Against Rhetoric?

In de Washington Post schreef Michael Gerson een column 'Words Aren't Cheap' over de waarde retoriek.

In een Time Blog wordt het debat gevoerd over retoriek. Is Obama te welbespraakt? Is retoriek een vorm van zwakte? Of zelfs iets verwerpelijks?

Rhetoric A Weakness? - Real Clear Politics - Elections 2008 - TIME
Posted by KYLE TRYGSTAD

Enkele ideeën:
Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson writes in the Washington Post that Clinton and McCain should not use Obama's speaking acumen in attacks against him. History has shown that vocal eloquence is no weakness, and "rhetoric" was not always a four-letter word

"Civil rights leaders possessed few weapons but eloquence -- and their words hardly came cheap. Every president eventually needs the tools of rhetoric, to stiffen national resolve in difficult times or to honor the dead unfairly taken.

It is not a failure for Obama to understand and exercise this element of leadership; it is an advantage.

Some Obama critics go even further, accusing him of inducing a "creepy," "cultish" "euphoria." A candidate delivers a good stump speech, adds a dose of personal magnetism and suddenly he is a sorcerer, practicing the dark arts of demagoguery.

But Obamamania is pretty mild stuff compared with our rhetorical history."