Fortune Cookie Philosophy
President Obama Monday afternoon on the credit downgrade:
I was so impressed with Driftglass’s post on Tom Friedman’s Fortune Cookie Philosophy that I decided to use Driftglass’s method to examine President Obama’s speech today (Monday). I'd say Driftglass has founded a new school of criticism or at least a new critical methodology. From fortune cookies to Obama's lips:
Our problems are eminently solvable.
Our challenge is the need to tackle our deficits over the long term.
Making ... reforms … does require ... common sense and compromise.
It’s a lack of political will in Washington…. And that’s what we need to change.
… we will stay on it until we get the job done.
… put money in people’s pockets and more customers in stores.
There’s no reason we shouldn’t act … now.
… we’re going through a tough time right now.
… a lot of people are worried about the future.
Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America.
… we’ve always been and always will be a AAA country.
We will press on. And we will succeed.
Finally, too long for a fortune cookie but enough to make you lose your cookies, the usual appeal to shared sacrifice:
I have faith in these United States of America -- is because of the American people. It’s because of their perseverance, and their courage, and their willingness to shoulder the burdens we face -– together, as one nation.
I guess Friedman and President Obama's speechwriters shop at the same day-old fortune cookie outlet -- where every idea is stale and every prophecy is false.