Friday, October 16, 2009

Socialist Mop

Yeah, he's good. If you haven't seen this yet (via Andrew):
What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. Another way of putting it is when, you know, I'm busy and Nancy is busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else's mess --- we don't want somebody sitting back saying, you're not holding the mop the right way. Why don't you grab a mop, why don't you help clean up. (Applause.) You're not mopping fast enough. (Laughter.) That's a socialist mop. (Laughter and applause.) Grab a mop -- let's get to work.
Standard caveat: I don't think it matters very much if the president is good at giving speeches and speaking off the cuff or not -- it maybe pushes his approval rating a couple of ticks one way or another, but the big stuff (what's actually happening in the world) matters a whole lot more.

Still, it sure is a lot more pleasant having a president who can do those sorts of things than having one who can't. In the TV age, and strictly IMO, the only ones who were really good at both (formal speeches and off-the-cuff) have been Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama (Reagan was of course very good at formal speeches, but his press conferences were appalling; Clinton, I think, wasn't a natural at formal speeches, but he was passable enough most of the time, and he was excellent at the SOTU format).

I would like to know if that's a written or an ad-libbed line, the socialist mop (the grab a mop, I'm assuming, is written). It's very good.

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