“You know what that reminds me of? I used to practice law when I was a kid and it’s that old joke about the kid who kills both his parents and then pleads for mercy because he’s an orphan. Who caused these jobs to be lost? Men and women? Before we came into office, the six months before, 3.5 million jobs lost. Before I lowered my right hand on that magnificent day, on January 20th with a million people watching, seven hundred and fifty some thousand jobs lost. Another four million before the first job bill we could get passed and begin to rectify this.”
— Vice President Joe Biden in response to the Romney campaign’s claim that 92% of the jobs lost in the recession were women’s.
I noticed that Biden started this quote with an anecdote, which is a tactic detailed in Adios, Strunk and White by Gary & Glynis Hoffman. I don't think the usage of an anecdote works here, however. It's better for an anecdote to actually lead into whatever it is the speaker is trying to elaborate, but as I read, it seemed that his anecdote didn't have much to do with the rest of the statement. Perhaps that's because this may be part of a larger speech or something.
No comments:
Post a Comment