Thomas Lifson ... "Obama himself seemed completely disconnected, as if he were doing this speech because he had to, because his staff told him that he had blown off the Legionnaires too often sending Biden or videotaped remarks the past few years, and now that the VA scandal was in the news, it would look terrible for him not to show up in Charlotte. Going through the motions, but without any conviction or heart.
"And the Legionnaires responded in kind. There was no outright booing, but there was also no response, or even worse, a smattering of applause in response to obvious applause lines, which soon went flat or silent. The UK Daily Mail, which is unafraid to violate the American journalistic conventions around coverage of Obama, put it this way:..."
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... "I have given enough speeches in my life that I have an auto-empathy response to a speaker flailing as badly as Obama was yesterday. After a few minutes enduring the Great Disconnect, I could watch no more, and I went back to my ordinary nausea. You can watch as much of it as you have the stomach for:"
In the UK, the Daily Mail reported it this way: Tepid clapping greets unpopular Obama's VA speech at American Legion convention in his first speech to group since 2011
Not impressed: American Legionnaires only rose to their feet to praise fellow
veterans and hoot about firing VA miscreants, while they sat on their hands
for Obama's applause lines about his military strategy
... " 'You know that we should never send America's sons and daughters into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary and we have a plan and we are resourcing it and prepared to see it through.'
"Tepid clapping followed pregnant seconds of emptiness.
" 'We removed more than 140,000 troops from Iraq and welcomed those troops home. It was the right thing to do.'
Daggers: Republican US Senator Richard Burr is no fan of Obama and hopes
his flagging numbers drag down Hagan to provide his state with a GOP replacement.