Eloquence--yuck

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, there he goes again.

On at least two occasions during last night's debate, John McCain disparaged Barack Obama's eloquence ("Well, you know, I admire so much Sen. Obama's eloquence" and later, "Just again, the example of the eloquence of Sen. Obama").

No, in this time of crisis, we wouldn't want a president who is articulate, coherent or, dare we say, eloquent.

Instead, let's keep muddling through with the same mangled syntax and incoherent thinking of the past eight years (the standard-setter, of course, being President Bush's laughable query: "Is our children learning?").

NY Times columnist David Brooks, as he often does, nailed it here last week:

"Once conservatives admired Churchill and Lincoln above all -- men from wildly different backgrounds who prepared for leadership through constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking. Now those attributes bow down before the common touch.

"And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission -- because it has not developed policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission -- by telling members of that class to go away."

Eloquence has now become the GOP's newest four-letter word...and this from the party of Lincoln, our most eloquent president. Amazing....

Remember this from his second inaugural?

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

It's that time ... again.

Comments

[davidtsteadman]

It's remarkably disappointing to witness the devaluation of the spoken and written word - yuck indeed!

Lincoln's words resonate more than ever and underscore McCain's reluctance to admit that our country has a problem (many problems really, but let's lump them into one for the sake of unity), thus he cannot lead us to take the first step toward recovery. On the other hand, Obama's willingness to acknowledge the problems that we face, will allow our country to take that critical first step, which leads to all others.

I'm all set being in enthralled - have been for the past 8 years. I, for one, am fired up to disenthrall. Thanks Adam.

[Glenn1441]

This development -- with recent and increasing attacks on an educated, thoughtful approach and the ability to effectively communicate that approach, in a word, intelligence -- is one that has worried me greatly since Palin was brought onto the McCain ticket. With her, the GOP believed it had found the perfect voice to sound the call to class warfare. Or to those in our society with the most base urges.

Imagine! -- A candidate running for the second highest office in the nation delivering a speech that astonishingly quotes Westbrook Pegler -- author, infamous racist and anti-Semite, and the same man who gleefully called for the assassination of Robert Kennedy at the hands of some 'white patriot from thee southern tier.'w

By authorizing that speech in his name, John McCain has forever damned himself in the eyes of many Americans.

[craigary]

There's also this continual sort of patronizing, paternal racism that comes out of McCain that is rare addressed but has been seen at every one of their debates. He has this "It's so neat that your people can be eloquent, I'm just surprised as all heck by that" air to these comments you refer to. In both what he actually says and in his body and facial expressions McCain is entirely dismissive almost every time they interact. It's almost fascinating, if it wasn't also so depressing and degrading.

[Senzasord]

Senator McCain's fixation with Barack Obama's elloquence was by design. This is a new phrase injected into the discussion by the McCain campaign, and since they don't call their opponents names without a reason, what then does elloquent mean.

I have a suspicion it is a code for elite. Barack is elloquent and has a fine command of the language. therefore Barack Obama is elite and by extension elitist. Can we infer uppity? I think we can look forward to being treated to McCain ads in the future dismissively singing the tune of "Oh Barack, there you go being elloquent again," any time Senator Obama utters a complex sentence, and thereby demonizing anyone who speaks intelligently.

[enomaj]

McCain was trying to make the case that an eloquent black man = a jive talking con artist. Didn't work especially with the Palin sentences to nowhere lingering in people's minds.

[slr27]

Eloquently written.

[Inskeep]

There are two reasons why McCain is in the position he is in today. The first is that he kissed Bush's (Rove's) ass over and over and over again. The second is that he flew airplanes miles above the earth, dropping bombs on innocent villagers during the US war of aggression against Vietnam. Everything else is bullshit.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton, MD