Comments on: Defining eloquence

By: Larry Eubank

Larry Eubank — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:17:03 +0000

Amen, Brother Coleman! You done said the truth!

By: pennywit

pennywit — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:51:49 +0000

For those who were here to remember it: How much substance did JFK carry with his eloquence? When I look back, I think Reagan had a decent substance/eloquence mix. The “tear down this wall” speech was one of those that (I think) actually helped prompt people to action.

–|PW|–

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:35:01 +0000

Am I the only one who remembers not so long ago when Mario Cuomo was anointed the Orator of the Generation?

In contrast, “everyone knows” GWB is a retard because he is such an awful public speaker.

The constant focus is on the superficial alone. Glibness is all. This is hardly new, but we should for that reason certainly be suspicious of it, at the very least.

By: Babylon

Babylon — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:27:42 +0000

Eloquence is the music of a snake charmer. Barak Obama clearly knows the melody.

By: Kyda Sylvester

Kyda Sylvester — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:55:14 +0000

Eloquence ain’t what it used to be. But then what is. As I’ve tried to tell some of the young (very young) Obama supporters I’ve encountered along the way, they (and many more among us) have lived their entire lives during a period of great mediocrity (not in every field, of course, but certainly in education, arts and letters and politics and government) and along the way standards have steadily eroded (devolved) to accommodate that mediocrity.

So much of what is thought fabulous! extraordinary! monumental! phenomenal! today in a different age wouldn’t have been considered above-average even. I mean, come on–today “we are the change we’ve been waiting for” is what passes for eloquence (or at least an eloquent rhetorical flourish). Grandiloquence, maybe. I’ll say this for Obama, he knows his audience. He’s got people who should know better–Sally Quinn among others–swooning right along with the kids.

Also, “progressive” theories in the soft sciences and their applications in public life over the last 40 years have served to dumb us down considerably, but that’s another discussion.

By: Amos

Amos — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:49:58 +0000

I like the idea of reconciliation between black and white, too. What I find ridiculous (and in Obama’s case, hypocritical) is the idea that reconciliation is a government affair beyond getting rid of the mostly government-imposed restrictions. I’m conservative and a Darwinist. In fact, I’m probably conservative because I’m a Darwinist. Reconciliation, like all social changes, best happens if it emerges from the slow, personal changes that go on in the privacy of one’s own mind. Thrusting social changes on to people is tantamount to supposing an omniscient Divine Creator. The only difference is that the people who want to use the State for their hopeful monsters are far from either omnipotent or divine.

The wounds are not America’s as The Fourth Revelation asserted. They are human. The problem isn’t a question of doing this or doing that. It’s a question of believing this or believing that. After 70 years of creating the perfect Soviet Man, they ended up with petty monsters whose society-wide depression and lack of moral foundation compels them to rule in a mob State.

The State cannot have a dialogue; it can only have lectures, edicts, rulings, propaganda and referenda.

Only people can have dialogues. And they have: which is why Obama is where he is right now.

Pet peeve: Obama failed to notice the first, greatest act of the civil rights movement: The American Civil War. (Yes, I know and in many ways reject the State’s right argument.)

By: Wince and Nod

Wince and Nod — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:43:49 +0000

I’m not very optimistic about uniting with Obama. He may be optimistic about uniting with me, but wouldn’t be if he knew me.

Freedom isn’t everything, but if he understands that government action removes freedom, maybe he’ll at least try to avoid those damaging side effects.

Yours,
Wince

By: Mugged by Reality

Mugged by Reality — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:42:01 +0000

It is fun to watch all of the pundits who praise Obama’s “momentous” speech. They are the same ones who swooned when he chanted nothing but “hope” and “change.” He could say nothing at all and they would be enraptured. When the Wright videos surfaced, they had a moment of fear that it had all been a fairy tale after all. Could Wright prove them to be so wrong? But, wishing not to be mugged by reality, the same pundits were ecstatic to be able to applaud such a speech in their lifetime, to remain in their dream, and put their fears to rest.

By: Great Speeches

Great Speeches — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:40:09 +0000

Obama is receiving acclaim for giving one of the great speeches in history. But, a great speech is not a collection of pretty words and vague thoughts designed to save one’s own skin. Great speeches, given by great men and women who take action, quite literally change the course of history, or at least stand athwart history yelling “stop!” Great speeches and their speakers don’t throw bones to every group of people who are listening. They simply state universal truths that are self-evident. Most importantly, the great speeches that come to mind are all about the Fight for Liberty. I don’t know what Obama’s speech was about, what universal truth it states, or what changes to the course of history it may bring, but the word “Liberty” doesn’t come to mind.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:53:23 +0000

Perhaps Obama would not throw aside a lifelong friend (Pastor Wright?) but it appears he has thrown his dear old grandmother off the bus (“she is a typical white person…” etc.

Senator Obama appears to be tone deaf to the feathered nuances of normal American life. He seems sensitve to perceived slights involving black Americans, but totally insensitive to the feelings of old grandmothers of a different generation, or of non-black Americans recoiling from the anti-American and racist blasts of Pastor Wright’s black liberation theology. Seems like a spoiled Ivy League kid who never grew up.