Barack Obama is sure to try to dazzle us with his State of the Union address tonight. I doubt that any attendee will be shouting out "You lie!", but I still suspect that mendacity will creep into his rhetoric. Ben Shapiro has written an insightful piece in "Town Hall.com" to help us decipher what will oil its way out Obama's cigarette-stained lips tonight. See Obama's Lexicon of Rhetorical Devices. This is one of the funniest columns I have read in quite a while. May I suggest that you print it out and keep it by your side if you plan to watch or listen to Obama's teleprompter tonight. (Thanks to Howie Carr for pointing this column out to us.)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Pinocchio
Barack Obama is sure to try to dazzle us with his State of the Union address tonight. I doubt that any attendee will be shouting out "You lie!", but I still suspect that mendacity will creep into his rhetoric. Ben Shapiro has written an insightful piece in "Town Hall.com" to help us decipher what will oil its way out Obama's cigarette-stained lips tonight. See Obama's Lexicon of Rhetorical Devices. This is one of the funniest columns I have read in quite a while. May I suggest that you print it out and keep it by your side if you plan to watch or listen to Obama's teleprompter tonight. (Thanks to Howie Carr for pointing this column out to us.)
Here’s the Ben Shapiro scoreboard:
ReplyDelete• Hope and change 0
• False choice 1
• Deficit reduction 0
• Let me be clear 0
• Make no mistake 1
• Unprecedented 0
• This isn't about me 0
• Hitting the reset button 0
• Reaching out to the other side of the aisle 0
• Failed policies of the past 0
• Teachable moment 0
• Tax cut 6
• Transparency 0
• Accountability 0
• Stimulus 1
• Shovel-ready jobs 0
• Green jobs 0
• Saved or created 0
• Recovery 6
• Jobs funded 0
• It won't happen overnight 0
• Progress 1
• Cynics 0
Winner: TIE: 6 "Tax Cut", "Recovery"
Singletons: 4
Nulls: 17
Overall: 16 hits on 23 phrases
Apparently Ben Shapiro’s ‘insightful’ treatise on rhetorical; webspinning was a dud. Thus, Obama is not really "addicted to utilizing language that he has carefully tailored or perverted to obfuscate the truth."
To be fair and balanced -- the Republican rebuttal: Ben Shapiro phrase hits: Accountability 1
ReplyDeleteApparently the GOP can’t use the phrases “tax cut” or “recovery” because they would be double-talking like the POTUS.
I am very impressed that Obama's cynical defenders choose not to identify themselves (a false choice). Perhaps this is a teachable moment in the hope to exhibit unprecedented transparency and accountability?
ReplyDeleteI am not a 'cynical defender', just a humble analyst. You said that these phrases would "oil" their way out of Obama's lips. They didn't. Ben Shapiro said "watch for these phrases". So I did.
ReplyDeleteHe also didn't say "shock and awe" or "mission accomplished" or "crusade". He didn't say "lie" or "Reagan" or "Bush" or "Clinton" or "Palin".
But he did say "I" something like 96 times.
ReplyDeleteI 104
ReplyDeletemy 10
me 11
you 25
your 1
we 170
our 120
us 19
they 60
their35
--
"we" win
ChillFin, You obviously have too much time on your hands ...have you received a stimulus grant?
ReplyDeleteI actually have little spare time. I am just real adept at text tools and script operations. And, no, I have to stimulate myself. Always have.
ReplyDelete