For the next two years, who he is as president is as important as what he does as president.
Geoff Garin, Democratic pollster, in the New York Times
antistrophe (an-TIS-tro-fee), the last-word repeater. From the Greek, meaning “turning about.” Also called epistrophe (eh-PIS-tro-fee), meaning the same thing. See more examples here and here.
;)
The antistrophe brings down the gavel on a sentence’s key word, letting you stress more than one aspect of a concept or thing. In this case, we’re talking about the president, whose first two years were all Logos. The next two will need a big ol’ dollop of Ethos.
Obama’s bipartisan debt-reduction commission has offered a sensible, painful, bat’s-chance-in-hell plan for a sustainable economic future. Barring a national emergency, the commission’s recommendations will set the American political agenda for the next two years. The Republicans are already firing their plentiful guns against simplifying the tax code, while the Dems wring their expressive hands over recommended cuts in Social Security.
The president, for his part, needs to decide whether to back all or part of the commission’s council and then sell the public on it. Up until the recent “shellacking” election, Obama has notched legislative victories like a checklist-mad shopper. (This viral summary will make you dizzy if you haven’t seen it.)
Now we’ll see what he stands for. And whether he stands for it.