An Adolescent President
Will on Obama’s overrated rhetorical quiver.
George Will: “[Barack Obama] talks like an arrested-development adolescent. Anyone who has tried to engage a member of that age cohort in an argument probably recognizes the four basic teenage tropes, which also are the only arrows in Obama’s overrated rhetorical quiver. … Celebrating the ACA’s enrollment numbers, Obama, referring to Republicans, charged: ‘They said nobody would sign up.’ Of course, no one said this. Obama often is what political philosopher Kenneth Minogue said of an adversary – ‘a pyromaniac in a field of straw men.’ Adolescents also try to truncate arguments by saying that nothing remains of any arguments against their arguments. Regarding the ACA, Obama said the debate is ‘settled’ and ‘over.’ … A third rhetorical move by argumentative adolescents is to declare that there is nothing to argue about because everything is going along swimmingly. Seven times Obama asserted that the ACA is ‘working.’ That is, however, uninformative because it is ambiguous. … Finally, the real discussion-stopper for the righteous … is an assertion that has always been an Obama specialty. It is that there cannot be honorable and intelligent disagreement with him.”
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