Last night, President Obama held his second prime time press conference. One of the first media reactions came from John King, CNN's Chief National Correspondent, who said, "He spoke for 50 minutes plus. The words 'Iraq' were never spoken. There are more than 140,000 troops there; the war hit the six-year anniversary this week. He never mentioned the word 'Afghanistan.' There are thousands of U.S. troops there. He never mentioned Osama bin Laden. He never mentioned terrorism. You want to talk about a sea change from George W. Bush to Barack Obama."
King was referring to Bush's repeated use of the very words Obama omitted. Obama's predecessor was nothing if not famous for staying on message, but Obama is also nothing if not famous for the persistence of his messages. Yes he can. In fact, in his closing remarks in the press conference, he said, "I'm a big believer in persistence."
And persistent he was with his own messages in his answers. Last month, during his address to congress, Obama presented the centerpieces of his stimulus program, "the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future: energy, health care, and education." And last night, during the press conference, he referred to that trinity no less than five times in the 50 minutes plus, almost as a mantra.
That's the good news. Every speaker should take every opportunity to reinforce key messages. The bad news is that Obama also had six repetitions of another phrase that he--and every speaker--would do well to avoid: "As I said..."
The phrase implies that the asker of the question didn't understand the answer the first time, and so the responder must--patronizingly--repeat it; an implication that is at worst insulting, or at best, as the New York Times, labeled it, professorial. Granted, the reporters to whom Obama said that phrase had asked follow-on questions, but the way Obama--or any speaker--should handle such questions is to repeat the substance of the answer, but without the back reference. Well, at least Obama did not say, as far too many people today do, "Like I said..."
As CNN's John King also noted, "The tone, the tenor and the lexicon of that news conference was striking."
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