The President Avoided a Difficult Vote in Congress by “Enacting a Cirque du Soleil Way of Getting Around It”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Here’s a recent example of a highly effective communicator using a vivid, evocative expression while emphasizing something and thus making his assertion indelible—an example which, I hope, will inspire the rest of us into similarly imaginative analogies, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

• Discussing his new book “Our Damaged Democracy: We the People Must Act” on “Face the Nation” this past February, Joseph Califano, who was a “crucial advisor” to President Johnson and a cabinet secretary under President Carter, lamented the fact that, over the past 50 years, successive presidents had become increasingly powerful by usurping the powers of Congress. Citing the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran as a recent example, Califano pointed out that Obama and the Democrats were able to avoid a problematic vote in Congress (problematic because of the “Jewish vote” and “Jewish money”) by “enacting a really, you know, the Cirque du Soleil way of getting around it.”

© Copyright 2018  V. J. Singal