I was rather struck by the tone and manner in which Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden today, and particularly how it contrasted with that of the Bush administration when they captured Saddam Hussein in 2003. See below clips for some interesting rhetorical and stylistic comparisons…
Barack Obama: Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda
Paul Bremer: Ladies and gentlemen… we got him!
George W. Bush: Good afternoon. Yesterday, December 13th, at around 8:30pm Baghdad time, United States military forces captured Saddam Hussein alive
Update 6 June 2011: The video embeds have disappeared from this blog post following the site crashing a while back. Shall put them back up soon.
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