The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Perils of Presidential Oratory

Posted on | November 30, 2010 | 2 Comments

After yesterday’s epic rant against Obama’s pay-freeze speech, I still had lots of snark left over, so I wrote a 1,700-word column for The American Spectator:

President Obama gave a speech Monday, which isn’t particularly newsworthy in itself, as part of the president’s job is to be Speechgiver-in-Chief. But this speech was different, at least for me, simply because I listened to part of it.
Not listening to presidential speeches is a habit I developed during the Clinton administration in an effort to preserve my sanity. It was my wife who suggested this non-listening policy after she watched me seething with fury and muttering curses throughout Bill Clinton’s 1996 State of the Union address.
Presidential historians will recall that as Clinton’s “era of big government is over” speech. For me, it was the “lying two-faced bastard” speech. To list and refute every falsehood in that speech would require more words than I’m willing to expend on the effort. It would be easier to say, as Mary McCarthy said of Lillian Hellman, that every word is a lie, including “and” and “the.” . . .

Please read the whole thing, including Page 2.

Category: American Spectator, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton

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