Take the test

Kos posted today on a topic I've been bothered by since before Barack Obama-mania struck:

[H]e's the best orator in the field, but his stuff is strangely unsatisfying. It sounds great when you hear it, but an hour later, you wonder what the heck it was he was talking about.

Except it only takes two to five minutes, Kos.

Every time I've heard Barack Obama speak in interviews and speeches I think, damn he's good. Obama's got eloquence, poise and presence. His voice has warmth, the right timber, and punch when he needs it.

But try this test. Minutes after Obama has finished speaking, try to remember a thing he said. Like Mel Torme, he wraps you in a velvet fog, but once it dissipates, you're left with nothing solid, nothing pithy to hold onto and take home.

If Obama expects to go anywhere nationally, he's got to work on the art of the sound bite.