The Patriot Post® · Words as Padding

Peggy Noonan: “I mentioned last week that the president has taken to filibustering, to long, rambling answers in planned sit-down settings – no questions on the fly walking from here to there, as other presidents have always faced. The press generally allows him to ramble on, rarely fighting back as they did with Nixon. But I have noticed Mr. Obama uses a lot of words as padding. He always has, but now he does it more. There’s a sense of indirection and obfuscation. You can say, ‘I love you,’ or you can say, ‘You know, feelings will develop, that happens among humans and it’s good it happens, and I have always said, and I said it again just last week, that you are a good friend, I care about you, and it’s fair to say in terms of emotional responses that mine has escalated or increased somewhat, and "love” would not be a wholly inappropriate word to use to describe where I’m coming from.’ When politicians do this they’re trying to mush words up so nothing breaks through. They’re leaving you dazed and trying to make it harder for you to understand what’s truly being said.“