by Bill Shein
April 4, 2009

Love him or love him slightly less, Barack Obama is an indisputably accomplished writer and speaker. He has authored two superbly written books and recently signed a deal for a third. The 44th president can also deliver note-perfect, poetic speeches that inspire hope, action, and even tears – especially among Republicans in Congress.

At press conferences, his word choice is deliberate. He pauses to select just the right phrase, and then says it in precisely the right way. He also has a team of speechwriters that, according to the fictional statistic coming up after this comma, numbers in the thousands.

Given this mastery of language, why does the president describe nearly everything he does, and everyone he meets, with just one word: “Wonderful.”

For example, speaking to the British press after meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he said “we’ve had a wonderful time” and thanked Brown for “a tour of some wonderful projects around the city.” Hours later, he left Buckingham Palace and told reporters that he had a “wonderful” visit with the Queen. Before leaving for France, he said the prime minister of India was a “wonderful man” who has done “a wonderful job in guiding India.”

This has been going on for some time. Shortly after his inauguration, he said, “[New York] Gov. [David] Paterson made a wonderful choice in appointing Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Secretary Clinton’s seat in the U.S. Senate.” After a January meeting with House Republicans on the stimulus bill, he described the session as a “wonderful exchange of ideas.” (Though no House Republicans ultimately voted for the bill.)

On March 4, he welcomed members of Congress to a White House dinner with an invitation to “have a wonderful evening.” And he recently had “a wonderful meeting of the minds” with President Lula da Silva of Brazil.

What gives? No doubt the president’s life at the center of world affairs is full of wonder, but isn’t there a thesaurus around? A synonym-finder on his presidential Blackberry? An intern who can be tasked with “adjective duty?” Because he’s in serious danger of doing to “wonderful” what President Bush did to “progress,” and that’s draining it of all meaning through excessive or inappropriate use.

(Indeed, Obama described a January 28 meeting with his military advisors about Iraq as a “wonderful discussion,” which was an unusual way to describe war planning.)

The White House Web site notes 140 uses of “wonderful” since January 20. That includes the president’s March 24 phone call with space-station astronauts: “We’ve got a crew of wonderful schoolchildren here who are all interested in space.”

After an offhand joke on “The Tonight Show” about his bowling skills and the Special Olympics, he dispatched his press secretary to say, “He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program.”

And at a big St. Patrick’s Day event, the writer-in-chief said, “It is wonderful to see so many wonderful Irish Americans,” managing to sandwich just four words between wonderfuls. This was only moments after he said, “Thank you so much for joining us in this wonderful St. Patrick’s Day tradition.” Yikes!

If this is a calculated effort to permanently fuse “Obama” and “wonderful” in the public mind, it’s working. Tom Shales, the curmudgeonly TV critic for the Washington Post, recently dubbed him “President Wonderful.” And during the G-20 summit, the Guardian newspaper quoted a random Londoner saying, “He is rather wonderful, isn’t he?”

Google returns an incredible 20 million matches for “Obama and wonderful.” Compare this to 2.3 million matches for “Palin and wonderful” and just 701,000 for “Madoff and wonderful” – which seems high, until you consider Dr. Ponzi’s recent sentencing.

In office just a few months, Obama is already three times as wonderful as puppies (6.6 million Google matches for “wonderful and puppy”), and more than five times as wonderful as kittens (3.8 million matches).

And check this: Google says that the word “wonderful” appears on 222 million Web pages. That means that nearly 10 percent of all Web pages that include “wonderful” also include “Obama.”

As the president might say, quoting Satchmo, “What a wonderful world!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bill Shein is considered wonderful on a mere 97 Web pages.

(This column first appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on April 4, 2009)