January 18, 2009 – 11:46 pm
I want to take a break from the euphoria of the inaugural weekend for a few thoughts on the new president’s use of rhetoric to enhance his power. A key theme of the Obama campaign and of the soon-to-be-sworn-in president’s statements since election day has been the call to bring “Democrats, Republicans and Independents”, along […]
January 18, 2009 – 11:32 pm
According to Barack Obama’s advisors, Tuesday’s inaugural address is essentially written. And a theme has emerged: responsibility. As AP reports, Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to the president-elect, told Meet the Press on Sunday that Obama will “call on Americans to embrace a new era of responsible behavior – in government and in business.” That […]
January 18, 2009 – 10:22 am
Let’s call it the faith-based equivalent of a cage match: on one side of our national Mall, this afternoon, V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, will deliver the invocation at the Beyonce-Bono-Springsteen inaugural celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. Two days later, the Rev. Rick Warren, the prominent mega-church pastor and […]
January 16, 2009 – 11:19 pm
Not even the bone-chilling weather of the past few days can dull the excitement surrounding Tuesday’s inaugural extraordinaire. But I was tickled to see that in Carlsbad, California, the big event is already underway: According to the LA Times, the LegoLand extravaganza includes more than 1,000 figures — President and Mrs. Bush 43, President and […]
January 16, 2009 – 10:07 am
Storytelling is an indispensable part of successful speeches — from meta-narratives that join a speaker and audience in common cause, to humorous stories that build rapport and ease, to illustrative vignettes that bring to life key concepts or ideas. Yesterday, Senator Joe Biden’s emotional farewell to the U.S. Senate was a terrific collection of personal […]
January 15, 2009 – 4:05 pm
President Bush is preparing to deliver his farewell address tonight and, boy, what a difference eight years makes. As the energy in the capital builds in preparation for Barack Obama’s inaugural address on Tuesday, the current president is becoming an afterthought. He’ll begin right at 8 and should be finished in time for all of […]
January 14, 2009 – 11:58 am
A Girl with a Dead Canary I’d forgotten that single digit temperatures drove Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration inside the Capitol. And I never knew that in 1873, the weather was so cold for President Grant’s second inaugural that it froze the turkeys intended for the dinner banquet, and killed the decorative canaries that had been […]
January 13, 2009 – 3:40 pm
As presidential scholars hit the airwaves in the coming week to provide historical perspective on the inauguration, I’ve compiled a few lesser-known tidbits about past inaugural addresses. Please to enjoy. 1789 – George Washington launches campaign to provide young republic a capital offering “fewer rats, more mosquitoes.” 1797 – Audience frightened as John Adams delivers […]
January 13, 2009 – 12:35 am
The opening of Ed’s “Cliche-ping…” post brought to mind one of the quirkier websites I’ve stumbled on in recent days. It’s called the Random Stump Speech Synopsis Haiku Generator, or R.S.S.S.H.G. for short (well, short-ish), where all it takes is a keystroke to produce poetic pearls like these: “Fairly wiser right promises, president bows eager […]
January 12, 2009 – 4:36 pm
Practice makes perfect, even for presidential inaugurations. Sunday in Washington, a collection of military officials and civilian planners practiced the swearing-in ceremony and parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, complete with stand-ins for the president-elect, veep-elect, and their families. So complete was the run-through, reports the Washington Post, that the Obama understudy even delivered a six-word-long Inaugural […]
January 8, 2009 – 6:39 pm
It sure would have been nice to see a Ford among all those Buick dealers, not to mention a Reagan. But your sentiment about the historic change represented here is one we all deeply share. It brought to mind the graphic above that somebody created shortly after Election Day. Talk about dramatic. Also, not a […]
January 8, 2009 – 11:22 am
I hate to dwell too much on visuals and symbolism, but the pictures coming out of Wednesday’s lunch with President-elect Obama and Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Carter were pretty cool. To understand how cool, just picture John McCain standing there instead of Barack Obama. Wednesday afternoon bridge club? Meeting of Buick owners? Yes and […]
January 7, 2009 – 5:55 pm
Economists may find trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see to be exciting. Personally, it takes me right out of the mood. It seems every one has decided that Richard Nixon was right after all, and we’re all Keynesians once again. Just so the Democrats realize: when the inevitable inflation follows, it’s […]
January 6, 2009 – 7:36 am
While Barack Obama is putting the finishing touches on his Inaugural Address, the candidates for chairman of the Republican National Committee are discussing how to rescue the Republican Party. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank quotes RNC candidate Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, “You have Republicans scratching their head, going: ‘Who are we? What […]
January 4, 2009 – 6:03 pm
In a State of the Union address the president can set out the details of his new federal policy on widgets and waterworks. In the Inaugural Address, however, Barack Obama will need to be as much of a poet as his friend, Elizabeth Alexander, a prize-winning poet who will read the celebratory poem. The new […]
