The current state of political oratory

Possibly we no longer even have the subject matter for a good speech.

Speech-making begs for large themes. The fate of nations, for instance. Some

excuse for a hint of outrage and demagoguery. It is not easy — and even harder

without PowerPoint — to make a compelling speech out of the administrative

themes of the age: health care, education, campaign-finance reform.

Of course, political discourse itself has become, in the inner circles of both

parties, almost entirely subverbal wonk talk and, in public, a list of painful and

ritualized clichés. “Twenty-first-century jobs need twenty-first-century schools . .

. Progress, not partisanship . . . Honor is not just a word but an obligation . . .

The hard right over the easy wrong . . . I remember a child . . .” New York Magazine