Hugh Hewitt: The Days Of Presidential Speeches Moving Public Opinion Are Over, People Are Polarized and Not Persuadable
Hugh Hewitt on ‘Special Report’ believed that presidential speeches can no longer move public opinion. Hewitt said President Trump’s speech was directed at Iran and regional allies in the Persian Gulf:
HUGH HEWITT: No, I don’t think it did. Now, it was a very good speech. I thought it was direct. I thought it was very, very tough on the two audiences it was most intended for, Iran and our allies. So I thought the message he sent to Iran and to our allies was very good. But the days of speeches moving public opinion, like Richard Nixon’s great silent majority speech, he had 100 million people watch that in a nation of 202 million people, and his approval rating went up to 77 percent because Americans used to be persuadable. They are not now. They are polarized. I don’t think anybody’s opinion of Donald Trump changed last night. But the reality of the importance of the war was driven home and it will be there for historians to see. He made the case again. He made it on the first night of the war. As long as the war goes, it will always be about having stopped Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and that will be a legacy.
