Posted on 01/15/2009 3:10:06 PM PST by Sioux-san
"The belief that moribund institutions, rather than individuals are at the root of the problem, keep SAM’s energies alive.,,,"
The highly indicative sentence above comes from an 1800-word article that Barack Obama wrote for Columbia’s weekly news magazine, Sundial, at the height of the KGB-generated anti-nuke craze in March 1983. Obama was twenty-one at the time.
The sentence nicely captures Obama’s skill as a writer. The noun, “belief,” and the verb, “keep,” don’t agree—one of an appalling five such noun-verb mismatches in the essay--and the punctuation is fully random.
More problematically, the word choice sucks all logic out of the sentence. In the previous paragraph, Obama had warned his readers about the “the relentless, often silent spread of militarism in the country.”
In this paragraph, the reader is told that these same military institutions are “moribund”—that is “nearly dead.” How their debilitated state keeps the “energies” of the Students Against Militarism (SAM) “alive” is apparently left to the reader’s imagination.
(Excerpt) Read more at cashill.com ...
I've been puzzling about the best way to render his deeply nasal and truncated contraction of "you know".
"Yon", "yo'n", "yo'wn", yyo'wn", or maybe "eyo'wn" would work.
“eyo’wn”
But what good does it do, to turn a good phrase if not to plant a fertile seed?
Like watching a dark and stormy day in reverse.
Obama has this need to be perfect, so he thinks out the implications and expected replies to his response, adjusts what he's going to say, rethinks that, too, and while he's doing all this in his mind, all that comes out of his mouth is "uhh... umm... urr..."
-PJ
Mmmmm... missiles...
This guy is perpetually stuck on arrogant college sophomore --and now he's the president. Yeah, I think I'll go back to daydreaming about missiles too.
But what is in it for the media? Do they think they will retain THEIR power under a radical socialist change?
Are you kidding? They’ll be stronger than ever.
“I’m pretty sure that Obama’s ‘umms’ and ‘urrs’ are a result of him overthinking his response to something that he’s not prepared for.
Obama has this need to be perfect, so he thinks out the implications and expected replies to his response, adjusts what he’s going to say, rethinks that, too, and while he’s doing all this in his mind, all that comes out of his mouth is ‘uhh... umm... urr...’”
This is exaclty how the MSM defends him. He’s too darn thoughtful for modern politicking, where rote and easy answers are expected in a matter of mere seconds. He’s like Hamlet, you see, too full of ideas to be able to choose just one.
Of course, when Bush paused for an answer, it was because he’s stupid.
Yeah, except that with Obama, it's not that he's too full of ideas, it's that he's thinking out which answer will serve his purpose the most, and what might come back to haunt him later.
He's not struggling with what's best for me, he's struggling with what's best for him.
-PJ
it is a kind of mindless repetition of platitudes not properly strung together or even grammatical, a terrific skill at echoing the zietgeist of the movement he is attaching to like a remora.
it is a kind of mindless repetition of platitudes not properly strung together or even grammatical, a terrific skill at echoing the zeitgeist of the movement he is attaching to like a remora.
Sorry, but Cashill is wrong. Here, look at the sentence without the dependent claue:
"The belief that moribund institutions . . . keep SAM’s energies alive.,,,"
That is grammatically correct. ' The verb 'keep' agrees with its noun 'institutions'. If the quote were extended, I suspect we would see the verb that agrees with 'belief' in the complete sentence. Or not.
I am no Grammar scholar, but I do believe that Cashill is right on this one. The subject is “the belief” - hence the verb needs to be “keeps”. The rest of that “moribund” phrase modifies the subject.
The point is not about this one bit of grammar but more about expert literary style, of which Obama has none (based on his own few works prior to moving to the ‘Hood).
All that matters now is that the Anointed One and his Bride are in POWER and about to go very shrill on their adoring fans.
Yeah, now that I’ve read the original complete sentence, you are correct.
No problem - Hey, I see that you are from Oklahoma. Any chance that Sen. Coburn is going to kick it up and run for Prez. He is one of the few that doesn’t make me retch.
Not for a long while. He is almost universally hated in the Senate, because he makes too many waves. The RNC would back a yellow dog Dimocrat instead of him.
“The belief that moribund institutions, rather than individuals are at the root of the problem, keep SAM’s energies alive.”
The noun “institutions” goes with the verb “are,” while the noun “belief” ought to go with the verb “keeps”. I think we all agree on that. Obama made a further mistake in punctuation, the correction of which, I think, would greatly aid in clarifying the sentence’s meaning. The comma after “institutions” should be paired with another after “individuals,” thereby setting off the phrase “rather than individuals” from the body of the sentence. As it stands, with a lonely comma after “institutions,” one wonders what the point of pausing is.
Man, this thing is leaden!
Please see my #55.
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