tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post868987455774439529..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: Language and the PresidencyJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-64180087954066518392010-06-19T00:17:25.548-05:002010-06-19T00:17:25.548-05:00Rhayader,
See my comment above -- in an autocrati...Rhayader,<br /><br />See my comment above -- in an autocratic organization, it's a lot more legitimate to conflate the two.Jonathan Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-19157776369006257962010-06-18T12:21:36.292-05:002010-06-18T12:21:36.292-05:00"I should have said, 'if...the United Sta..."I should have said, 'if...the United States is in any way defeated by bin Laden.'"<br /><br />Nitpicking, but wouldn't the same rationale apply to bin Laden here as well?Rhayaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14058323741957679243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-61173113210271799492010-06-18T11:27:42.932-05:002010-06-18T11:27:42.932-05:00It's not just Obama or Bush. This language fee...It's not just Obama or Bush. This language feeds into the misperception (classically a liberal one, but in our era a conservative fallacy) that the President, and by extension the government, can do anything. On the positive side: Stop the oil leak, prevent hurricanes, end Islamic fascism. On the negative side: Pull off massive conspiracies or cause the rise of Islamic fascism through its foreign policy decisions. It's magical thinking.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-64649622863777387772010-06-18T09:17:59.798-05:002010-06-18T09:17:59.798-05:00Most of Bush's 'optics' were in foreig...Most of Bush's 'optics' were in foreign policy, especially the Iraq war, and presidents really do have more latitude.<br /><br />It is a safe prediction that (unless Dems do amazingly well in the fall) Obama will be reborn next year as a foreign policy president, focusing on initiatives abroad, where he has a mostly free hand, rather than a domestic legislative agenda.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-63470677474657682622010-06-18T08:01:10.685-05:002010-06-18T08:01:10.685-05:00metonymymetonymyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-65267336352631278342010-06-18T03:59:17.002-05:002010-06-18T03:59:17.002-05:00Looking at the U.S., and her media, from the outsi...Looking at the U.S., and her media, from the outside there has been a tendency to embody the country in the person of the president to a tendency no longer seen in Britain. <br />It would sound very odd to our ears to hear "Tony Blair defeated the rebels in Sierra Leone".Matthew Doyehttp://matthewsmusings.posterous.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-41996308498410853742010-06-17T19:21:52.142-05:002010-06-17T19:21:52.142-05:00Well, yes, but those weren't democracies, and ...Well, yes, but those weren't democracies, and they certainly weren't diffused-responsibility democracies. That's the problem; our language (and many of our concepts) are built for pre-1688 monarchies, and we get in trouble when we apply them to post-1787 America.Jonathan Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-49622242733452719762010-06-17T18:37:40.644-05:002010-06-17T18:37:40.644-05:00Come on, people have been using the name of the he...Come on, people have been using the name of the head of government to represent the entire government that person is responsible for for centuries. Millenia, I'd bet. I have no doubt someone could find a reference to William the Conqueror doing X that was actually done by one of his knights or household employees.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com