The Rhetoric of Obama

Jonathan Bernstein has an interesting analysis of rhetorical themes that have showed up in the president's recent speeches on health care reform (At least, interesting to someone like me who once had aspirations of being a presidential speechwriter. Those aspirations dried up on a November night in 1992).

But it is interesting stuff as Bernstein tries to get a sense of Obama's inner moral and political compass from his rhetoric. And the comments provide some insight, particularly this one from someone from Canada:

Two years ago, I felt that the difference between the three democratic frontrunners could be summed up like this: John Edwards wanted to reform the economy, Hillary Clinton wanted to reform society, and Barak Obama wanted to reform politics. I am still not sure whether people who voted for Obama necessarily understood or supported what he wanted to do, but he took this has a mandate and, inch by inch, he is doing it. He sincerely believes that Americans can do anything they want to do -- "Yes, we can" is the essence of his being. In the end, if he CAN reform American politics, then society and the economy will follow. The Teabaggers who are so opposed to him call him names like fascist and communist because they don't know WHAT to call him, but in some visceral way they recognize what the progressives so far have not -- that Obama actually is aiming to change the way politics is being practiced in America, creating a significant, non-partisan, forward-looking change in how American democracy functions. This is terribly threatening to some on both the right and the left, who are too comfortable with the existing system.