Monday, May 25, 2009

Obama's Boilerplate Speech

Obama's speeches do seem to follow the same basic pattern. Victor Hanson breaks it down and lays it out:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGY5NjU2MmFiN2FjZmRjYTFhMDAzYWE2NzY3YmY1NDE=

"In essence, the script is the following: First, the president clears his throat by trashing Bush and/or the prior administration.

Then, as many have noted, Mr. 50/50 creates the proverbial straw men on the two extremes (e.g., those who wish to shred the Constitution to fear-monger, those who do not take threats as seriously as he does), as he places himself in-between two false poles.

Next he evokes his past (three themes usually here: He has lived in a different country; he is of a different race than mainstream America; and, in extremis, his father was of a religion other than Christianity), with a grand finale of pulling all that together to imply to us that if we don't share his present views, then a rare avatar of hope and change such as himself would never have been president — he being the true reification of what America always could have been (a refined trope of Michelle's "first time" she was proud of her country.)
"

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