Will Obama Speak to Americans?

Typically, President Obama speaks very well to me, and that's a problem.

I'm definitely more of a reader than average Americans, with a tendency towards nuances and complexity.

As I write, I'm always trying to avoid convolution, because my wife says many paragraphs are unclear in my initial drafts.

And I find Obama's rhetoric, his paragraphs, to be engaging and quite good.

Which means he loses too many people too often before he gets his main points across.

For instance, perhaps he will get across a point at the beginning, and 4 or 7 minutes later, many in the audience are thinking about taking their kids to soccer practice or the dentist, and miss crucial points.

Less is more, for Obama.

I wonder if he knows that?

Popular pundits underestimate Obama's management skill, and overestimate his rhetorical skill. Of course, popular pundits usually misconstrue most things most all the time.

Obama's job is to make it clear even to the obtuse. He won't get the ideological to listen -- they are actually unable, handicapped -- but he could communicate to the rest of us.

Obama needs to be ready to go off his speech, and speak off the cuff.

At such a moment, he needs to begin a sentence not even knowing what he will say, so that more Americans will listen.

He could speak for 3 or 4 minutes, and tell most Americans all they need to hear from him.