Re message from Herbert Stahlke.   
  Herb:  “had gained” and “gained” give the sentence two quite different meanings.
   
  Brad:  I agree.^
   

  Obama:  "After two terms during which I labored in the minority, Democrats had gained control of the state senate and I (had) subsequently passed a slew of bills."
   
  Herb:  With “had gained” Obama is saying that that gaining of control occurred before the end of the two terms he spent in the minority.
   
  Brad:  Even though he clearly stated "After two terms"?
   
  Obama:  "After two terms during which I labored in the minority, Democrats gained control of the state senate and I (had) subsequently passed a slew of bills."
   
  Herb:  If he had written just “gained,” the change of control of the Illinois senate would have taken place after those two terms were completed.
   
  Brad:  I agree. That's when he said it happened.
  
Herb: In the other examples the meaning differences are not as easy to explicate, but he had a choice between simple past  and past perfect, and he legitimately chose past perfect.
   
    Obama:  I (had) preserved my independence, my good name, and my marriage, all of which (had been) were placed at risk the moment I set foot in the state capitol.
   
  Brad:  Is not "preserved" a past tense verb in front of which the author has inserted the word 'had"?
   
  Brad:  His independence, name, and marriage were placed at risk. Why would we want him to say that they "had been" placed at risk? Relative to what?
   

  ^ In the third line above, where it says, "I agree" that the past perfect makes a difference, I am reminded of a professor at a British university who wrote to me saying:
   
  "When the Queen arrived, they dined." (They dined after she arrived.)
   
  "When the Queen arrived, they had dined." (They dined before she arrived.)
   
  "Without the past perfect", he said, "such distinctions are not possible".
   
  Brad: We can use more words to describe exactly what happened but if limited to so few words, he's right, such distinctions are not possible.
   
  .brad.19feb08.

       
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