What in God’s name has happened to the great art of American political oratory? Where exactly, in the gaping chasm of history between William Jennings Bryan and George W. Bush, did our elected representatives lose the ability to inspire us with impassioned speeches choked with dangerous metaphor? Some blame the ’60s (just out of habit, most likely,) and some blame the triumph of the individual over collective experience. But whatever the reason, “in both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft.”