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Real Presidential Eloquence
Part Two of Three By Dave Andrusko To this day everyone who has known me for any time laughs out loud at how I have taken to the Internet. I was so intimidated by computers that the first PC I ever owned lay on my desk, the power not turned on, for a year! Now I'm on it constantly.
I say that by way of preface to the amazing way "one thing leads to another" on the Net, and the contrast between President Obama and a couple of the men who preceded him, President George W. Bush and President Ronald Reagan. Politico ran a piece this morning about how "Obama strategy gets personal." As his popularity tanked Obama has concluded that highly personal attacks on those who disagree with him would at least rally his base. According to the article, written by Jonathan Allen and Carol Lee, "By setting himself up against specific opponents, he's establishing a point of contrast that's useful in invigorating a base hungry for bare knuckles and bravado." Well, okay. But then Allen and Lee add, "and forces those in the middle to choose between him and his villain du jour." Even by Obama's cynical standards, that's over the top. And it will not work. If Obama's latest attempt to rescue his floundering administration is sour news, there was sweet news in the same article. Allen and Lee quoted from a Paul Stob, described as "a Vanderbilt professor who co-operates the website www.presidentialrhetoric.com." I immediately went to www.presidentialrhetoric.com and, to my delight, found a treasure trove of resources. For starters, there is the text of a number of speeches delivered by President Obama and President George W. Bush. It made for informative reading--for different reasons, of course. There is also a link to what the site calls the "Top 100 Speeches of the Twentieth Century." Included in those are six by President Ronald Reagan. These speeches include not just the text but audiovisuals! Among those was the greatest speech I have ever read--and now seen: The President's "Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day," delivered June 1984, in Pointe Du Hoc, Normandy, France. If, like me, you have never seen the speech delivered, take 14 minutes of your life and go to http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganddayaddress.html.
The archives (http://presidentialrhetoric.com/archives/index.html)
take you way back in American
history. But from there you can
also link to Alas, one speech is not there, either in text or video: President Bush's remarkable oration at the National Cathedral three days after September 11. You can watch his never-to-be-forgotten address at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDcdpEBctaQ and read the text at http://main.opm.gov/guidance/09-14-01gwb.htm. I remember that Day of Remembrance as if it were yesterday as I do Denyce Graves' incredible performance of "The Lord's Prayer" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnsO3BBMjA0) Even when their presidential numbers fell, it's hard to imagine either President Reagan or President Bush conjuring up a "villain du jour," Both were (to borrow from the first President Bush) kinder and gentler men. As you listen to Reagan eloquently celebrate the courage of "the boys of Pointe du Hoc" or Bush solemnly ask his hushed audience to "come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who loved them," it makes you aware of what it means to be not only a real leader, but also a decent, human being. Be sure to send your thoughts and comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com and read National Right to Life News Today at www.nationalrighttolifenews.org |
