american political rhetoric is just the most debased worthless schlock that can be imagined. so in his speech today, obama said he wanted to eliminate tax deductions for the rich. he referred to these as 'tax expenditures' and thereafter he referred to tax increases as 'reducing spending in the tax code.' by this 'reasoning' taxing everyone at 100% would be dramatic reduction in government spending. or this: one minute he was saying that how much tax you pay shouldn't depend on how good an accountant you can hire. the next he was saying wealthy people wouldn't mind paying 'their fair share.' 'they want to give back to the country that has given them so much.' just a flat contradiction. i do not understand how people who talk like that can possibly expect anyone to listen to what they're saying. they're not trying to inform you; they're not even trying to persuade you; they're just trying to manipulate you, and that could not possibly be more inyourface obvious. and since it is, it can't even possibly have its intended manipulative effect. it's not that you don't believe what they're saying; it's that it's conceptually impossible to believe what they're saying. 

and these were substantive moments; most of the speech was foggy hooha about the america we all believe in and the greatest country in the history of the world and...winning the future. these are sentences he's produced by rote for years no matter what the topic: whether it's the oil spill or the inaugural, don't matter. it's like listening to the dying repetitive senseless mumbling of a victim of alzheimer's.