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 – 7:47 pm
In the wake of Thursday’s US Airways near-disaster on the Hudson River, and the heroic actions of the pilot and crew in keeping all the passengers alive, some have suggested that the event – or at least its main players – might find a place in Tuesday’s inaugural address. Perhaps, but I think it would […]
January 16, 2009 – 6:03 pm
Mike Allen’s Politico Playbook alerts us to this AP article about the end of David Letterman’s “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches.” In case you’ve missed it, the bit contrasts clips of grand historical presidential rhetoric (“The only thing we have to fear…”; “Ask not…”) with clips from current presidential speeches in which George Bush is […]
January 16, 2009 – 2:24 pm
President-elect Obama visited the Washington Post yesterday – always a good idea to make friends with the hometown reporters and editors (as if his press coverage could get any friendlier). During the meeting, the Post reports, Obama spoke about the need for Social Security and Medicare reform. Not surprising, even though the issue was once […]
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 – 9:41 pm
George W. Bush’s address from the East Room of the White House Thursday evening was among his best. To a degree almost unseen before, he was relaxed, calm, and comfortable at the podium. He looked like a man about to be relieved of a great burden – not the burden of making decisions (he seems to […]
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 15, 2009 – 3:19 pm
After all the indignities of defeat, Republicans awakened two weeks ago to the news that a candidate for the RNC chairmanship sent out a CD that includes a riff on “Puff the Magic Dragon,” rendered as “Barack the Magic Negro.” Ken Blackwell, African-American and one of the GOP’s most promising politicians in Ohio, excused the […]
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 […]
