>A toast

>I’m a Democrat, so I’m excited by Obama’s win in all sorts of ways. And, of course, the historical significance of the first black leader of any country outside of Africa and the Carribean, but especially of the U.S., is so wonderful and amazing that I’m a little speechless.

But I know not everyone is happy about this, and as a Democrat, I know what it’s like to feel deflated and bummed out the day after an election. So, apropos to this academic blog by an English Professor, here’s my shot at a non-partisan toast:

Here’s to at least four years of beautiful oratory; to the effective use of anaphora, epiphora, and repetition with variation; to the steady rhythms of parataxis punctuated by the soaring crescendos of perfectly balanced periodic sentences. Here’s to speeches delivered with a sense of poetry and music, and a sense of the English oratorical history to which they belong, a history which crosses party and national lines.

Edited to add: My toast kind of just stops instead of ending. It needs a final sentence. Wanna make this interactive and suggest one for me?
Also: I’ve switched the commenting format back to the old style pop-up window since people have reported that they’ve had trouble with the new style.