21 Comments

In our social media world, isn't pith the only path to success? I'm as nostalgic for eloquence as any former English major, but if it needs more than one sentence, leaders (and would-be leaders) already seem to know that natural selection has doomed it.

Expand full comment

Yes, fair point. But — as I tried to argue in the "Amazing Grace" post mentioned above — you can consider Obama a counter-example. His speeches could *not* easily be boiled down to "pith." (Exceptions: Yes we can; the "Hope" poster.) But they made a difference for him and for the country. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/grace/397064/

Expand full comment

Certainly made me glad I paid.

Expand full comment

Bill, thank you!

"XX Beats YY, 29-29."

Expand full comment

My nomination for best presidential speech to Congress (thus excluding Lincoln's trifecta) is LBJ's "We Shall Overcome" speech on the Voting Rights Act. Richard Goodwin wrote it under an insane deadline, and apparently there was not much time for LBJ to revise it, but it sounds like LBJ. A little poetic in parts, but rarely stilted or too poetic (IMO); mostly plain-spoken and direct. Unlike Lincoln's First, it's not lawyerly, but preacherly, like Lincoln's Second. Personally, I love the two references to "your President," one when your President requests every American to rally to the cause of vindicating freedom, the other when he says "there have been many pressures on your President."

Like most great speeches, it didn't have a direct impact on the desired result - the passage of the VRA, just as the Berlin wall would've fallen even if Reagan had never demanded it and FDR's agenda was no more or less like to pass as a result of "Four Freedoms" State of the Union. But like all great speeches it speaks to our better angels and tells us what America should be.

Expand full comment

Well put. I had always / have always viewed LBJ's delivery as an impediment to "greatest ever" rankings. (On the other hand, none of us was around to hear how Lincoln delivered his speeches — and, yes, I know there are some recordings of some of them somewhere.) And I do agree with the "preacherly" characterization of it.

Expand full comment

Jim - I'd proffer "the fify-first state" as up there with the best...

Expand full comment

David, my thanks, as always.

Expand full comment

A great start, Jim, and I appreciated your explanation of the background to the Biden plagiarism in 1987. Overseas at the time, I later learned of it and thought it more convoluted or that he had resisted a mea culpa that does not seem to have been the case.

On the other hand, I was a bit surprised you did not refer to JFK's trio of "asks" at the end of his inaugural of which the first is clearly a case of lofty rhetoric with a durable impact. I was too young in early 1961 to feel the effect in the sense that Obama's DNC speech was provocative as well as captivating - whether realistic or not - but I have observed many of your cohort who admit that President Kennedy's first entreaty clarified their doubts and moved them to action.

Thanks for this new endeavor that is a pleasure to endorse...

Expand full comment

Thank you very much! And, yes, As I'll explain another time, one of the main objects of Henry Fairlie's critical assessment was the "ask not" rhetorical flourish.

My contention would be that the inspiration and *feel* of JFK's rhetoric was inspiring, moving, and elevating. (Except in my household at the time, where my parents were lifelong Republicans, and my mother had sobbed the day after the election, about the menace of socialism.) The contrast with either Lincoln or FDR is that, in my view, Lincoln especially perfectly matched language with underlying argument. But that's a tough standard, and they all deserve respect.

Expand full comment

Perhaps you can remind us about Jimmy Carter’s “the moral equivalent of war” (meow. :-)

Expand full comment

Now now now! I will indeed write some time, as I have a zillion times before, about why the WIlliam James version of "Moral Equivalent of War" was *the* defining essay about the American character. Use of the phrase, without explanation, in an Oval Office address — had its drawbacks.

BTW congratulations on your great new book! https://ericredmanwriting.com/

Expand full comment

Yes -- the book is the Moral Equivalent of Terrific Detective Fiction. :-). Thanks!

Expand full comment

Lovely, thanks Jim

Expand full comment

Tom, thank you so much.

Expand full comment

Even in the loftiest realms of literature, examples of clear, plain-spoken, language have profound effect.

What is the central theme of King Lear? Lear states it himself:

“Who is it that can tell me who I am?”

Or later, as begins to find his way again:

"I am a very foolish fond old man,

Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;

And, to deal plainly,

I fear I am not in my perfect mind."

The sad news that Nanci Griffith, poet and musician, had died recently reminded me of the opening lines of her signature song, “Love at the Five-and-Dime”:

"Rita was sixteen years

Hazel eyes and chestnut hair

She made the Woolworth counter shine"

A fully formed character created with 15 simple words. And what follows is a complete tale of two lives distilled in some 200 plain-spoken words (not counting repetition of the chorus).

Expand full comment

Well put. And of course we have "In the beginning..."

Expand full comment

Jim -- I always thought that Truman's most memorable comment were his words to reporters after taking office: "When they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me."

Expand full comment

My favorite was Truman's written response to a reporter who dissed the singing ability of Truman's daughter: "Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!"

Expand full comment

Yes, thank you; with this and Walter Shapiro's reminder, I will need to do an update.

Expand full comment

Walter, great point. Sorry to omit that.

Expand full comment