And you weren't listening to Paul and Brad. Paul wrote, Brad replied that he agrees with what Paul wrote, and then Paul added as below.
But that's no never mind. Consider this. In "The Audacity of Hope", Barack Obama wrote about Michelle, "Two visions of herself were at war with each other -- the desire to be the woman her mother (had been) was, solid, dependable, making a home and always there for her kids; and the desire to excel in her profession, to make her mark on the world and realize all those plans she (had) had on the very first day (that) we met." (From Today's Washington Post.)
(On February 14 last, I wrote to the listserv: "In the first twenty-one pages of "The Audacity of Hope", by Barack Obama, c.2006, the word "had" appears 68 times. Of the total, 16 are used correctly as the past tense of the verb "to have" (11), or in the past perfect (2), or in the subjunctive (2). Of the 52 in error, 5 use "had been"' instead of "was" or "were", 13 insert the word 'had' in front of the wrong form of an irregular verb, and 34 insert the word "had" in front of a past tense verb.)
As for his speaking articulateness, a dozen people have said to me that Obama is a good teleprompter reader, even a great teleprompter reader. Next time he gives a speech on TV, watch his head and eyes go from side to side, like a music teacher's metronome, seldom or never looking straight ahead. I have conceded to the dozen that they have a point. Let's keep a sharp lookout.
Henry Kissinger has a heavy German accent, having come to this country when he was 13 years old, 7 years past the presumed limit for learning another language without keeping the accent of those at the family dinner table. He's hard to listen to but read a transcript of what he says.
.brad.26nov08.
Barack Obama.
But you weren't really listening to Paul. When he said he didn't want to play best and worst list games, you said you agreed with him. Clearly, you do not agree with him. I don't particularly think Obama is a great orator (because politicians are full of b.s.), but since I'd rather listen to him than Henry and since he's kinda in the news right now, he's my choice for greatest political living orator. As far as verbal skills--and not speeches--go, I think Steven Colbert is very clever. But he's playing the role of a sophist. I also like Mark Twain and George Orwell and H.L. Mencken.
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On Nov 25, 2008, at 5:45 PM, Brad Johnston wrote:
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Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/