Healthcare reform: the pen is mightier than the bill
Ask not whether Ted Sorensen wrote 鈥淎sk not what your country can do for you...,鈥� the famous line from John Kennedy鈥檚 inaugural. He says today he doesn鈥檛 remember.
But whether he wrote that gem or not, Mr. Sorensen, who was one of JFK鈥檚 closest advisers, remains perhaps the greatest Washington speechwriter of modern times.
In his memoirs, he drops this bit of advice for aspiring political wordsmiths: 鈥淐hoose each word as a precision tool.鈥�
Remember that the next time you鈥檙e listening to some politician try to sell you something. Washington speeches often aren鈥檛 arguments so much as word-delivery machines. They鈥檙e sprinkled with bons mots that in themselves are intended to induce in you, the listener, a particular emotional response.
Take the healthcare reform battle. Please. (Is it over yet? Tell me it鈥檚 over, so I can turn on C-SPAN again.)
If there is one word that Republicans have tried to associate with the healthcare legislative process, it is 鈥渏am,鈥� as in, 鈥淭hey鈥檙e trying to jam this bill through.鈥�
See? All of a sudden, you鈥檝e got a mental image of congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid using a crowbar to stuff a 2,000-page bill through an Oval Office window.
Democrats, on the other hand, favored the phrase 鈥渦p or down,鈥� as in, 鈥淭he Senate should take an up-or-down vote.鈥�
Wow. I see... Boy Scouts. And Jimmy Stewart. Where鈥檇 the crowbar go?
Here鈥檚 the thing: They don鈥檛 usually come up with these words on their own. They come from the White House or the minority leader鈥檚 office, and they鈥檙e poll-tested and focus-grouped for response.
Then they鈥檙e distributed in blast e-mails so everybody has the same talking points at the same time.
In 2005, for instance, advisers handed then-President George W. Bush persuasive numbers showing that Americans were much more likely to support the war in Iraq if they thought it would succeed, as opposed to bump along for years.
So Mr. Bush started using the word 鈥渧ictory鈥� a lot. In one December 2005 speech, he used it 11 times 鈥� after he鈥檇 used it 15 times in a previous address.
鈥淕ood politics is repetition,鈥� noted Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, in a recent interview with The New York Times.
We鈥檇 vote for that sentiment, up or down.
