...and politics (in recent Rocky Mountain News).
Writers hate cliches. Any wordsmith learns early that good writing avoids cliches, and Obama's best speeches display a resolute aversion to cliches, not only generic cliches but also the political cliches of our time, the phrases that offer quick stand-ins for familiar ideas and codes for partisan inclinations. By refusing these cliches, by casting an old idea into a new phrase ("we are the ones we've been waiting for" is an example of this, which, perhaps, goes a touch too far), Obama gains the ability to make old ideas seem new again and even to draw in people who might otherwise reflexively dismiss him as a candidate offering tired dogma from the wrong end of the political spectrum.
Read the whole op-ed here.
