Reply #57: Agreed -- that speech is a 10.0 on the Goosebump Index. [View All]

[saltpoint]

For me, it serves as a perfect model for how language dignifies history. People think that history is dull, but it never is; those struggling to understand may be overwhelmed, but the events overwhelming them are not dull.

Kerry was rightly elected. Bush-Cheney cheated in Ohio -- and very possible elsewhere -- and Kerry-Edwards won in Ohio, and therefore were elected to the presidency in 2004.

If public service is a matter of grafting the individual and the personal gift to the common and universal need, then self-determination is essential.

Joan Didion writes, "The ability to think for oneself depends on one's mastery of the language."

I believe Joan Didion is absolutely correct.

Now consider John Kerry's speech again, and then next to it, anything that has come out of Dubya's mouth for the duration of his adult life.

There are hundreds of reasons why Kerry is qualified to be the president. Command of language, and therefore the ability to think for himself, is one of the main reasons.