Getting Past the Rhetoric

Wow.  Robert Tracinski just eviscerates Obama’s acceptance speech. 

Addressing criticisms that he offers soaring rhetoric with no specifics, Obama replies “So let me spell out exactly what…‘change’ would mean if I am president.” But what he presents is mostly a list of aspirations, such as “Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.” Or: “for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.” How is that to be achieved? Is it even possible to achieve it? Obama offers no answer.

Obama’s list of specifics continues in this vein, promising everything to everyone in a way that would make the Clintons blush—but with such an earnest sincerity of delivery that it somehow doesn’t seem like pandering.

In foreign policy, he promises the miraculous: “I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease.” He’s going to defeat terrorism with “partnerships”; face down Russian and Iranian aggression with diplomacy; and while he’s at it, he will end poverty, disease, and changes in the weather. All of these promises are equally implausible.