Let me suggest, as a bit of revisionist history, that the core of our problem with Hitler was not that we did not have him assassinated, but essentially that we ignored him. Granted, Senator Borah might not have calmed him down (though he could scarcely have done worse than Chamberlain). Still, it would not have required a reverse blitzkrieg — shock and awe of the Thirties — to save tens of millions of lives.

As for Presidential eloquence, Calvin Trillin writes in today’s LA Times, “You wouldn’t think that eloquence is the sort of thing that needs defending, but it has taken some hits during the presidential primaries…. [T]here was something dismissive when Barack Obama’s eloquence was mentioned by other candidates, as if making inspiring speeches is an inconsequential pastime unconnected to the serious business of governing. The same tone was taken by most television commentators…. Speaking of Obama’s ability to ‘fill a stadium,’ they sounded like particularly esoteric academics discussing a colleague who was gauche enough to have produced a bestseller.”