Posted by
Ed Lilly on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 1:50:16 PM
I heard some of Dennis Prager's radio show yesterday while I was in the car, and loved the "campaign promise" that he made. Prager was playing clips of Senator Clinton lying [ed. - forgot the strikethrough before, oops] speaking about the pregnant woman / denial of health care story, during which Clinton made some reference to the woman in the story, "havin' some trouble."
Prager picked up on the use of "havin'" in the story, noting that politicians often use little tropes like that in speaking to audiences, trying to get people to identify with them. As Prager noted, Mrs. Clinton went to Yale law school, and uses the word "having" when she speaks.
Chuckling about such absurdity in speaking, Prager promised that, in the event he ever runs for office, he will use the letter "g" when he speaks. It's a great observation and a great "promise."
Which brings me to the story on Senator Obama's talk about his patriotism. Jules Crittenden linked to this story in the Boston Herald, which provides Obama's statement in relevant part:
“I love this country not because it’s perfect, but because we’ve always been able to move it closer to perfection,”
A lot of people have written about how wonderful Obama is as a speaker, and I guess I'll take their word for it. I think the last speech or address by a politician that I listened to was President Bush's address either immediately after 9/11, or his State of the Union address the following January.
What prompts me to instantly dislike Obama's statement is the false dichotomy that he, and so many politicians, sets up. I don't love this country because it's perfect either, and I don't think anyone has seriously tried to argue that it is a perfect country. But this country stands for the right things. Freedom. Opportunity. The notion of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" was not just thrown in on a whim by the Founding Fathers.
That doesn't mean everything that has ever happened here has been perfect, or even right. But this is still the greatest country, in terms of what it stands for and what it offers to the world's people, in history.
For Senator Obama to talk about silly hypotheticals like "perfection" is ridiculous. There never has been, nor will there ever be, a perfect country. Discussion of even moving it closer to perfection is something I would expect from a high school sophomore on the debate team. This is a great country. And it bothers me that a presidential candidate who so many praise as a great speaker seems incapable of saying something so obvious and true, and meaning it.