Words Matter
Let’s extend the Obama-Lincoln comparison. Carter finds it troubling. But it’s legitimate given their roots, their inexperience and their unlikely rise to the White House.
Of course, we can’t know now whether Obama will be remembered as a great President – or an awful one. Certainly, expectations are higher for him today than they were for
Obama does have in common with
A new book, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, by Fred Kaplan, explores how reading and writing made
Obama, too, clearly sees words as a tool. So look at some of the key words from his address:
“Crisis.” He used the word twice in his first five paragraphs to describe where we are today.
“Petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas.” That was his description of today’s politics, which he then dismissed as “childish things.”
He used three phrases to also dismiss the last 28 years of political debate:
“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.”
“Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill.”
“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”
Take that, Bush and Cheney.
There were two striking religious references. After taking the oath as Barack Hussein Obama, he twice referred to Muslims – once addressing himself to “the Muslim world” and another nothing that “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and nonbelievers.”
Has any President before reached out to nonbelievers? That alone is a remarkable change from the cultural wars of the last three decades.
Finally, he closed with a peroration set up by a litany of American ideals: “hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism.”
He added, “These things are old. These things are true.”
The predictable critique of Obama is that words are cheap, that actions count. But this is a President who appears determined to prove that words can count.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.
Words Matter
Let’s extend the Obama-Lincoln comparison. Carter finds it troubling. But it’s legitimate given their roots, their inexperience and their unlikely rise to the White House.
Of course, we can’t know now whether Obama will be remembered as a great President – or an awful one. Certainly, expectations are higher for him today than they were for
Obama does have in common with
A new book, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, by Fred Kaplan, explores how reading and writing made
Obama, too, clearly sees words as a tool. So look at some of the key words from his address:
“Crisis.” He used the word twice in his first five paragraphs to describe where we are today.
“Petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas.” That was his description of today’s politics, which he then dismissed as “childish things.”
He used three phrases to also dismiss the last 28 years of political debate:
“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.”
“Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill.”
“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”
Take that, Bush and Cheney.
There were two striking religious references. After taking the oath as Barack Hussein Obama, he twice referred to Muslims – once addressing himself to “the Muslim world” and another nothing that “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and nonbelievers.”
Has any President before reached out to nonbelievers? That alone is a remarkable change from the cultural wars of the last three decades.
Finally, he closed with a peroration set up by a litany of American ideals: “hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism.”
He added, “These things are old. These things are true.”
The predictable critique of Obama is that words are cheap, that actions count. But this is a President who appears determined to prove that words can count.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.