Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I Should Have Known, When I Watched His Baffling Amble into the Camera Frame

I should have turned up the sound and watched while I was on the phone. The snap analysis of Bobby Jindal's speech seems to be coalescing:

But context notwithstanding, Jindal was something of a disaster. The delivery was awkward and sing-song (comparisons to Kenneth from "30 Rock" are ubiquitous). The arguments were tone-deaf and tiresome. The anecdotes were long and pointless. Jindal hadn't quite practiced enough with a teleprompter. He not only seemed like a guy selling a bad product in an infomercial, Jindal seemed like he was new at it.

It was painful to watch, both because the speech was bad and because it was hard not to feel bad for the guy embarrassing himself on national television.

On one of the cable networks, viewers were told that Jindal was "almost childish," and this "was not Bobby Jindal's greatest oratorical moment." The network? Fox News.

Kenneth from 30 Rock? For real? And I missed that? Damn.

And I missed a lot of broad strokes on Obama's speech, as well because I was transfixed with Nancy Pelosi's jacket? Sweater? Sweatsuit? Was that a zipper? Did it have a tassle? You can see how one might get lost there.

3 comments:

Toby said...

But at least it wasn't red or blue like most woman's dresses/pantsuits at these things. I watched most of Obama's speech (missed the opening) and walked the dog during Jindal's response, so it looks like I missed the comic relief.

e.s.i. said...

Hi Laura. Couldn't agree more. I was ready to leave the party after I heard Jindal's speech. Brian thought I was being catty when I told him about Pelosi's outfit, until you wrote about it in your blog. Had the outfit not been so terribly innappropriate more people would have been making fun Of Michelle's getup.
Diana

Laura said...

My view was less "inappropriate" more . . . baffling from a torso-up perspective. But then I'm ever mindful of the injustice of women not being able to don the dude equivalent of the blue suit.