Non-US readers may have missed the resignation speech by the energetically groping Mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner (Democrat). It's not often that a speech by someone leaving office in high disgrace features 'seal poop'. But this one does!
Here is the full text:
What I would like to leave you with is what I started my campaign on and that is a vision of what this city ought to be and what we can become. You’ve watched, most of you supported, as we looked at Balboa Park and prepared for the centennial.
We got the cars out of the Plaza de Panama for the first time ever. If you haven’t been by there, go. Boy, it’s an incredible canvas on which we can all paint what the future of Balboa Park will be.
We protected seals and we protected La Jolla from the poop from the seals and others.
We negotiated tens of millions of dollars of savings for you all in our leases of our buildings. We have a structurally balanced budget and we joined in a five-year labor agreement, which, for the first time, gives us the stability to help our employees without further vilification of them for those who run this city.
It's tempting to analyze this amazing peroration from the point of view of Technique. But I need not do so as John K Kerr over at PunditWire has done this vital task for me:
“I am not perfect.”
Wonderful. Too many voters think politicians are perfect. You have disabused them of that notion, big time!
“You all know me to be a fighter… It’s not in my nature to walk away from a fight.”
This rhetorical device has been used by everyone from President Richard Nixon to Gov. Sarah Palin. They call themselves fighters right after they give up. You’re continuing a grand speechwriting tradition...
Excellent.
