Rhetorical Flourish

At the Democratic convention, Bill Clinton declaimed that the world is more impressed “by the power of America’s example than by the example of America’s power.”

At the Republican convention, Sarah Palin declared, “In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”

As the poet R.S. Gwynn remarks, “Ah, antimetabole —gets ‘em every time.”

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Notes on Anosmia

John Wilson

One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…

Empire of Unreality

Algis Valiunas

Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…

The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist

Peter J. Leithart

It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…