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During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see. Syllabus: http://gov20h.blogspot.com/2023/08/draft-introduction-to-american-politics.html

Friday, September 7, 2018

"Four Score..."

Trump speech in Billings. Montana, September 6, 2018
"You know, when Abraham Lincoln made the Gettysburg Address speech, the great speech, do you know he was ridiculed? He was ridiculed.

"He took the horse and carriage up from the White House, he wrote it partially in that carriage and partially at a desk in the Lincoln Bedroom, which is incredible, by the way, in the White House. And he went up to Gettysburg, and he delivered that speech, the Gettysburg Address. And he was excoriated by the fake news. They had fake news then. He was excoriated.

"They said it was a terrible, terrible speech. They said it was far too short. It's not long. Many of us know it by memory. It was far too short, and it was far too flowery. It was too flowery, four score and seven years ago, right? Too flowery. And he died.

"Fifty years after his death, they said it may have been the greatest speech ever made in America."
In fact, the speech got a mostly favorable reaction in the North.

Southern papers generally ignored it.

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