they're all about a big tent, no ideological purity tests over there, no sir.

Laughable.

tim in vermont said...

Perhaps. I never thought he could whole-heartedly throw his support for her.

I think only you and some unionized nurses and teachers can "whole-heartedly" support her. I think even Unknown knows she is a stinker forced on the rank and file by the big money interests when she won the "invisible primary."

tim in vermont said...

Conversely, one of the unappealing things about Trump (at least for a snob like me) is that he is so completely committed to his rôle that there's no sense whatsoever of ironic distance.

But he does seem to court the lumpenproles with genuine enthusiasm, a group all good people simply ignore. We are all waiting for the signal that says, "Look, I think these people are yahoo losers in the new economy and politics who probably shouldn't be allowed to vote, but I am just playing them..."

Then the Donald would be OK. But now he seems as if he takes these lower caste Americans seriously and genuinely cares about them! Yuck!

tim in vermont said...

"I love the poorly educated!" - Trump

Democrats went on to convincingly demonstrate that Democrats roundly despise this disgusting creatures.

Nonapod said...

I'm sure I'm projecting, but their seems to be a bit more authenticity to Trump's pandering than Obama's or Clinton's. Maybe because Trump just seems more lower class or classless?

I always come back to comedian John Mulaney's Trump joke from years ago:

to me, Donald Trump is not a rich man. Donald Trump is like what a hobo imagines a rich man to be. like Trump was walking around under an underpass, and he heard some guy like ‘Ohh, as soon as my number comes in, I’m gonna put up tall buildings with my name on ’em! I’ll have fine golden hair, and a tv show where I fire Gene Simmons with my children.’ And Trump was like ‘That is how I will live my life.'”

Contrast that with the elitism and disdain that seems to ooze out of characters like Hillary and Obama.

PB said...

If you like to make a drinking game out of politicians speeches when Obama talks don't use the word I. You may not have enough booze in the house to get through the speech

wendybar said...

Well, after tearing the country in two...black vs white, straight vs gay, rich vs poor ect..ect...for 7 1/2 years...He doesn't know the meaning of stronger together.

Lewis Wetzel said...

So the Dems are going all out with the idea that after 8 years of Obama, America has never been better.

Right Direction Wrong Track Spread
RCP Average 6/10 - 7/24 -- 23.1 68.9 -45.8

bleh said...

I've never been that impressed by Obama's public speaking. I just don't get all the hype, to be honest. I think he can read off a teleprompter well enough to be a TV anchor in a mid-market city. His voice is high-pitched and flat, and almost has a hectoring quality to it. He exudes zero warmth. And when speaking extemporaneously, he says "um" and "uh" and stutters a bit.

I just don't get it. His style of oratory reminds me of what high school kids in Model UN think is impressive.

Fred Drinkwater said...

"Pledging allegiance ".
There's a laugh line - I have enough cash in my pocket right now to give a dollar to everyone in that room who has sincerely pledged allegiance to anything in the last year.

Curious George said...

"BDNYC said...
I've never been that impressed by Obama's public speaking. I just don't get all the hype, to be honest. I think he can read off a teleprompter well enough to be a TV anchor in a mid-market city. His voice is high-pitched and flat, and almost has a hectoring quality to it. He exudes zero warmth. And when speaking extemporaneously, he says "um" and "uh" and stutters a bit.

I just don't get it. His style of oratory reminds me of what high school kids in Model UN think is impressive."

Knowing he's black...we'll half black, and run it through the liberal white guilt filter. Now do you get it?

Fred Drinkwater said...

BDNYC: Count me among those who've never been impressed by Obama's speeches. The style and words are consistently poor quality. He sounds like a fourth grader attempting to imitate his brother's high school social studies teacher.

bleh said...

It's not about politics, either. I've been against Trump since he announced, and would never vote for him, but I acknowledge his incredible political skills. He can seemingly speak for hours in front of any audience without notes or a script, and he can answer any question even if he has no clue what the question is about. He uses every rhetorical tool imaginable, most obviously his sense of humor and gift for storytelling. He's a freaking dynamo on stage.

I think his trade and immigration policies would be a total disaster for this country, but he's damn impressive as a public speaker. Much better than Bill Clinton or Obama.

walter said...

He had just finished reading "one people". C'mon..that's funny.

Balfegor said...

Re: BDNYC:

I've never been that impressed by Obama's public speaking. I just don't get all the hype, to be honest. I think he can read off a teleprompter well enough to be a TV anchor in a mid-market city. His voice is high-pitched and flat, and almost has a hectoring quality to it. He exudes zero warmth. And when speaking extemporaneously, he says "um" and "uh" and stutters a bit.

I think Obama benefits enormously from coming after Bush II, who was a particularly weak orator. That said, I know exactly what you mean by "hectoring" -- it's certainly not always (and Obama does have a variety of speech tones he has employed in his oratory), but there are times when he has a very strident, barking tone, which he uses to signify outrage.

walter said...

Rumor has it there was a typo.
Team speechifiers determine where to place graduated asterisks (*, **, *** etc) to signal various affects, mannerisms and directions.
The "underchuckle" code was mistakenly placed where they meant to signal the "pause & switch to alternate prompter screen".

But then..
The Russians may have hacked the file.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"I so love the Democrats pushing the idea that they'll unite us"

Exactly. He was laughing at the absurdity of it all. Earnest White liberals must be a great source of hilarity to POC, ideologically allied or not. Obama in particular must appreciate the joys of this evergreen long con.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

My main problem w/Obama's speeches isn't his delivery--he's better than average on that front, I'd say. His purpose, though, almost always seems to be to lecture us. Sometime's that appropriate, of course, but usually it's not.
The best example is is "race" speech when he first ran for President. The context was that after defending his long time pastor Jeremiah Wright, Wright came out and said more inflammatory things. The situation called for Obama to explain himself and his affiliation with this politically-troublesome pastor, but what he did instead was lecture US on what WE needed to do better..to live up to HIS ideal I guess. Think about that for a minute: HE fucked up, HE had a problem w/a close associate saying anti-American & seemingly racists things, and his response was to talk about how much the nation as a whole needed to do to improve itself. It was an audacious move, for sure, and of course the Media fell all over themselves praising the speech itself. I didn't think it was that good on its own, but the CONTEXT of the whole thing made it really a terrible, cynical move. It's still held up as one of Obama's best, though.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Others have mentioned Obama's excessive focus on himself in his speeches, but I want to make sure to point out his habit of creating and destroying patently ridiculous straw men as his main rhetorical strategy. "There are those who say" followed by an insulting caricature of some argument that MIGHT have been made by a very few people at some point...it's an Obama staple.
His reputation for grandiosity, I think, is based mostly around his tendency to make sweeping statements based around his own judgement (and applying that judgement to the nation as a whole/reality)--"that's not who we are as a nation" and "the future does not belong to those who" and what not.

He has a good voice and when he's not pausing for applause & effect he has very good rhythm--he's better than most at building to a point and altering his delivery and speed within a speech. He's an average to below average extemp. speaker, I'd say, but well above average when delivering prepared remarks.
I thought his wife did a very good job with her convention speech (the parts of it I watched, anyway) and she seems to be quite good on her feet (from the limited sample I've seen).

walter said...

From what I heard, his speech was thankfully missing his annoying whistle. Did he get a new denture or jam some gum in a gap?
There was however someone in the venue very proud of their "stadium whistle". Not sure if it was the same one who did the sexy whistle at a very unsexy moment.

JAORE said...

"Count me among those who've never been impressed by Obama's speeches."

Our ranks are legion.

I,I,I, I, me, me, me. Ummm, errr,ummm. Condescension. Lies. Straw men by the millions. "Some people say..." (NAME THEM you liar)....

Quick, recall for me the inspiring lines from those great speeches. Not just one liners. And IF you find any tell me how they worked out in the real world.

Worse, listen to his speeches and if you are moved, read the transcripts. There's no there there.

Just_Mike_S said...

"...Face it. We were last united for about two years after 9-11. The highlight was when GWB threw that perfect strike at Yankee Stadium to open the World Series game."
From the rubber, not halfway or at the foot of the mound like even a lot of former players do. Yeah, shortly after that the national rallying cry deteriorated to "United Some Of Us Stand".

Fred Drinkwater said...

"Inspiring li e...."
"If you like your plan you can keep your plan"

Fred Drinkwater said...

My kindle keyboard did that, I swear...

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Obama: "Let me be clear!"

I'm tired of listening to him. Would someone please let him be clear?

Just_Mike_S said...

@ BDNC.... I don't get it either, off prompter he's a mess. And on prompter it's a buzzword salad. I remember pre-Obama there were at least a couple black comedians (Sinbad comes to mind) that used to do routines about the dorky way white guys talked compared to black dudes. The "dorky white guy voice" is exactly how Obama talks.

hombre said...

The Great Divider speaks about unity.

Grotesque!

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

What is with Althouse? Mocking Hillary and Obama; stroking Trump. She trolling us on her own blog?

(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Nonapod said...

Let's be honest here, if this election were based purely on personality, charisma, and charm and no other exogenous factors, Trump would win in a landslide. If Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were to suddenly appear out of thin air without any history or clear ideological attachments, and then they each talked on national TV for about 15 minutes each on topics that are completely apolitical and then everyone voted who they liked more, I suspect Trump would win hands down across the board.

In the same situation with Obama versus Trump I think Obama may just edge him out though, but it's hard to say.

Bilwick said...

I don't know why Il Dufe would make fun of that slogan. It's saying that, as easily as anyone of moderate strength can snap a small stick in two, if you bundle those sticks and then tightly bind them together, they're harder to break. Stick an axe-head in the bundler, with the blade sticking out, and you've got something really badass! You could use it as a party symbol! "Nothing outside the State, everything for the State, nothing against the State." Even a national socialist such as Bernie Sanders could get behind that!

Martin said...

This country is doomed. The crudest, most maudlin sort of emotionalism has replaced even the attempt to use thought and logic in addressing our problems.

buwaya said...

Obama vs Trump would come across as boring and uncreative. Trump would be less stylish, but one would always be waiting for a surprise or twist.
Even Romney, earnest prodded, got the better of Obama in a fair fight.

buwaya said...

earnest plodder

CWJ said...

Martin,

Yep.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well, it was better than her initial slogan.

Hoes before Bros