B for Bev
Given the criticism of her campaign performances, Bev Perdue gave a surprisingly good inaugural speech.
As a connoisseur of inaugural speeches â and the co-author of several â I give her a B.
She largely avoided the common mistake of âvision strain:â trying too hard to sound lofty. Her speech was clear, short and simple. Specific without being programmatic.
She would get a B+ or even an A if she hadnât fallen back on the cliché of a âNew Beginningâ for her theme.
She also didnât meet the test that President-elect Obama set for an inaugural speech on ABC Sunday: to âcapture the moment we are in.â
Here was how Perdue captured the moment:
We are in the midst of a global economic crisis. People are worried about losing their jobs, paying their mortgage, and planning for their future.
A bit prosaic, that.
But she did a good job of projecting optimism and hope. She obviously had worked hard on her delivery, although her gestures sometimes seemed over-rehearsed.
(Speaking of working hard to prepare, everyone watching wished Eva Clayton had rehearsed more, perhaps even going to the trouble of learning how to pronounce peopleâs names.)
Perdue had a good passage expressing optimism about the state â and connecting it to her personal story and the historic nature of the first woman governor:
This is the place where the daughter of parents who didn’t graduate from high school can take the oath of office as governor of the greatest state of the greatest nation in the world.
She had the usual boilerplate about the stateâs history, but one striking line of reality:
And a fresh take on the often-hackneyed (not Joe) recitation of how the state has met challenges before:
No other state can claim to have turned the practice of hauling moonshine into the high-tech, fast-growth engine known as NASCAR.
Amid the rhetoric, she made concrete promises. Too often, we dismiss what politicians say as just rhetoric. But Governor Perdue worked harder on this speech than on any other speech she will give for the next four years. So she has invited us to measure her by these seven commitments.
What we will do is accept this time of challenge as an opportunity to think big, dig deep, and push ahead.
You have a governor who will speak candidly and who will act boldly.
With innovation we will take those economies (agriculture and manufacturing) and create new ones in the life sciences, defense, and green technology.
We will remain true to our commitment to education.
We must take an outdated 20th century bureaucracy and move it into the 21st century.
The state’s business must be conducted in the sunshine, to inspire confidence, not cynicism.
I pledge to be a fully engaged, hands-on governor.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.
B for Bev
Given the criticism of her campaign performances, Bev Perdue gave a surprisingly good inaugural speech.
As a connoisseur of inaugural speeches â and the co-author of several â I give her a B.
She largely avoided the common mistake of âvision strain:â trying too hard to sound lofty. Her speech was clear, short and simple. Specific without being programmatic.
She would get a B+ or even an A if she hadnât fallen back on the cliché of a âNew Beginningâ for her theme.
She also didnât meet the test that President-elect Obama set for an inaugural speech on ABC Sunday: to âcapture the moment we are in.â
Here was how Perdue captured the moment:
We are in the midst of a global economic crisis. People are worried about losing their jobs, paying their mortgage, and planning for their future.
A bit prosaic, that.
But she did a good job of projecting optimism and hope. She obviously had worked hard on her delivery, although her gestures sometimes seemed over-rehearsed.
(Speaking of working hard to prepare, everyone watching wished Eva Clayton had rehearsed more, perhaps even going to the trouble of learning how to pronounce peopleâs names.)
Perdue had a good passage expressing optimism about the state â and connecting it to her personal story and the historic nature of the first woman governor:
This is the place where the daughter of parents who didn’t graduate from high school can take the oath of office as governor of the greatest state of the greatest nation in the world.
She had the usual boilerplate about the stateâs history, but one striking line of reality:
And a fresh take on the often-hackneyed (not Joe) recitation of how the state has met challenges before:
No other state can claim to have turned the practice of hauling moonshine into the high-tech, fast-growth engine known as NASCAR.
Amid the rhetoric, she made concrete promises. Too often, we dismiss what politicians say as just rhetoric. But Governor Perdue worked harder on this speech than on any other speech she will give for the next four years. So she has invited us to measure her by these seven commitments.
What we will do is accept this time of challenge as an opportunity to think big, dig deep, and push ahead.
You have a governor who will speak candidly and who will act boldly.
With innovation we will take those economies (agriculture and manufacturing) and create new ones in the life sciences, defense, and green technology.
We will remain true to our commitment to education.
We must take an outdated 20th century bureaucracy and move it into the 21st century.
The state’s business must be conducted in the sunshine, to inspire confidence, not cynicism.
I pledge to be a fully engaged, hands-on governor.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.