THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Elephant in the Room
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Up With People!
An Ongoing Discussion/Moment of Clarity FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER BLOG: Talkin' 'Bout Shaft
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER BLOG: Talkin' 'Bout Shaft
Sunday, September 09, 2012
Saturday, September 08, 2012
Friday, September 07, 2012
LOVE TKO.
A Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"The man who ran on hope and change didn’t walk away from them. He redefined them for the long haul.
...Obama’s was a speech aimed less at shaking up the campaign than in building on an existing narrative.
...And thus his redefinition of hope and change. Faced with assertions that he can no longer inspire the elation he called forth four years ago, Obama challenged those who had supported him to stay in the fight for the longer-term and do the work required for saving their original vision.
...In defining his vision for “moving forward,” Obama spoke more of goals than of policies, highlighting an expansion of manufacturing, energy independence, education and job training, and climate change, an issue that has largely been absent from the public discussion since 2010.
...Yet his heart seems not to lie in transactional politics. He prefers challenges to promises, obligations to privileges, reason to emotion. “The path we offer may be harder,” he said, “but it leads to a better place.” This is not a typical campaign pledge. It implies neither ease nor comfort but burdens worth bearing and responsibilities worth shouldering. It is still a form of hope, but one that requires far more than going to rallies and cheering."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama’s hope and change 2.0
SEE ALSO:
THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama’s speech about morality and America’s future
THE WASHINGTON POST: The tale of two conventions favors Obama
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Fire This Guy?
Words.
"The man who ran on hope and change didn’t walk away from them. He redefined them for the long haul.
...Obama’s was a speech aimed less at shaking up the campaign than in building on an existing narrative.
...And thus his redefinition of hope and change. Faced with assertions that he can no longer inspire the elation he called forth four years ago, Obama challenged those who had supported him to stay in the fight for the longer-term and do the work required for saving their original vision.
...In defining his vision for “moving forward,” Obama spoke more of goals than of policies, highlighting an expansion of manufacturing, energy independence, education and job training, and climate change, an issue that has largely been absent from the public discussion since 2010.
...Yet his heart seems not to lie in transactional politics. He prefers challenges to promises, obligations to privileges, reason to emotion. “The path we offer may be harder,” he said, “but it leads to a better place.” This is not a typical campaign pledge. It implies neither ease nor comfort but burdens worth bearing and responsibilities worth shouldering. It is still a form of hope, but one that requires far more than going to rallies and cheering."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama’s hope and change 2.0
SEE ALSO:
THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama’s speech about morality and America’s future
THE WASHINGTON POST: The tale of two conventions favors Obama
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Fire This Guy?
Thursday, September 06, 2012
WORDS.
"In a sweeping, sprawling, drawling 48-minute stemwinder of a speech last night, the former President of the United States drove a rhetorical truck through the biggest opening that Mitt Romney and the Republicans created for Democrats last week.
...Writing on Paul Ryan last week, I said that we shouldn’t be surprised that his speech was less wonky than his reputation, since a VP address is “hardly the time to talk about block grants and premium support and whether to peg spending rates to inflation or G.D.P. plus one percent.” But Clinton reminded us that this need not be true — that it’s possible to get wonky without losing your audience, and to embrace policy detail as a weapon against your opponents. Journalists tend to assume that voters tune policy substance out, and when the substance is delivered droningly or too abstractly no doubt they often do. But for the most effective rhetoricians, the mere act of talking in detail about the work of government can be a more effective way to persuade the public that you’re serious than a hundred vague promises to 'make the hard choices” and “level with the American people.'..."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Clinton Magic
...Writing on Paul Ryan last week, I said that we shouldn’t be surprised that his speech was less wonky than his reputation, since a VP address is “hardly the time to talk about block grants and premium support and whether to peg spending rates to inflation or G.D.P. plus one percent.” But Clinton reminded us that this need not be true — that it’s possible to get wonky without losing your audience, and to embrace policy detail as a weapon against your opponents. Journalists tend to assume that voters tune policy substance out, and when the substance is delivered droningly or too abstractly no doubt they often do. But for the most effective rhetoricians, the mere act of talking in detail about the work of government can be a more effective way to persuade the public that you’re serious than a hundred vague promises to 'make the hard choices” and “level with the American people.'..."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Clinton Magic
WORDS.
"Bill Clinton is typically described as the empathetic, feel-your-pain guy. But his greatest political skill may be as a formulator of arguments — the explainer in chief.
...That Clinton, the cheerful political educator, played such a central role at this conclave reflected the extent to which it should be seen as a three-day tutorial designed not only to defend President Obama’s economic stewardship but also to advance a view of government for which, over the past 40 years, Democrats have often apologized.
...Obama, Clinton testified, “inherited a deeply damaged economy, he put a floor under the crash, he began the long, hard road to recovery, and laid the foundation” for a new economy whose positive effects they would soon feel. “With all my heart, I believe it,” he said, devoutly hoping that his heart-to-heart talk would get Americans to believe, too."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Bill Clinton’s tutorial on the need for government
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Monday, September 03, 2012
Saturday, September 01, 2012
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