Mis 10 States of the Union favoritos

Quienes hayan visto esa extraordinaria serie llamada The West Wing (o la estén viendo, como es el caso de quien les habla), la van a cazar al vuelo, porque entenderán la grositud de un State of The Union. El State of The Union es lo que acá conocemos como el discurso de apertura de sesiones, que el Presidente de los Estados Unidos debe dar cada año que comienza. Pero es eso y es también más: el inglés es un idioma de la puta madre, y en política se nota. Mucho. Mirá sino el discurzaso que se mandó Obama con el tema de la congresista baleada (su nainuanuan, 9/11, acordate lo que te digo).

Por eso, esta vez, en vez de hacernos los bananas explicando por qué nos gustan estos diez, extractamos alguna frase que describa el espíritu del discurso, y luego les regalamos una nube de las palabras más utilizadas por el presidente en cuestión (haciendo click se agranda la nube).

Imagen: A.G.

10. John F. Kennedy. 1962. We will not reach that goal today, or tomorrow. We may not reach it in our own lifetime. But the quest is the greatest adventure of our century. We sometimes chafe at the burden of our obligations, the complexity of our decisions, the agony of our choices. But there is no comfort or security for us in evasion, no solution in abdication, no relief in irresponsibility.

9. Lyndon B. Johnson. 1966. How many men who listen to me tonight have served their Nation in other wars? How very many are not here to listen? The war in Vietnam is not like these other wars. Yet, finally, war is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate.

8. James Madison 1809. Recollecting always that for every advantage which may contribute to distinguish our lot from that to which others are doomed by the unhappy spirit of the times we are indebted to that Divine Providence whose goodness has been so remarkably extended to this rising nation, it becomes us to cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore from the same omnipotent source a blessing on the consultations and measures about to be undertaken for the welfare of our beloved country.

7. Barack Obama. 2009. And if we do – if we come together and lift this nation from the depths of this crisis; if we put our people back to work and restart the engine of our prosperity; if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit, then someday years from now our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, “something worthy to be remembered.”

6. Richard Nixon. 1974. Mr. Speaker, and Mr. President, and my distinguished colleagues and our guests: I would like to add a personal word with regard to an issue that has been of great concern to all Americans over the past year. I refer, of course, to the investigations of the so-called Watergate affair. As you know, I have provided to the Special Prosecutor voluntarily a great deal of material. I believe that I have provided all the material that he needs to conclude his investigations and to proceed to prosecute the guilty and to clear the innocent. I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough.

5. William J. Clinton. 1994. You know, the first lady has received now almost a million letters from people all across America. (…) I’d like to share just one of them with you. Richard Anderson of Reno, Nevada, lost his job and, with it, his health insurance. Two weeks later, his wife, Judy, suffered a cerebral aneurysm. The Anderson’s bills were over $120,000. Although Judy recovered and Richard went back to work at $8 an hour, the bills were too much for them and they were literally forced into bankruptcy. (...)I know there are people here who say there’s no health care crisis. Tell it to Richard and Judy Anderson. Tell it to the 58 million Americans who have no coverage at all for some time each year.

4. George Bush. 2002. For many Americans, these four months have brought sorrow, and pain that will never completely go away. Every day a retired firefighter returns to Ground Zero, to feel closer to his two sons who died there. At a memorial in New York, a little boy left his football with a note for his lost father: Dear Daddy, please take this to heaven. I don’t want to play football until I can play with you again some day.

3. Ronald Reagan. 1982. This time, however, things are different. We have an economic program in place, completely different from the artificial quick fixes of the past. It calls for a reduction of the rate of increase in government spending, and already that rate has been cut nearly in half.

2. George Washington. 1792. It was hoped that the treaty of Holston, made with the Cherokee Nation in July, 1791, would have prevented a repetition of such depredations; but the event has not answered this hope.

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1945. In the future we must never forget the lesson that we have learned–that we must have friends who will work with us in peace as they have fought at our side in war.