Soft Talk Ed. Note: Ms. Shay, our token Republican, agreed to write for us only with the stipulation that no editorial hands touch her words. Thus we publish this, her fifth column, exactly as it came in over our email transom.
Rumsfeld, Powell, Cheney... they all sound like the best life insurance salesman who ever came to your house to sell you family coverage. Like room-temperature Jack Daniel's, their sotto voce (that means "lowered voice") tones go down s-m-o-o-t-h and make us all know and feel reassured that our collective fate is in the best, wisest hands. We first caught an aural glimpse of this therapeutic approach in the election when Cheney debated Joe What's-his-name from Connecticut. Remember how Cheney sat there, elbows on the table, leaned slightly toward the camera, tilted his head in a most ingratiating manner, and with that ingenuous Tom-Sawyer way he has of talking out of one side his mouth, laid waste to Joe What's-his-names pious liberal espousings? Now the Cheney style, which also might be compared to that of the best grief counselor at an upscale funeral home, has spread throughout the Administration. Even spokespersons for the State Department, the Defense Department, etc., when they appear before the cameras with the most devastating news talk to us like, well, like your favorite first grade teacher used to talk when she explained the importance of fire drills. Even Condoleeza who, bless her heart, does have a bit of the harridan about her, has begun to master this tone, which I think of as Extreme Republican Undersell. Of course, for all their skill, these underlings are only tiny mirrors reflecting the deep, profound, relaxed approach to governing so visible in the President himself. He, the master; they, the fast-learning students. No matter the forum--whether a press conference in Beijing, a co-appearance with the pope, a veritable sermon at the National Cathedral, President Bush sounds like your best high school buddy who you haven't seen in years and you run into at the Exxon E-Z Pass pump down by the interstate: happy to be talking to you again, upbeat even when recounting the direst news, casting quiet rays of sunshine on you and yours and your hopes for the future. Where the President shows his utter mastery of Extreme Republican Undersell is those occasions when he drops that lovely, soothing approach and realizes it's time for a little scolding. His face changes from that of the put-upon but patient father to that of the high school football coach who knows he's got to get the team shaped up before the next Friday night game against Odessa Permian. Then he raises his voice, deepens those desert-etched lines into a frown, and lets us (or whoever needs it) have it. Remember that uppity New York reporter in Paris who dared to speak French in the President's presence? Or, as the horrifying events of 9-11 unfolded when Air Force One stopped in Shreveport so the President could assure us that he was still in control and he spoke briefly but with just enough shrillness to frighten us appropriately even as he reassured us? Like any great actor, he knows that it is from contrast that rhetorical power comes. The calm tones seem even calmer and more penetrating when they are occasionally interrupted by skillfully controlled mini-outbursts of good old-fashioned, gonna-whup-their-ass temper. This, alas, is something that the president's underlings have not learned. The result being that, while it is quite calming to listen to the Vice President, or any of the Secretaries, you really have to pay close attention to the actual words they're speaking. Otherwise there is a danger of falling asleep even as they announce the next apocalypse or whatever may be on their minds. Still, they're a bright, bright bunch and with the President continuing to set a speaking example that the world hasn't seen probably since the days of Pericles, they will learn, and before long the nightly news will be chockfull of rambling quiet monotones punctuated by attention-getting little peaks of pique. Some call it demagogic obfuscation and manipulation. I call it governance of the highest order. END Ora's Other Output:
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--Midland, TX. Am I the only one who's noticed the extremely calm, soothing
way our leaders in the War Against Terrorism have taken to speaking when they communicate
with us? (What a contrast to the screeches and howls from the so-called administration in
power from 1992 to 2000!)
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