Obama: Great Speaker, Poor Communicator

After two weeks of Democratic and Republican conventions Americans are uneasy. They have rarely been faced with such a radical choice. On one side an America with the lowest taxation possible, unbridled individualism and an uncompromising conception of liberty. On the other side a country that refuses to cut social programs, takes social cohesion seriously, and thinks that the state should invest massively in education and infrastructure before they have to pay a high price for failing to fulfill their promises.

In Tampa as in Charlotte the economy was the dominant theme. The United States is doing better than it was four years ago, but 12.8 million Americans remain unemployed, and the national debt has passed the 16 trillion dollar mark. On Thursday in Charlotte, a day after Bill Clinton’s blazing speech, Barack Obama was looking for a new type of narrative. The promises and the dream of 2008 were forgotten. “You elected me to tell the truth,” he declared. From that point on the president’s message centered around hope. America is no longer going backward; it is going forward. The 2012 election is a confrontation of values. It could widen the racial divide between whites on one side and Hispanics and African Americans on the other.

Beyond the fervor of the Democratic delegates, mobilizing the voters remains a challenge. In North Carolina the registration rate of Hispanic voters for the Democratic Party is less than 2 percent. The great speaker in Cairo (on the Arab world) and in Philadelphia (on race) has for a long time failed to explain to Americans the direction of his actions to rectify the economy and remove the worrisome blockages in Washington. Quite sure of himself, he is convinced that rationality does not deserve explanations — that it is self-evident. Obama is a great speaker but a bad communicator. Realizing that the economy was going to be a significant obstacle to his re-election, he concentrated his message on the defense of the middle class, the first victim of the transgressions of American democracy and economy.

In Charlotte Barack Obama, haunted by the prospect of a defeat, succeeded in maintaining the flame of hope. But he is not sure that he has captured America. During four years as president he has learned pragmatism and realism. That is less eye-catching.