Electric Josh

When presidents speak
A couple of years ago, when I was living in Pennsylvania, the President went on TV and explained how he had, well, yes, been misleading (which means he lied) in the most patronizing, sing-songy voice imaginable. Only that president's wife ever talked more annoyingly. Well, now there's the warbling of Lieberman and Gore, the uncomprehending staccato of the current President (he says nukular, for God's sake!). Donald Rumsfeld is an excellent speaker, and should speak instead of the President at all times. As Dad says, "Even presidents I like are totally impossible to listen to."

A colleague pointed out to me last year that the last several years of Presidential speeches he'd seen reminded him strongly ("in fact, kind of disturbingly," he said with his rich Russian accent) of the addresses that the Soviet Premier used to give before the Politburo. The speeches would be interrupted with wild, standing ovations which would erupt every several seconds, almost irrespective of what was being said. "The clapping, of course, meant nothing." So that happens in America, too, now.

In that spirit, I won't be listening tonight, but will instead read the transcript in text form tomorrow. Links [added the next day]:

• New York Times
• The Globe has only excerpts.
• ABC News
• Holy crap! C-Span has every state of the union address since Truman (except for Reagan's last two, oddly), including last night's.