"Once more unto the breach, dear friends ..."

Rick Richman has a great, great piece at Commentary:

 

Previewing the Inaugural Address

George Packer, writing in The New Yorker, warns that President Obama’s upcoming inaugural address may be “a bit of a snooze.” He says most inaugural addresses are. Obama “isn’t a phrasemaker,” because he is “too complex, too nuanced, too elusive, and too careful, for words that stick.” 

 

[....]

It is not that Obama cannot come up with words that stick. Consider just a few: exceptional like Greece is exceptional; punished with a baby; typical white person; at a certain point you’ve made enough money; shovel-ready jobs that weren’t shovel-ready; pivoting to jobs; the stupidly-acting Cambridge police; we can’t eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees and just expect other countries to say OK; I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking; I have a gift, Harry; this time, you’ve got me; they should be thanking me; if you like your plan, you can keep it; Slurpee-sipping opponents; that business of yours, you didn’t build that; say that louder, Candy; I am a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. Few presidents have had so many sticky words.   

 

Hmm, hmm, hmm.

You'll have to read it all to enjoy the contrast with Packer's review of Obama's first inaugural address... you know, the one that echoed Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt.

 

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

Kudos and congratulations to the irrepressible Rick Richman -- who has compiled the biggest mass (or should that be "mess"?) of inanities, boners, fatuities, tomfoolery, poppycock, bosh, piffle, balderdash, asininities, nuttiness, balminess, amphigory, and pure unadulterated nuttiness ever assembled. Now we know why Mencken called the bourgeoisie the "boobeoisie." Only a boob would intone this idiocy. only a boob would believe it.

[Elan]

Mannie -- you probably should have reserved a couple adjectives for what's coming tomorrow. Can't wait to read Packer later in the week on how Obama hit it out of the park (unexpectedly!), with an address that had not only nuance, but elusive nuance, or complex elusiveness, or careful nuanced complexity, or all three. I am going to be disappointed if the speech is not deemed the best since Washington's.

[Yael]

I just read that Lincoln's second inaugural was 701 words, only two of them personal pronouns. Worth reading, at the Telegraph (UK): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9814228/Barack-Obama-inauguration-President-aims-to-hit-benchmark-set-by-Abraham-Lincoln.html