Posted on 01/15/2011 11:26:00 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The beginning of the president's speech wasn't good, and was marked by the sonorous banalities on which White House staffs in times of crisis always insist. "We join you in your grief," "We mourn with you for the fallen," "a quintessentially American scene . . . shattered by a gunman's bullets." Modern presidents sometimes speak as if their words were crafted by producers for a TV newsmagazine like "Dateline." This is bad because television producers tend to think their audience is composed of people who require the plonkingly obvious to be repeatedly stated in the purplest prose. The trend should be stopped. Presidents are not anchormen of true-crime shows, or were not meant to be.
I begin grouchily to underscore the sincerity of the praise that follows. About a third of the way through, the speech took on real meaning and momentum, and by the end it was very good, maybe great. The speech had a proper height. It was large-spirited and dealt with big things. It was adroit and without rancor. The president didn't mourn, he inspirited.
It began to turn when Mr. Obama started to make things concrete. Vaporous talk of victims turned into specific facts about real human beings: Phyllis Schneck was a gifted quilter, Dorwan Stoddard spent his spare time fixing up the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ. But the speech came into its own when the president spoke, again in concrete terms, of the condition of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords: "I have just come from the University Medical Center, just a mile from here." He had learned that "right after we went to visit, a few minutes after we left her room and some of her colleagues in Congress were in the room, Gabby opened her eyes for the first time."(continued@link)
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Jeff Flake’s Republican message this morning was one of the best I’ve ever heard. The right words, the right tone.
Can someone post that ?
I wonder, what is the pathology that forces the victims of a blood libel to falsely compliment their abusers?
It sounds like a form of battered wife syndrome, where one wants to make the abuser like them, forgive them (because the abuse is the victims fault), and to force a truce of some sort so it won’t happen again.
The GOP is simply a sick-in-the-head political party...they have been taking it for 40 years running, and don’t even realize that they are enabling their abusers now.
Republicans need to step down to 3rd party status and work on themselves, and get well. Let the Tea Party take over battling the enemy Democrats and their media.
My bad.
I always thought Fairleigh Dickinson was in New Jersey.
I guess I should have double checked. sorry.
The wells fargo logos would be correct for the area.
Can we prove this isnt a photo shop pic?
I absolutely cannot stand Noonan. Her gauzy, simpering style just grates on me.
Not nearly presidential enough to get my vote or respect.
It took awhile, but I’ve totally lost respect for her writing and for her opinions. She can’t expand her assessments to address substance, only form. She’s clearly only able to assess politicians from the perspective of a speech writer. Probably 80-90% of actors could read lines on television and ‘sound presidential’, whatever that means. Who cares? What matters is if a President loves this country and does his or her duty to protect it.
Peggy should be writing for sitcoms or as a movie consultant. I’m sick of people like her who are essentially into ‘packaging’ having any influence on the government of my country. Reading prepared speeches is not what constitutes leadership, no matter how well you can do it.
This is easy to accomplish when you have no emotional connection to the subject matter, and a reflexive reverence for the sound of your own voice.
Think about just how creepy a combination that is...
Peggy Swoonan ?
Plus, she always sounds like she's on ludes.
Peggy?
Since her support of Obama in 2008, she has been dead to me.
OOOHH, can I say that?
I suspected they were prompting the audience.
Leni Riefenshal would be proud.
Yea. I suspect they even had ‘plants’ throughout who applauded and rose on cue ...
It was so unnatural.
Am I the ONLY person on this thread who read the entire article and understood what she was saying?
Glenn Beck and Peggy have stockholm syndrome and some idiots are falling for it. All the media and ALL TV support him because he is a god.
The news media and ALL TV is so evil. Paid shills for the Saudis.
He has to GOVERN like one, and not like a despot (you know, luxury overseas trips on the taxpayer's dime while people are losing their jobs and homes. You know, like doing something about nuclear proliferation other than giving the regimes more time. You know, like doing something to stop terrorism other than strip-searches and peek-a-boo X-rays of Caucasian women at US airports.)
And DON'T get me started on the economy, health care, the auto manufacturers, oil prices, inflation, nuclear weapons, Israel, Taiwan, energy independence, "green" jobs which only exist on paper but send money to China, our relations with long-time allies such as Israel and Great Britain, security of classified diplomatic cables such as Wikileaks, demonizing the oil industry over the Gulf Oil spill, facing down the Mullahs in Iran, appointing literal communists such as Van Jones and Valerie Jarrett to be advisors, or TRILLIONS in new unfunded spending).
PS:
Get ready to say "President Sarah Palin and first dude Todd".
Cheers! Cheers!
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