David Rodeback's Blog

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Good Speech

Actually, scratch that. It was an excellent speech.

I took a short break from my labors just now -- a coffee break, except that I drink water -- to read President Obama's speech to schoolchildren. (I had some brash things to say about this event yesterday.) Assuming he used his prepared remarks, which is a fairly safe assumption, here's my quick review:

Good speech. Excellent speech. Almost entirely apolitical. Not too long, as I had heard it might be. No policy wonkery. Deft use of specific examples and personal experience.

All in all, high marks for this use of the bully pulpit. Much kudos for being president of the whole country today. If my children didn't see the speech at school, I think we'll watch it at home -- and not so that we can deprogram them. This speech actually helps my work as a parent.

(An educational note: Did you know that kudos is not a plural? It's singular, and there is no plural; thus "much kudos" instead of "many kudos." It comes from a Greek word for glory, and it's been in the English language for more than a century, according to my New Oxford American Dictionary.)

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