From
a Bret Stephens column in today’s WSJ:
"Abraham
Lincoln spoke greatly because he read wisely and thought deeply. He turned to
Shakespeare, he once said, "perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader."
"It matters not to me whether Shakespeare be well or ill acted," he added. "With
him the thought suffices."
Maybe
Mr. Obama has similar literary tastes. It doesn't show. "An economy built to last," the refrain from his 2012 State of
the Union, borrows from an ad slogan once used to sell the Ford Edsel.
"Nation-building at home," another favorite presidential trope, was born in a
Tom Friedman column. "We are the ones we have been waiting for" is the title of
a volume of essays by Alice Walker. "The audacity of hope" is adapted from a
Jeremiah Wright sermon. "Yes We Can!" is the anthem from "Bob the Builder," a TV
cartoon aimed at 3-year-olds.
There
is a common view that good policy and good rhetoric have little intrinsic
connection. Not so. President Obama's stupendously shallow rhetoric betrays a
remarkably superficial mind. Superficial minds designed ObamaCare. Superficial minds are now astounded by
its elementary failures, and will continue to be astounded by the failures to
come."
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