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Deleted scenes

There are some 2,800 words about Michael Ignatieff’s current situation under this byline in the current print edition. Unfortunately, there are also some bits that couldn’t be included, lest the piece double in length. So I’ll post a few of those today.

Here, for instance, is an observation from former White House advisor David Gergen (offered in the foreword to this book), the idea of which essentially guided my piece.

Our presidents not only wear the two traditional hats of head-of-state and head-of-government, they also give us voice as a people. Every speaker must come to know his or her own voice, but power comes when a speaker’s authentic voice is also the voice of the people being addressed. Our best presidents have known that instinctively, and they have helped to define who we are, what we are experiencing, and how our experience fits into our great national experiment.

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