Speeches
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Pool Photographer / Reuters Obama the Analyst
In his speech about ISIS, the president shows the strength and the weakness of his logic-driven approach.
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Evan Semon / Reuters Ted Cruz Shows How He Became a Collegiate Debate Champ, and Other CNBC Results
Cruz does well, Bush does poorly, and others (including journalists) are in between.
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Wikipedia Why Obama Gave a Christian Speech Without Mentioning Jesus
In a nation built on the separation of church and state, the line a Christian president walked at a ceremony for a murdered Christian preacher
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Randall Hill / Reuters Readers React to Obama's ‘Grace’ Speech
Did the speech in Charleston demonstrate President Obama’s lasting achievements? Or the limits of what he has done? Ten views.
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David Goldman / AP Obama’s Grace
The president delivers his single most accomplished rhetorical performance, and it’s one you should watch rather than read.
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Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Finally I Hear a Politician Explain My Country Just the Way I Understand It
"America is not some fragile thing." Words to live by.
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Reuters Readers on Netanyahu, Iran, and Existential Threats
A powerful speech, received in very different ways by different audiences
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Wikimedia The West Wing on the Music of Oratory
Mrs. Bartlet: "You are an oratorical snob." President Bartlet: "Yes, I am. And God loves me for it."
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C-SPAN A Question About Cuomo: How Did He Do It?
"But the spoken phrasing? The timing? The timbre and oratorical glory???"
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AP Mario Cuomo, a Thinker in Public
"I can offer you no final truths, complete and unchallengeable. But it's possible this one effort will provoke other efforts—both in support and contradiction of my position—that will help all of us understand our differences and perhaps even discover some basic agreement."
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Youssef Boudlal/Reuters Before Tonight's Speech About ISIS
When people say "we must act now!" they are usually wrong. When people say "we can't look weak!" it's usually time to discount whatever else they say.
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Reuters A Serving Soldier, on Cory Remsburg
"Why was he deployed 10 times? Who the hell cares! What matters is that he was brave, and he volunteered his service, and his sacrifice was noble." Or so the Congress seemed to be thinking.
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Reuters Why the Cory Remsburg Tribute Will Be Seen as a Sign of Our Times, and a Bad One, Many Years From Now
Taking The Long View of events one day in the past
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Ronald Reagan Presidential Library SOTU in 8 Thought Drops
The first seven are in different ways encouraging; number eight, less so.
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Associated Press It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! SOTU Edition
What a year-six State of the Union address sounds like
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Brian Snyder / Reuters For Memorial Day, Another 'End the War on Terror' Speech
A message I have been waiting to hear.
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The Impossibility of Being Barack Obama
Every now and then we see how hard his balancing act is.
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The North Country
The view from an abbey window.
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Barack Obama, Editor
If the politics business hadn't worked out for Obama, the path he might have chosen
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Why Obama Never Said 'Not Red States or Blue States but the United States ...'
The day when Barack Obama was furious at John Kerry
