Best of the Inaugural Addresses
After our discussion last week about the milquetoast quality of most political speeches, I began perusing the transcripts of the inaugural addresses being delivered by incoming governors throughout the nation (actually, I would’ve been doing this under any set of circumstances, but you guys gave me a wonderful fig leaf for what is obviously socially unacceptable behavior).
With 37 gubernatorial elections having been held last year, I figured I’d be able to find at least a few governors who delivered a gilded line or two and upset our expectations of mediocrity. I did. But just barely. State government doesn’t tend to lend itself to grand oratory. In fact, here in California, we spent the last seven and a half years with a governor who had an abusive relationship with the English language.
Most of the language I found in these remarks was exactly the sort of flat, uninspired pap that many of you were lamenting last week. Luckily, there were a few exceptions. From what I’ve seen so far:
Best Republican – Matt Mead of Wyoming, who has the makings of a one-man Board of Tourism:
From Worland to Wamsutter, from Cody to Cheyenne, all across the state of Wyoming, we lucky few who live here wake up in the morning to the sun rising above the plains to our east and end our day watching it set in the ramparts of the Wind River Range.
There may not be many of us who live in the long stretches between the Bighorn Basin and Yellowstone National Park or between Hulett and Savery, but here's who we are: We still know how to split wood. We know how to jump-start a car. We know how to negotiate our way through a herd of cattle moving up the road. We are scientists, educators, mechanics and leaders in innovation. We are small business owners. We are self reliant. We have grit.
Best Democrat – Dan Malloy of Connecticut, who loses points for having his most memorable line come in the form of a quote, but gains most of them back for choosing such a good one:
Perhaps nowhere was our character better defined than by Abraham Davenport of my hometown of Stamford when he spoke about The Dark Day in 1780. He was a public servant in Hartford when a mysterious episode brought darkness to the daytime skies throughout New England. There was a prevailing belief that Judgment Day was upon the land, threatening a shutdown of the Legislature, when Davenport stood and said:
"I am against an adjournment. The Day of Judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought."
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Jul '10
Re: Best of the Inaugural Addresses
I confess that I never once wondered what speech writers did in their spare time. Even so, I am touched by the pain and sacrifice you must have undergone to dredge up not one, but two inaugural addresses worthy of excerpting.
Matt Mead speaking powerfully with a sense of place and community, when someone crosses politics with poetry in this way all the opposition can do is declare the speaker a fascist and pray from their atheist foxholes.
The Davenport quote is an evergreen, of course, and properly credited. No plagiarism, no pandering to divisive identity politics. Not a single shout out to the Gay Mulatto Lumberjacks for a Free Diego Garcia. A creditable effort.
May '10
Re: Best of the Inaugural Addresses
"From Worland to Wamsutter, from etc."
Nice speech, but this particular form of alliteration has jumped the shark, IMO.
Re: Best of the Inaugural Addresses
All you former speechwriters seem to enjoy the same strange hobbies. Bill McGurn in his pay wall protected WSJ column yesterday examined the inaugural addresses of Andrew Cuomo and Pat Quinn. And like you, Bill disdains liberal use of quotations in speeches: