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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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 Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:12 pm Post subject: Campaign turns into war of antimetaboles |
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An interesting linguistic note on the campaign:
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The Hottest Rhetorical Device of Campaign '08
Ask not what antimetabole can do for you�ask what you can do for antimetabole.
By Juliet Lapidos
Posted Friday, Sept. 5, 2008, at 4:55 PM ET
Sarah Palin
Politicians eager to keep up with the latest fad need more than a flag pin this election season; the hottest accessory of the 2008 campaign is the reversible raincoat. That's the nickname speechwriters have given to the rhetorical device in which words are repeated in transposed order, as with Churchill's famous line: "Let us preach what we practice�let us practice what we preach." The fancy Greek name for the trick is antimetabole, and it's been cropping up in speeches by Democrats and Republicans alike.
John McCain, in his Thursday convention address, deployed the technique in this admirably honest line: "We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us." The audience roared. McCain's antimetabole echoed one used by his running mate, Sarah Palin, the night before: "In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change." The inversion of change and career, forming a crisscross structure, gives the line a powerful one-two-punch feel. During his speech last week, Bill Clinton recycled an antimetabole he'd first used in the 1990s: "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power." The turn of phrase pleased the delegates�they clapped and hooted�but a far less famous speaker can lay claim to the most successful rhetorical switcheroo of the Democratic Convention. Barney Smith, a regular guy from Indiana who lost his job to outsourcing in 2004, took the stage at Invesco field and produced this zinger: "We need a president who puts the Barney Smiths before the Smith Barneys." |
more:
http://www.slate.com/id/2199536/
A cute and clever campaign device for making conceptual connections. But it also seems to me to short circuit the reasoning. You, the listener, hear it and think it is cute, and must be true. But I don't think you then go on to question whether it is true. |
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Jandar
Joined: 11 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't think it is intended for the deep of thought. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:11 am Post subject: |
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| But isn't the thought of the deep a deep thought? |
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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Example:
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but I can fool all of the people all of the time."
--Karl Rove |
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