Bush as rhetorician
13th September 2007
Read it. Mickey Kaus brings up a point that has irritated me for a long time.
Is it really a good idea, from President Bush’s point of view, for him to give a prime time address today about Iraq? Seems like Bush speeches haven’t convinced anybody of anything for several years now–especially about Iraq, but also about Social Security reform and immigration reform. The president’s rhetorical campaigns not only didn’t win those fights–it seemed as if they didn’t even move the needle in his direction.
I am regularly amazed at how bad most politicians are at public speaking. The whole point of politics is persuading people that you have a better idea, and yet most people in public office today could scarcely persuade someone to sell them a Happy Meal. This is like an engineer not being very good at math. If they were businesses, they’d soon go out of business, because nobody would buy their product. The only thing that saves them is that everyone else is so much worse.