. . . especially for less well-off voters, the specific things government can do to relieve a few of the burdens they bear may be more important than Obama’s soaring and prophetic rhetoric that moved the young and the affluent. To eat some of my own words, maybe prose wins elections after all.
E.J.Dionne Jnr in The New Republic online today.
Aristotle:
In a political debate the man who is forming a judgement is making a decision about his own vital interests. There is no need, therefore, to prove anything except that the facts are what the supporter of a measure maintains they are. It is clear, further, that [rhetoric's] function is not simply to succeed in persuading, but rather to discover the means of coming as near such success as the circumstances of each particular case allow.
Effectiveness is how we judge rhetoric. Looks like people are not in the mood for soaring. If style trumped content we would expect Obama to win South Carolina – but I’m willing to bet he loses there by a larger margin for reasons I’d rather not contemplate this morning.