Rhetoric Matters

A copy of a posting to CRTNET:
I want to thank Tim Levine for posting his commentary on the “lameness” of NCA journals. I thank him not because I agree with his conclusions, but because his posting offered a very teachable moment for one of my classes.
I teach the Communication Department’s Introduction to Graduate Studies course [...]

[Read more]

Has the Obama administration totally mismanaged the health care debate?
Now, the White House announces that the president wants to address a joint session of Congress next week on health care. One of my graduate students wonders if that’s a “risky” move. It seems to me that this is a correct judgment–Obama is taking a big risk. [...]

[Read more]

John Kerry said something I found quite interesting this morning on Meet the Press. The show was, as might be expected, devoted to memorializing Ted Kennedy.  

When asked about what Kennedy taught Kerry upon the junior senator’s arrival in Washington, Kerry said: “David, when I first got involved in politics, I thought that politics was just [...]

[Read more]

As someone born at the very end of the baby boom, the other Kennedys are a distant childhood memory for me, living largely in the realm of image and nostalgia. Not so, Ted Kennedy. Ever a part of my generation’s political consciousness, this Kennedy’s passing seems more authentic, more real and meaningful than the tragic [...]

[Read more]

I’ve been frustrated everytime I teach speechwriting that I’ve been unable to locate a picture of Judson Welliver. I challenged my COMM 455 Speechwriting students to see if they could locate a picture of Welliver and one enterprising, diligent student (Josh Basile) found several! Here’s my favorite.

Welliver was the first official speechwriter (”literary assistant”) to [...]

[Read more]