The Power Of Positive Speaking

Many years ago, the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale wrote a book called "The  Power Of Positive Thinking". It was a very popular self help book teaching that people could overcome difficulties by keeping a positive attitude, keeping faith, and working hard. It was inspiring and helped many people get beyond the hardships they faced.

Lately and understandably, Barack Obama's popularity has flagged. But for over four years, with a foreign policy on the rocks of despair, an economy on the bottom of dismal swamp, and a jobs market that was closed for repairs, his personal popularity boomed. People loved him. This was proven when, in the face of a plethora of unsolved problems, he still won a second term.

How did he accomplish this remarkable feat? It wasn't by the power of positive thinking. It was by the power of positive speaking. There are two things in life that President Obama loves above all. They are his tele-prompter and the sound of his own voice. He tries to exercise both daily with lectures to his long suffering public.

When the President stands in front of a TV camera a transformation takes place. I do not know if this is an instinctive and natural metamorphosis or if he has received special training at some point in his career. The way he moves and the way he speaks, his sense of timing, all remind me of a combination of a skilled stand-up comedian and an old time evangelical preacher. His cadence, his pauses, his pronunciation are all different from his conversation. The transformation is kind of amazing.

Our President will stand with his head tilted back as if he is peering down on us and he will say things that are totally at odds with the listeners observations and experience. But they will want to believe him because his words and demeanor show a degree of positiveness that is almost impossible to disregard.

He will claim to have done things that were never done and promise to do things that we know that he will never do. But we want to believe him. It is the power of positive speaking brought to an almost un-natural level. Everything about him shouts believe, believe, believe.

Our President is a modern day snake oil salesman. He will tell you what you want to hear. He will make you believe. But I am here to tell you, you do it at your own risk and at the risk of your country.