Lost in Clark’s upstage yesterday was another strong and compelling and defining speech by Obama, this time on patriotism, ironically defining it much the way Clark did four years ago. Only sound bites and excerpts are available now for the most part. Too bad. But just in time, for those who love good writing and good analysis, here is a fascinating insight into how presidents speak and how Obama has risen above the norm, but may be dragged down as the election goes forward. (You need to scroll down on the link to get to the article.) First of all, it was written by Sam Anderson in New York magazine, who describes is feelings about Obama this way: “a complex cycle of enthusiasm canceled immediately by self-correcting cynical objections, canceled by self-correcting enthusiasm, canceled again by the cynicism, canceld by the enthusiasm.” (Sounds like some of us, does it not?)

Anderson then goes on to analyze presidential speeches and Obama’s speeches with a little help from Elvin T. Lim, author of The Anti-Intellectual Presidency. Here are some excerpts: “Since 1913, the length of the average presidential sentence has fallen from 35 words to 22. Between Nixon and the second Bush, the average presidential sound bite shrank from 42 seconds to 7.” And, “Brilliant policy requires brilliant public discourse. If you can think your way through a sentence, then you can think your way through a policy paper.” Finally, this: “Compared with his rivals, Obama’s skill-set seems almost other-worldly. His phrases line up regularly in striking and meaningful patterns; his cliche ratio is, for a politican, admirably low; his stresses and pauses seem dictated less by the usual metronome of generic political speech than by the actual structures of meaning behind his words.”

He calls Obama a “literary phenomenon”, then adds, “Like America itself, he’s addicted to origin myths.” The problem here is that he is open, as a consequence, to the charge of elitism, by functional illiterates in the broadest sense, such as political operatives on the left and right, as well as MSM talking heads. So his challenge is how to connect with a body politic that functions at a fifth or sixth grade reading level, also down since FDR. There is pressure on him to go “more talky” as Bill Clinton used to charge his speech writers. But if he does, he may lose his uniqueness and power. The test, Anderson says will be his acceptance speech.