Great speeches need follow-up

Exceptionally well-delivered rhetoric in the end is still rhetoric, no matter how dramatic and seemingly heartfelt. There is no question that our president has never stopped campaigning, even after winning his second term. His recent speeches on gun control and immigration still come off as campaign speeches.

I suppose one should stick to his strong suits in most cases, but once one is elected to lead a country then that is what he should at least attempt to do. At some point America needs to realize that the end results of President Obama’s speeches have been somewhere between nothing and making things worse. Remember the speech in Cairo on Islamic relations, a speech that many praised? How are things working out in the Mideast? Remember the Democratic convention address on the downfall of al-Qaida (think two locations, Benghazi and Boston)?

There have been many well-delivered addresses on fairness and the great American middle class, the same middle class that are being hurt by the Obama economy. Speeches on the “right” to health care we are told we all deserve, and we now have a record-setting bureaucratic nightmare that even those who wrote the law cannot figure out. Speeches on gun control, speeches on immigration, speeches on spending and speeches on race relations, none of which have improved, some of which have worsened.

Yes, Obama makes fantastic speeches, but the rhetoric is empty and meaningless when it is not followed up with action, governing or leadership. I suppose one could say the president and his advisers are still working on these things, but it is more likely that they are busy looking for their next group of people to serve as the backdrop when the president delivers his next brilliant yet meaningless middle of term campaign speech.

Marc Thomsen

Elk Grove Village