[Peace-discuss] Obaman persiflage

[C. G. Estabrook]

["Articulating the subtext" is an actor's phrase for making evident what's going 
on in the mind of a speaker, underneath what s/he's saying -- a useful exercise 
  for a competent actor in working out how to say a line.  It's also useful to 
see how the prevarications of our political leaders work.  Here's an example 
from the British press. (The US press isn't so daring.)  --CGE]

	The question that flummoxed the great orator
	John Crace
	The Guardian
	Friday 3 April 2009

Barack Obama, the World's Greatest Orator (™all news organisations), didn't 
exactly cover himself in glory when the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson 
asked him a question about who was to blame for the financial crisis. Normally 
word perfect, Obama ummed, ahed and waffled for the best part of two and a half 
minutes. Here, John Crace decodes what he was really thinking ...

===

Nick Robinson: "A question for you both, if I may. The prime minister has 
repeatedly blamed the United States of America for causing this crisis. France 
and Germany both blame Britain and America for causing this crisis. Who is 
right? And isn't the debate about that at the heart of the debate about what to 
do now?"

Brown immediately swivels to leave Obama in pole position. There is a
four-second delay before Obama starts speaking [THANKS FOR NOTHING, GORDY BABY. 
REMIND ME TO HANG YOU OUT TO DRY ONE DAY.] Barack Obama: "I, I, would say that, 
er ... pause [I HAVEN'T A CLUE] ... if you look at ... pause [WHO IS THIS NICK 
ROBINSON JERK?] ... the, the sources of this crisis ... pause [JUST KEEP GOING, 
BUDDY] ... the United States certainly has some accounting to do with respect to 
. . . pause [I'M IN WAY TOO DEEP HERE] ... a regulatory system that was 
inadequate to the massive changes that have taken place in the global financial 
system ... pause, close eyes [THIS IS GOING TO GO DOWN LIKE A CROCK OF SHIT BACK 
HOME. HELP]. I think what is also true is that ... pause [I WANT NICK ROBINSON 
TO DISAPPEAR] ... here in Great Britain ... pause [SHIT, GORDY'S THE HOST, DON'T 
LAND HIM IN IT] ... here in continental Europe ... pause [DAMN IT, BLAME 
EVERYONE.] ... around the world. We were seeing the same mismatch between the 
regulatory regimes that were in place and er ... pause [I'VE LOST MY TRAIN OF 
THOUGHT AGAIN] ... the highly integrated, er, global capital markets that have 
emerged ... pause [I'M REALLY WINGING IT NOW]. So at this point, I'm less 
interested in ... pause [YOU] ... identifying blame than fixing the problem. I 
think we've taken some very aggressive steps in the United States to do so, not 
just responding to the immediate crisis, ensuring banks are adequately 
capitalised, er, dealing with the enormous, er ... pause [WHY DIDN'T I QUIT 
WHILE I WAS AHEAD?] ... drop-off in demand and contraction that has taken place. 
More importantly, for the long term, making sure that we've got a set of, er, 
er, regulations that are up to the task, er, and that includes, er, a number 
that will be discussed at this summit. I think there's a lot of convergence 
between all the parties involved about the need, for example, to focus not on 
the legal form that a particular financial product takes or the institution it 
emerges from, but rather what's the risk involved, what's the function of this 
product and how do we regulate that adequately, much more effective 
coordination, er, between countries so we can, er, anticipate the risks that are 
involved there. Dealing with the, er, problem of derivatives markets, making 
sure we have set up systems, er, that can reduce some of the risks there. So, I 
actually think ... pause [FANTASTIC. I'VE LOST EVERYONE, INCLUDING MYSELF] ... 
there's enormous consensus that has emerged in terms of what we need to do now 
and, er ... pause [I'M OUTTA HERE. TIME FOR THE USUAL CLOSING BOLLOCKS] ... I'm 
a great believer in looking forwards than looking backwards.

[A better-formatted version of this important analysis is at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/03/g20-barack-obama-nick-robinson-question

Cf. "The Inaugural Address: the Digested Read - Text [& subtext]": 
http://www.counterpunch.org/estabrook01272009.html --CGE]