{"id":10853,"date":"2008-01-05T15:20:33","date_gmt":"2008-01-05T20:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/journals\/vardibidian\/2008\/01\/05\/10853.html"},"modified":"2018-03-12T16:57:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T21:57:46","slug":"barack-obama-this-was-the-mome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/2008\/01\/05\/barack-obama-this-was-the-mome\/","title":{"rendered":"Barack Obama: This was the moment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had heard wonderful things about Barack Obama’s victory speech in Iowa<\/a>, and when I watched<\/a> it, I was moved. It’s a good speech, and a moving speech. But an odd speech.\nFirst, the things that aren’t odd. Nobody likes a candidate who puffs himself up and takes credit for a victory. Furthermore, Sen. Obama has positioned himself—no, he has told a story<\/i> about his candidacy that is about a groundswell of individual and organizational support that has coalesced around him due to his inspirational charisma and history. That is, in this story, the campaign is not about<\/i> him, but neither does it exist apart from him. He is the spark, the catalyst, the inspiration and the incentive combined. A victory for Sen. Obama is not only the accomplishment of the movement (which is certainly true) but the reward for the movement. And that’s how he begins.\nWatch Your Humble Blogger’s emphasis added to the text, here.\n

You know, they<\/em> said this day would never come. They<\/em> said our<\/strong> sights were set too high. They<\/em> said this country was too divided; too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night - at this defining moment in history - you have done<\/strong> what the cynics said we<\/strong> couldn't do. You have done<\/strong> what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days. You have done<\/strong> what America can do in this New Year, 2008. In lines that stretched around schools and churches; in small towns and big cities; you came together<\/strong> as Democrats, Republicans and Independents to stand up and say that we<\/strong> are one nation; we<\/strong> are one people; and our<\/strong> time for change has come.<\/blockquote>\n

Not too obvious? Well, a little. But it works. In all, out of 1,327 words, 58 are either you<\/i> or we<\/i> (I’m not counting the two directed solely at his wife. To his credit, there are only four instances of they<\/i>, three of which are in the above excerpt. It’s a pretty inclusive we<\/i>.\n

I also like his use of repetition: the time has come<\/i> three times after three introductory uses of this day would never come<\/i>, too disillusioned to ever come<\/i>, and our time for change has come<\/i>. Four uses of I’ll be a President who<\/i> (I’ll come back to those). Eight uses of moment<\/i> in a broader theme that comes back to his Our Moment is Now<\/a> stump speech. Eleven hope<\/i>s, of course. Three repetitions of I know<\/i>, which I am a little skeptical about, but he’s talking about shared experience, or trying to. Repetition is always tricky, but if you can use it properly, it’s just about the most powerful trick there is.\n

Also, pay attention (if you listen to it) to his tone and pitch, it’s remarkable. He has wonderful control. I know I have not been effusive in my praise for the Senator’s speeches in the past, but he really does have a tremendous talent.\n

Now, the bad part. What exactly is the movement for<\/i>? In the tiny portion of his address where he flirts with policy and governance he hits four issues that don’t seem to have any connection or any greater purpose. I mean, yes health care and fair taxes and Iraq and especially ending “the tyranny of oil”, but I get no sense that those things are what you have done<\/i>. This isn’t a movement to get health care, or to bring our boys home and it’s certainly not a movement for a middle-class tax cut. I don’t just say that because Senator Obama’s policies on those things are just a trifle less impressive than John Edward’s policies. I say that because for all that he throws in a health care line into the beautiful (and probably victorious) vision of “years from now”—you know what, let’s just print that bit.\n

…years from now, when we've made the changes we believe in; when more families can afford to see a doctor; when our children-when Malia and Sasha and your children-inherit a planet that's a little cleaner and safer; when the world sees America differently, and America sees itself as a nation less divided and more united; you'll be able to look back with pride and say that this was the moment when it all began.\n

This was the moment when the improbable beat what Washington always said was inevitable.\n

This was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long - when we rallied people of all parties and ages to a common cause; when we finally gave Americans who'd never participated in politics a reason to stand up and to do so.\n

This was the moment when we finally beat back the politics of fear, and doubt, and cynicism; the politics where we tear each other down instead of lifting this country up. This was the moment.\n

Years from now, you'll look back and you'll say that this was the moment - this was the place—where America remembered what it means to hope. <\/blockquote>\n

You see? When we look back at the accomplishments of a Barack Obama administration, the signal accomplishment is getting Barack Obama elected<\/i>.\n

That’s the bigger movement that has coalesced around the candidate. And that’s not so bad. Because that movement, the movement that will get Barack Obama elected to the presidency of the United States, is a transformative movement. It’s an inspirational movement. And if, with his leadership, we transform ourselves into a people that will elect Barack Obama to the presidency…\n

Well, maybe that’s enough.\n

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus<\/I>,
-Vardibidian.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Which Your Humble Blogger does something he hasn’t done for a while: rhetorical analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,206],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-rhetoric"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18215,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10853\/revisions\/18215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}