Dear Readers:
Dr. Ink has been awakened from months of contemplative slumber by a dream. He dreamed that a possible future First Lady of the United States told a newspaper editorialist to “Shove it.”
The flames of that spontaneous combustion lit a fire under Doc’s derriere. He spent the evening channel surfing for convention coverage and commentary. He explored the galaxy of blogs. And he listened carefully to the evening’s political rhetoric, with special attention to the words of one William Jefferson Clinton.
Commentators across the political spectrum gave the former president high marks for his remarks, which has inspired this deconstruction of how the Comeback Kid came back:
Self-deprecation: One of the benefits of being an ex-president is that you get to make fun of yourself or call attention to your shortcomings. President Clinton referred to President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and “me” as a troika of privileged men who avoided military service in Vietnam –- while Kerry volunteered for duty. And he took the edge off the class-warfare theme by pointing out that he was now rich enough to benefit from the Bush tax cuts. (Note: When a Democrat calls attention to his wealth, he is not bragging.)
Indirection: The Democrats have decided to muzzle their Ann Richards-style Bush bashing in favor of a more “positive” recitation of their own strengths. Mr. Clinton admitted that both candidates were “strong men who both love their countries.” But the personal attacks were there, veiled under euphonious indirection. When Mr. Clinton said that “strength and wisdom” were not opposing values, or that Senator Kerry was man of insatiable “curiosity,” he was speaking in a code that red-meat Democrats fully understood: the Republican President is a numbskull.
Parable: In the now famous JibJab.com parody of “This Land Is Your Land,” the cartoon Kerry keeps reminding voters that he “won three Purple Hearts.” President Clinton used narrative sparingly, which gave his version of Kerry’s war heroism special power. The theme for the Democrats is strength, strength, strength — physical and moral courage of the kind that Clinton could never claim as his own (cf. ‘self-deprecation’) but can now dramatically confer on Senator Kerry.
Comparison/Contrast: The seeds of contemporary political rhetoric can be traced back at least to Shakespeare, most notably to Marc Antony’s eulogy to the murdered Julius Caesar. As Bill Clinton credits Bush with being good and patriotic, so Antony credits Brutus as “an honorable man.” But before long the citizens of Rome are confronted with the contrast between Caesar’s magnanimity and Brutus’s perfidy. In the same spirit, Clinton offered Democrats an inventory of Republican vices and failures, inviting them to re-elect the incumbent if they wanted more of that. If not, vote for Kerry and Edwards.
Catch Phrase: Political rhetoric, like music, is all about repetition. The repetition of theme. The repetition of names. The repetition of language. See, the repetitive Doc has used the word ‘repetition’ several times in just a few lines. If he were doing journalism, the Doc would be facing his editor’s scalpel. But in the land of persuasion, repetition (with some variation) is king. Which is why Bill Clinton built to a crescendo with his repetition of the catchphrase “Send me,” to describe Kerry’s willingness to serve.
Brevity: In Clintonian time, a 25-minute speech must be considered a sonnet. His was no Gettysburg Address, to be sure, but compared to some of the stem-winders of history, Mr. Clinton’s speech, delivered at a rapid pace, flew by. Such brevity builds upon the habit of President Bush to deliver short speeches, not only to contrast himself to Clinton’s windy style, but to match political speech to the demands of a time-starved and distracted public.
It’s good to be the Doc.
>> Related: James Fallows deconstructs the rhetorical strategies used in Bush’s January 2003 State of the Union address.
