Obama's Rhetorical Excess

President Obama has an apologia for his economic policies in the Washington Post entitled "Rebuilding Something Better." Former Bush administration economic adviser Keith Hennessey responds with a point-by-point refutation. You must, must, must read this in its entirety.

Hennessey begins by analyzing Obama's claim that "Nearly six months ago, my administration took office amid the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression."

Hennessey responds:

The President and his team use this language to lower the bar against which they are measured. The U.S. economy was quite unhealthy on January 20th, and it still is. Still, Donald Marron shows that, while the President’s statement is almost technically true, there is a big difference between “most severe … since the Great Depression” and “comparable to the Great Depression.” Here is Donald’s graph:

So, contrary to the President's claim, we're a looong way from the Great Depression. According to these figures, even after six months of more or less steady decline under Obama's watch, things are not quite as bad as in 1957-58. Really, you need to read Hennessey's article.

There is something in Obama that cannot resist rhetorical excess. Candidate Obama stated his administration would be, not just ethical, but the most ethical in history. (Interestingly, Bill Clinton made the same pledge). President Obama routinely accuses his opponents, not of making proposals he disagrees with, but of wanting to "do nothing."

These are examples when Obama employs rhetorical excess in service of political goals -- i.e., to puff up his own record, or to attack Republicans. But he also does this when it serves no obvious political purpose. For instance, take Obama's claim in the "Cairo speech" that if one counted up all of the Muslims in America, they'd represent "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world." In fact, we'd be 52d. There are more Buddhists in the U.S. than Muslims. We aren't even close to having one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, as anyone with an atlas or an internet connection can readily discover. Obama could not just say that America hates terrorism but has no beef with the Muslim faith, and that the U.S. is place where Muslims can worship in complete freedom. No, he (and his genius speechwriters) had to take it a step further, and make a ludicrous claim about population rank. I don't know why. It's almost like they can't help it.

A postscript: One of the commenters on Keith Hennessey's blog offers this great observation:

Two things BO can't speak without: teleprompters and straw men. The first makes him sound eloquent, the second makes him sound reasonable

Sounds about right to me.