ON POLITICAL BOOKS: Gettysburg Regress

...I’d never seen or heard of his inaugural...

...It should come with a tube of Ben Gay for rubbing on the Ibook-holding deltoids should the tome be perused at bedtime...

...We were understanding our country together and following its history through the news...

...An adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he offers excerpts of presidential addresses that changed history, explaining how and why they came about and why he thinks they’re great...

...He was always a welcome presence...

...Why don’t our political leaders look at things seriously...

...It is almost three inches thick...

...Most of us would like Harry Truman a little less, not a little more, if we found that, back in prohibition days, he had sniffed that if whiskey was against the law, it would never cross his lips, nor should it those of others...

...What a year: The more you promise, the more contempt the voters have...

...to “You tell ’em, buster...

...He loves the dodge, and honors it in this book...

...Bush’s speeches keep pressing two themes: 1) We must stop the Democrats from spending more money, and 2) Let’s spend more money...

...And, he might have added, doesn’t, while on the toot, offer homilies on fiscal restraint...

...William Satire, ed...

...At first they watch blankly, then they giggle...

...Why would this be...

...Republicans playing offense are somehow too shy to be explicit...

...Belief is the only true pragmatism...

...The people can tell, and eventually trust back...

...To make it easier, he includes a sonorous tribute to the dog from a gentleman named Senator Vest, whom I think Safire made UP...

...Bush, we put the same questions to you...

...Speech impediments In different ways, the president and the governor have taken to the most egregious kinds of pandering, although the governor’s performance seemed the more obnoxious, perhaps because it seemed so stupid...

...This is partly true...

...rarely have books on rhetoric been so prevalent and popular...

...Thoslc who speak of family values tend to do it with soft, muzzy phrases that both lull and confuse...

...It was also insulting...

...Is it because they fear the press will make them look stupid if they express concern about what is being carried on the airwaves around us...

...Theft, too, is a reliable and traditional rhetorical aid...

...As to the reporting, I can attest that Muir’s history of the failed speech Reagan gave to the European Parliament in Strasbourg is correct in all of its particulars, though too kind to everyone involved, including its chief drafter, me...

...As always with such books, one can quarrel with some of the choices and praise others...

...William Ker Muir...

...Repetitionin this case of the words “it is”-is a device, Safiie reminds us, called ahaphora...

...Buh buh buh buh buh buh buh...

...The scene is deeply anti-establishment, and funny...

...publicans, prissiness...

...To be direct and honest is to show respect...

...The same week, President Bush was in New Jersey, where he eschewed a normally reliable applause line-“This government is just too big and spends too much”-to unveil a new federal jobs program, the cost of which has been put variously at $2 billion and $10 billion...

...That’s what college is for...

...I have a friend, a highly sophisticated former government official, who believes that the family values debate is really about this: The Democrats, obligated to various gay rights groups for money and support, will, upon taking the White House, include homosexuals as a minority covered by the nation’s civil rights laws, a decision that will inevitably allow the legalization of homosexual marriage...

...Perhaps the success of books such as Garry Wills’ Lincoln at Gettysburg reflects an unmet national yearning for words that are elevated, pertinent, and true, that attempt to persuade and not only assert...

...It has almost 900 pages...

...William Ker Muir Jr., I realized as I read The Bully Pulpit, is Sandy Muir, a professor of political science at Berkeley who used to work in Vice President George Bush’s speechwriting shop upstairs in the Executive Office Building...

...and perhaps they will go into politics and elevate the debate by their presence...

...Gettysburg Regress The lofty promises and lowly debate of Campaign '92 by Peggy Noonan In the 1962 movie, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, the working-class toff played by Tom Courtney sits with a friend in front of his mother’s new TV and watches a British politician deliver a speech...

...Who told them to stoop...

...A debate on our culture, on its values, on what we can do to improve the human ecology, to clean up the muddy, airless river in which we all swim, ought to be discussed this year...

...James C. Humes’ net is more narrowly cast...

...Can we talk...

...Our culture is increasingly violent, vulgar, cynical, and anti-child (or at least anti-childhood), and there is not a parent in America who does not see this and worry about it...

...As for the president, I have real doubts that it is going to resonate, as they say, with the public if he continues in his speeches to press two themes: 1) We must stop the Democrats from spending more money, and 2) Let’s spend more money...

...We did not know at the time that we were taking part in a wholesome family ritual, but we were...

...Among them, Safire’s is most important, in part because it is the most comprehensive, in part because Safire is Safie...

...But I think the problem is that the politicians no longer have faith in the people...

...Praeger...

...The news gives children nightmares...

...It is, along with the economy, the thing that makes people think the future will be bleaker, not better...

...On the other hand, books like this tend to achieve balance at the cost of justicethere should be more Reagan...

...It has been years since the producer thought about the fact that he has a certain responsibility to the culture, but he does...

...It’s also why none of our current leaders will be remembered as great...

...I have relearned much about the Reagan years from this book, and discovered some things I didn’t know...

...Safire lowered his voice and said, “You bet your life I am”-was also the foister, as a Nixon speechwriter, of the phrase, “nattering nabobs of negativism” on an unsuspecting world...

...The Pulitzer-winning colurnnist and known Bigfootat the Houston convention a college journalist approached him and asked, “IExcuse me, are you a media biggy...

...They should, in fact, feel some anguish: They have children too...

...The Legion would never vote for him anyway, so why not use the forum to show strength...

...This book would have to be big to range, as it does, from great speeches of ancient Greece (“Pericles Extols the Glory That Is Greece At the Funeral of its Fallen Sons”) to memorable speeches by modem union leaders (“Lane Kukland Rejects the Labels ‘Liberal’ and ‘Conserva*Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches i,v History...

...Mr Clinton, would you take actions as president that allowed or encouraged legalization of marriage between same-sex homosexuals...

...No parent in America can watch local news with a child...

...There are stories of internal struggles over speeches, of clarity sacrificed to diplomacy, and of presidential decisions aimed less at speakmg to history than at keeping the peace between warring agencies and aides...

...The problem is usually put this way: Isn’t it sad that people no longer have faith in politicians...

...The Bully Pulpit: The Presidential Leaaership of Ronald Reagan...

...Something tells me-and maybe I’m wrong, but hear me out-that the people may actually see through this...

...Muir focuses on exactly how Reagan led, which leads the author to exactly how Reagan used words, and why he made the choices he did...

...Along the way you’ll meet up with Harry Truman’s stump speech (“What it lacks in depth and shape it makes up for in zest”), Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Mark Twain’s speech on speechmaking, Woodrow Wilson (who said, “Passion is the pith of eloquence”), Saint Francis, Sojourner Truth, and Salmon Rushdie...

...Is it because they think we do not think seriously...

...The preface takes the form cif a breezy speech that begins with the information tbat the speaker doesn’t really want your ears, your attention will do, and builds to a declaration of what is to come, and ends with a peroration of such power that its author could not refrain from including crowd calls ranging from “Let us march...

...I would say helpful-mommy things like, That’s the wind of a hurricane, which is a big storm, and that woman is the Queen of England...

...For at least a decade, though I did not notice until I had a child, watching the local news has been one more thing American Families cannot do together...

...And I personally miss Jefferson’s second inaugural (Humes includes the first), which was great because it was memorable and memorable because it was one long rant against the press...

...Perhaps young men and women in high school and college, reading these books and dreaming big things, will become immersed in the sound and sense of great rhetoric...

...Who told them that when you talk to the people you talk down...

...They begin to think they live in a place where violent child abuse is prevalent (“Mommy, what does beheaded mean...

...the Ben Gay reference I stole from something S. J. Perelman inscribed in a big book he sent to Safire...

...One-the first, I’m embarrassed to say-was, What dumb politics...

...Something tells me-and maybe I’m wrong-that the people may actually see through this...

...He used to come by now and then and talk speechwriting with Reagan’s speechwriters, of whom I was one...

...The family values debate-actually, debate is too complimentary a word for the repetition of the words “family” and “values” in recent speeches-has further soured this campaign, and only partly because it has brought out the worst in each party (in the RePeggy Noonan is the author ofWhat I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era...

...Safire is unofficial godfather of all speechwriters...

...Don’t worry...

...My Fellow Americans: Presidential Addresses That Shaped History...

...Norton, $35...

...are we?-wouldn’t it be helpful to treat this issue, in tihe manner of the grownups we are, as an area of frank discussion...

...Is it also that they are so in the habit of stooping low they cannot stand straight, or think straight, anymore...

...If you would, or would not, why...

...That, I think, is where the American public is this year as they watch their candidates for high office speak...

...What is also true is that the producer’s decisions about what is said and shown on the air are determined also by his desire for money and success, which in his line of work come from ratings, in the pursuit of which the hotter and sicker the better...

...But his intention, he tells us, is not only to examine Reagan’s leadership style: “My objective was to find general lessons about leadership, ones that people everywhere could apply to their daily lives...

...it didn’t always prattle away all day like an unwanted neighbor), we’d pay a little attention to Walter Cronkite, who would tell us CBS’s version of what happened that day...

...Their leaderis have lost a sense of them...

...He promised the Legion virtual veto power on his choice of secretary of veterans affairs...

...So what...

...Instead, we get tinny braying about who inhaled, who has the better character...

...Great leaders trust the people...

...one assumes this is in hopes that the voters will make their own associations., the more unpleasant the better...

...For those who want to learn how a modern speechwriting shop is run, who are curious about how speeches are hammered out and how each decision carries at least a handful of repercussions, this will prove a valuable book...

...in the Democrats, lack of seriousness...

...49 95...

...If my friend is right that this is what we’re talking about-by the way, is he...

...He did not, surprisingly, wear a funny hat...

...James C. Humes, ed...

...where every day policemen are killed, where mothers are frequently shot as they walk to the grocery store, where sexual matters (“Mommy, what’s a condom?’) are endlessly debated...

...to be indirect and only suggestive is no1 just subtle butnasty, creepy, low...

...And what would you envision as the implications of such action...

...candor wins, evasive language doesn’t...

...When I’m in charge of the federal trough, I will vigorously ladle to all the piglets...

...Soon they lower the sound and provide their own audio...

...But I cannot watch the TV news with my son...

...What would convince politicians that honesty wins, weasel words don’t...

...Also, I may add, since I appear to be on a tear here, that for all our talk as a nation of our marvelous openness and tolerance, we’ve gotten awfully priggish lateapproached the barriWhen I had a child I looked forward to these TV times...

...Or, if they are, at least mocked at the politician’s peril...

...At night when the news came on (note to the young: the news used to come on...

...A small example...

...We all do...

...What is most obviously missing is a clear definition of terms and meaning...

...Safire likes to be helpful, so he tells those who want to make good speeches that eloquence can, in a way, be acquired by osmosis: “Close the door, or go out into the woods with only a dog as an audience, and read these speeches aloud...

...They shake their fingers for emphasis, looks of bland concern on their faces...

...To tell the truth What happens when public disgust reaches critical mass...

...he seemed to think we were doing something important...

...Buh buh buh...

...Democrats believe in the family...

...We believe in the family,” and “As far as I’m concerned the family is the numberone building block...

...I assume the majority of boomer Republicans did one, maybe two of those...

...Maybe 2lst-century rhetoric will sound not like people talking, but like people thinking...

...I’d been missing something...

...There are behindthe-scenes anecdotes, some recounted with real charm, about the making and delivering of each speech...

...This makes both leadership and followership possible, which makes progress possible...

...When a politician panders to an audience like this, what he’s really saying is: “I understand, my fellow porkers, that even though you wave the flag and make much of your love of country, what really motivates you is seeing to it that your interests are served...

...When we use words not to clear up but to cloud, we show disrespect for the audience and the issues...

...Rarely has what politicians say been held in such low regard...

...Why make every boomer who in the seventies smoked dope, streaked, and cades of the sexual revolution feel unwelcome...

...It’s precisely where you ought to do those things because you would look silly doing them at 40, when you’re the president of the Parent Teacher Association...

...There are informative and what look to me like well-researched short histories before each speech, putting them in context, telling us how they were written, where given, how received...

...They are so busy running the government and dealing with interest groups that they have forgotten that the people, as Sam Ervin liked to say, are not mocked...

...Humes includes a chapter on Polk’s inaugural address, calling it “Action as Eloquence,” and introducing (to this reader at least) the important yet Carter-like figure of Polk...

...they don’t have a plank in their platform called Destroy the Waltons...

...It has been reduced to the almost comically pinched, or at least so it seemed when Marilyn Quayle, in an otherwise interesting speech at the Republican convention, boasted that not everyone in her generation took drugs or got sexually obstreperous...

...They think the news is real...

...These three books* approach rhetoric from different angles...

...In one of the most important speeches he would give in the 10 weeks before the election, Bill Clinton on August 25 gripped the podium at the national convention of the American Legion, cleared his throat, looked the Legionnaires straight in the eyes, and said, “I will work to ensure the VA gets the funding it needs to provide the excellent and timely care our veterans deserve...

...I grew up in a house where the TV in the living room was always on...

...As she said that, I had two thoughts...

...This is a big book...

...Later, I dreamed, I would get to say things like, That’s a tax, which is a very wicked thing...

...Or to put it another way: Pragmatism is not pragmatic...

...Quayle to Hollywood: ‘Clean up or we’ll censor.’ ” “Tipper zaps Zappalzappa zaps back...

...All true, but so what...

...A week later, on September 2, the president went to South Dakota to promise wheat farmers a new $1 billion in export subsidies, and later that day, in Texas, threw in almost a billion in aid for farmers hurt in Hurricane Andrew...

...they think it depicts reality...

...A television producer would answer, We just bring you the news, we don’t make it...

...The other thought on seeing Marilyn Quayle, and later Newt Gingrich when he suggested Woody Allen would be Clinton’s top domestic affairs adviser, was: Isn’t it sad that all this delegitimizes a real issue that people are hungry to see confronted and debated (the beginning, one always hopes, of improvement)the issue of our country’s cultural values...

...belief wins, pragmatism doesn’t...

...ICs, $22.95...

...No one expects this from the candidates this year, which may have something to do with the air of disappointment that already enclouds the process...

...It reminded me of the old Reagan joke that the difference between the federal government and a drunken sailor on a spree is that the sailor spends his own money...

...The issue has been undermined by its proponents...

...tive...

...This is, simply, a great book that will, I suspect, become a standard reference text on oratory, providing generations hence joy and inspiration for you, your children, and your children’s children...

...Around 1985 he started coming by to interview us, and I remember being struck by the idea that, though he was asking me, he seemed to know more than I about the history of speechwriting and exactly what we were doing there at the EOB in our too big, badly furnished offices with the big, gracefully arched, dirty windows...

...I don’t remember that in the repressed, judgmental fifties anyone thought it fair or pertinent to criticize the Trumans, Luces, and Stevensons for going to speakeasies in 1928...

...And it is not the people’s fault...

...That’s why they patronize voters...

...People are more hungry for truth and less fed it than ever...

...Our political leaders should be talking about it...