What’s up with Obama’s head tilt?
I’ve noticed that in conversation and interviews, Obama seems to have a perpetual head tilt (mostly to the right), both when he listens and when he talks:
It is so pronounced that it was present during virtually his entire Saddleback interview. However, one doesn’t see it much, if at all, in his prepared speeches:
It’s also easy to see that although Obama has an accomplished and fluent oratorical style, it breaks down rather dramatically in his extemporaneous remarks, even those for which one would imagine he has prepared heavily. What’s going on?
I can only speculate, but I would hazard the guess that when Obama speaks off-script he is extra careful to choose every word with an extremity of caution so as not to offend. As usually happens in such cases, the effort backfires and causes more gaffes, as well as the stuttering to which he seems so prone. In Obama’s case, it is compounded by what I believe may be his lifelong habit—not just politically expedient, but perhaps deeply embedded as part of his personality—to try to keep his options open and to say nothing that would imply an ironclad commitment to one position or another.
If one looks at websites on body language, it seems that a head tilt to the side gives the message that the listener is intent on hearing what the speaker is saying. It reads as “open-minded, concerned, caring.” Whether sincere or not, these are characteristics of Obama’s that have impressed people from his earliest community organizing and law school days, and they fit in well with the message of his present candidacy.
But a President is much more than a listener or a Rogerian therapist, reflecting back what the client is saying. A President needs to take stands and to make decisions, and this is where Obama’s posture is beginning to wear thin, even among some of his supporters.
Well, look at it as a sitting version of basketball’s “head fake.”
Or, to quote some obscure actor, “Once you can fake sincerity the rest is easy.”
Neo’s observations fit nicely into Shelby Steele’s analysis of Obama’s character and situation. See National Review Online/NRO TV/Uncommon Knowledge/”Shelby Steele on Obama and the Politics of Race.” Somebody else will have to provide the link!
Alternative explanations might be that either Obama is partially deaf in one ear or that he is listening to a very small earpiece through which his staffers are suggesting/telling him what he should say.
“a head tilt to the side gives the message that the listener is intent on hearing what the speaker is saying. It reads as “open-minded, concerned, caring.”
If you like a person it can also mean that they are into you, like or love you, are very interested in you. Women at one time took belladonna, because it expanded the pupils. The pupils dilate in a uncontrolled response when we see things we like or are interested in. there are many things we as animals pay attention to that we as people don’t realize we do.
Advertisers and art directors of the larger agencies know the ‘rules’ of the signs to bump up our stimulation, and interest, the way someone turns up the saturation in Photoshop to give more intense colors. The same is true of orators and those that can work the crowd, which are not necessarily the same thing.
The tilting of the head is also combined with a bunch more things if you watch the speeches. Speaking to back of the crowd, to the whole crowd, blink rate, the step and lean back, rolling up his sleeves, scratching his head, expressive with the hands, using the whole stage area when talking, doesn’t look at the camera filming him, etc.
“it breaks down rather dramatically in his extemporaneous remarks, even those for which one would imagine he has prepared heavily. What’s going on?”
When I read the full paragraph for which I posted part, the answer seemed obvious to me. His speechwriters are more eloquent if not smarter than he is. When he has a prompter up, he can skate the words, and put his mental focus on delivery, presentation, and working the crowd.
Ah, but when he doesn’t have the prompter, he finds it difficult to actually be what he has posed as. Being witty, quick witted, clever, insightful, directed and any others you care to add, along with presentation, flow, audience response, etc. Its all a very hard act to actually do, and harder when its you in the center of literally millions of examiners.
He is at a loss to say because he is a poser who listens to what everyone says, then picks what he wanted from the suggestions. In this way, never having to actually take a position, or have knowledge of an issue, or so on. In this way, he has avoided having to be creative, clever, knowledgeable, etc.
This is why he has so many advisors. His large group consensus generators can be a powerful tool in determining the right position to have when discussing a topic wanting to know the mean, but one also has to function without them. Obama is a post turtle; he is not in place due to merit, but manipulation. If it was merit, he would have been weeded out of the pile long ago and have to try again years later. In a way, the presidential race is ultimately not a venue where such information is displayed, which is why no system naturally picks a nobody whose clean by virtue of a ‘blank slate’ (and really really good communist creds — he now admits that frank, his mentor, was a cpusa man)
I’d say that Obama doesn’t seem to have any core principles. Thus everything is up for grabs when he answers a question.
He can’t just check what he says against his principles; he has to play speed chess in his head every time where he calculates “If I say A, then my opponent may reply B, then I will have to say C or D, so maybe I should say E, but what about if they say F?”
That’s what all those pauses and stuttering are about. It’s an enormously tiring way to interact, and it’s gaffe-prone as well. I almost feel sorry for Obama.
It’s not just the gaffes that will catch him up. This approach only works in the short term. After a while voters will recognize that Obama has no core from which he can lead. Leadership is the job if one aspires to the presidency.
Have you seen this?
I noticed the tilt thing and looked around to see if it was discussed. There may be a medical reason for the head tilt. See Dr. Noah Klein’s blog (he’s a Manhattan Ophthalmologist)
medical head tilt
S Davis: That’s very interesting. I don’t think Obama’s head tilt is constant, though, which I assume would be the case if there were a medical problem such as the one described.
I have some high frequency hearing loss and there are times I incline one ear or the other towards the speaker, particularly if there is background noise.
I’m not an Obama supporter, but I also have my doubts about the theories of body language and the symbolism of facial poses. I think it is best that people just fact check this guy. Go look up his background and what’s in his intellectual dna. That’s a more solid basis for appraising this man, not how he presents himself to the public. I’ve known people who lied to me and never displayed any of the classic signs in body and facial poses.
It is possible to be accomplished in deception and pass muster on these tests. People who work as spies are able to do this.
Right or wrong, this posting makes it seem that you will do anything at all to discredit Obama. It seems more an attack that is the product of bias than principle. I say this as a regular reader and fan.
Recruiting Animal: I am puzzled as to why you consider this an attack. It’s merely an observation. In fact, you will note I wrote “whether sincere or not,” thus leaving open the possibility that Obama’s stance of openminded concern and caring is actually sincere rather than a pose.
So…does he lean heavily to the left?
Literally, I mean; obviously he does philosophically…
Obama proved at Saddleback that he doesn’t even belong on the same stage with John McCain. Just imagine how much more Mitt Romney would make this guy look the fool.
Typical democrats chose style over substance once again and will get spanked in this election for it.
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The man is a classic trimmer, always seeking to mask his positions and his intentions.He can make Hamlet appear bold and resolute 🙂
Maybe in many photos he adjust for it. But it was very obvious in the live and extended Saddleback Forum.
YMMV
Neo,
I had to think twice about posting that comment. It was a gut reaction. I thought, “Gee, even the way the guy tilts his head is turned into a put down.”
I can see where it is a fun and interesting post. To be able to see the strengths and weakness of this fellow’s disposition reflected in his most fundamental, subtle habits, the way he holds himself.
And, yet, there is something about it that struck me as overkill. I didn’t see it as being acute and discerning. I saw it as petty.
Am I right? I don’t know. Am I wrong? Maybe. At any rate, thanks for giving me reason to think this through. It’s like dissecting a poem in high school. You appreciate it more when you consider the ins and outs.
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I don’t have time to illuminate or expand, or even to provide a solid cite – but when he’s been on his own, his worst gaffes begin as what sounds like a normal statement and by the end of the paragraph he’s almost speaking in a falsetto.
It’s like he KNOWS he should never have started down the path but is incapable of stopping.
Earlier this week he intimated that Russia’s rape of Georgia is morally equivalent to our prescence in Iraq; something along the lines of “we should lead by example”.
He also thinks the ChiComs are kicking our collective backsides in infrastructure and business friendliness.
He carries himself well for a moron. No drool at all.
And feel free to imagine a stream of epithets climaxing at “……ing campus communist” and you can consider this comment complete.
A head tilt to the extreme right exposes the jugular and the observer’s subconscious is triggered to protect the speaker’s vulnerability, which allows the substance of what the speaker is saying to bypass the listener’s critical filter. This is done intentionally by speakers who do not want the listener to critically analyze what the speaker is saying, and it is an extraordinarily effective technique because of the involuntary biological neurological reaction that it causes in the listener. Only listeners who are aware of the technique are fully protected from it. Individuals with highly sophisticated critical thinking abilities are often only annoyed by it, because it disrupts their normal manner of thinking and they don’t know why, and that’s why they are annoyed…they think the head tilt is distracting when really it’s impairing their normal thought process.
I have 60 pages of examples of this and many other subliminal manipulation techniques Obama employs. ,It is intentional and just may win him the election.
Have you known anyone else in this world to tilt their head in conversation? What Pyschology sometimes postulates about Neurology filters out. Think about hemisphere dominance and auditory processing in addition to your anecdotal ranting. Okay don’t like him, but you just accused him of being an amazing and social savvy speaker! I don’t think that took away any votes!