Great analysis of Obama's eulogy rhetoric - from The Atlantic

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3. "Obama's Grace".. The president delivers his single most accomplished rhetorical performance, and

it’s one you should watch rather than read."

From your link..

And of course it was. His singing was the aspect of the speech that will be easiest to remember. That is in part because it was so unusual and in part because it was so brave: Obama sang well, but not perfectly. For someone so precise and aspiring-to-perfection in most other realms of achievement, and so obviously hyper-aware of his levels of skill (he told Marc Maron in his remarkable WTF interview that he didn’t like playing basketball any more, now that he recognized that age had made him the weakest player on the court), singing like another enthusiastic parishioner, and not like a featured member of the choir, was brave and said something about his comfort with this crowd.

"The choice of grace as the unifying theme, which by the standards of political speeches qualifies as a stroke of genius."

That had to be it.. it was most definitely the most Amazing aspect of the whole tragedy.

end snip//

If you watch the speech again, note how carefully the “was blind, but now I see” theme knits together its elements. As a matter of composition, this is harder to pull off than you would think. And as a matter of political framing, it may not actually make a difference, but it’s as much as a political speech could possibly do to induce people to think about issues in a different way. Appreciate how this approach comes across, versus “you were wrong, we are right.”

Mahalo flamingdem.. that was compelling..