“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them… It’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” - Barack Obama
Barack Obama was a virtual unknown until he gave a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Since then, he has made much of the power of words. He He has made millions writing books. He has hypnotized millions of people on the campaign trail with his speeches about hope and change.
But the words he used weren’t always his own. When attacked by the Clintons as being all talk, his response included plagiarized lines because he felt they were so pivotal to the idea that he was qualified to be president. “Just Words?”, I recall he rhetorically asked. Yes indeed, this is a man who is very familiar with the power of words.
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