Perhaps this quote exhibits the effectual truth that "Honesty is the best policy."

Like Ronald Reagan as a promoter of "family values"? Funny how suddenly all you folks here are so suspicious of words that don't measure up to actions...

Sorry to break this news, but you're done for - stick a fork in you. If you don't figure out something to say that doesn't try to re-create the purported magic days of the 1980s, you'll be the launching pad for a very long term Democratic majority. It amazes me that you all haven't figured this out yet.

Red, Why do you think the Franklin quote is so offensive? We "folk" have always measured words by deeds.

You seem to be saying that we "folk" need to find the right words, but Franklin says that actions provide meanings. Who is looking back to the eighties?

Does Obama look to the sixties for his words? Mostly not. He looks to the founders and Abraham Lincoln. But what of his actions?

You "folk" need to find actions that have words which match them. You folk need to stop putting your progressive actions into the mouths of the founders. FDR's New Deal already hijacked the term liberal. How malleable is the world in your "re-creation" of the world?

Language may make new world--new poets may emerge--one need not "think like an elephant"--but Franklin says actions show meaning.

Once again, "Honesty is the best policy."