Can Conservatives Even Hear Themselves Talking?

Why, when there are already well-established fabulists on the far right, do more and more of them compete for the same job?

NATIONAL REVIEW’s Jonah Goldberg took a quick dig at Obama for starching high school drop-outs in his congressional address. Goldberg asks, “why is it okay to question the patriotism of high school drop-outs when it's just about the worst thing in the world to question the patriotism of people in other circumstances?”

Only someone who is looking for ways to tear down the overwhelmingly well-received speech would focus on that particular piece. He either doesn’t get, or chooses not to get, the broader ethos of Obama’s leadership approach. In 2008, the Obama formula was established: part nerd, part quarterback, part self-help keynoter, part bourgeois, part righteous man of color. This encompasses a lot more, stylistically and ideologically, than a simplistic concept of how a politician can/should motivate people.

David Swerdlick is an associate editor at The Root. Follow him on Twitter.