These are trying times in the presidency of Barack Obama. The Republican Party’s likely successful outmaneuvering of Obama on the Bush tax cuts is an ominous sign for the president’s agenda over the next two years, when the GOP actually controls the House and cuts into the Democrats’ power in the Senate. Liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich has lost faith in Obama’s “once-considerable abilities to act, decide or think,” placing him on the same mental level of a pet rock. Some Democrats are even seriously suggesting that Obama not even run for reelection. And yet, there is hope for Obama. As long as his gift for speech remains, he will always have the potential to win back the hearts and minds of the voters, as he did two years ago. Unfortunately, his lip, recently split during a basketball game, has robbed him entirely of this gift.
No, the lip thing was definitely not just a convenient explanation for why he kept saying “superple” over and over again. It’s clear that, ten days after it was crushed by an errant elbow, Obama’s deformed lip will forever hinder his eloquence. The man who once moved people to tears with his words now receives condescending applause for pronouncing a four-syllable word correctly. Goodbye, Obama the Orator.
Obama’s split lip gives him ‘superfluous’ trouble at Kennedy honors [CNN]
